Does it matter whether Clinton, Obama, or McCain takes the Oval Office? Whoever does, government will grow, and taxpayers (Let’s not kid ourselves by calling them “citizens.”) will foot the bill. Actually, their children will when our staggering national debt (31,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child) comes due. At this point, Americans should hope for the candidate who is going to take the least amount of their money, and that is anybody’s guess. McCain may seem like the choice here, but he has been explicit about his plans to escalate prosecution of an illegal and unjust war that has cost the taxpayers 500 billion dollars. Remember those taxes you just paid? A third went to the War in Iraq. How high will it go under McCain?
If you are looking for a sign of hope, however, look at Congressman Walter B. Jones of North Carolina’s 3rd congressional district. Since 1995 this Republican congressman held his seat unopposed from within his party. In Tuesday’s primary, however, he faced a challenger for the first time. Why? Because three years ago, the very man who introduced legislation changing the name of french fries to Freedom Fries converted from one of the Iraq War’s biggest supporters to one of its fiercest critics.
It was not Jones’s first conversion. Some years ago he became a Roman Catholic, and the man with a crucifix and an image of Mother Theresa hanging on the wall of his Capitol Hill office is unapologetically guided by the ancient precepts of his faith. (He is the only Republican to sign a letter to President Bush supporting the closing of the torture prisons at Guantanamo.) His conservatism is beyond reproach: tough on immigration, a strong supporter of American manufacturing, 100 percent pro-life, unwavering on Second Amendment rights, a firm defender of marriage and family, et cetera.
Nonetheless, his challenger, Joe McLaughlin attempted to paint Jones as a liberal. Why opposing foreign wars of imperialism makes one a liberal is not clear. (Perhaps George Washington was a liberal.) In any case, McLaughlin thought he had a big advantage: the 3rd congressional district includes Camp Lejeune, home of the Second Marine Division, and is heavily populated by veterans. Surely our men in uniform would not support “cut-and-run” Jones.
McLaughlin was wrong. Way wrong. Veterans and active duty servicemen alike are all too aware that they are the ones shedding their blood and losing their limbs (and their minds) while the Pearles and Kristols of the world plan their next adventure. The men in uniform in Jones’s district know that he is their best friend in Congress. His support of the troops is not the mile-wide-and-millimeter-deep jingoism of yellow ribbons and bumper stickers. It is the support of a man who attends the funerals at Camp Lejeune and sees young boys who will never know their fathers. It is the support of a man who realizes America’s security is jeopardized not strengthened by this war. It is the support of a man who spends his Saturdays in his Greenville office hand writing letters to the parents of every dead American serviceman. That’s 4073 mea culpas he has penned thus far for his onetime support of the war.
With nearly 60 percent of the votes, Jones beat McLaughlin handily. And he beat him in Onslow County, where Camp Lejeune is located (and where McLaughlin served as commissioner), as well as in Wayne County, the home of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base.
While the rest of the Republican Party (especially in this state) is on its back gasping for life, conservatives might take a look and see how goodness and truth, and devotion to principle, played on Tuesday in North Carolina.
____________________
Christopher Check is executive vice president of The Rockford Institute. He served seven years as a field artillery officer in the Marine Corps.
Red Phillips says:
I highly suspect that Walter Jones cleaned up with the military spouse vote. Military spouses are tired of their spouses being continually deployed.
LibertyNC, Jones is not perfect. He is certainly not a Ron Paul style Constitutionalist on issues other than the War. But the point is that the GOP Establishment generally protects their incumbents. If Jones was pro-choice they would have discouraged a primary challenge. But since he was against the War, conservative groups (the Club for War) put up a primary challenger? So what are the GOP and “conservatives” priorities? It is OK to be for killing babies as long as you don't want to stop killing Muslims half the world away? Interventionism is not conservative. Period.
Conversant says:
I hope Walter Jones is the leading edge of a Republican revolt against the damn neocons who hijacked the party, the White House and US foreign policy. I've voted Republican more or less since I came of age, but I won't vote for McCain under any circumstances: his sneering contempt for people who want immigration halted, the illegals deported and an end to the "work visa" con game has permanently alienated me.
So I don't care anymore what McCain says between now and November, or any other member of the current political establishment. This election is not like those of the recent past where those like me held their noses and voted Republican in the hope we wouldn't be betrayed yet again by our own, fearful of worse still from the Democrats. No. Instead, I'll vote against my local neocon reptile of a Congressman, and either for Obama or Ron Paul (the latter if Hillary ends up as the donkey party candidate). And I hope everybody votes against their current Congressman unless he's shown good hard evidence of the kind of change Rep. Walter Jones has down in NC. We've got take our country back from corporate globalists, the Israel Lobby, the millions of skulking, freeloading illegals and the worst Congress in US history.
just a comment says:
So supporting US manufacturing and jobs at home by opposing managed trade deals (not free trade, managed corporate trade) which are really treaties by another name (and thus unconstitutional as they have not been ratified by the Senate) is "liberal?" In a pigs eye it is. This guy is doing what he thinks is best for the people of his district, you know, the ones who voted for him.
John Powers says:
I am sure a lot of folks think that making a bigger more powerful state is "doing what he thinks is best". Doesn't mean that is is sensible.
No, it is not liberal to be against trade. It is leftist and statist. It harms the vast majority of consumers so that a very few manufacturers can profit.
The anti-trade sentiment of both the Democrats and Republican is a great way to take a minor blip in the economy, like we are having now, and turn it into a depression.
JBP
RJ Hayes says:
To Liberty NC:
Walter Jones'stand on drug re-importation is the same stance taken by Ron Paul. His opposition
to the New World Order "free trade
agreements" is the same as Ron Paul's position. Protecting American jobs and industry was
the stance generally taken by
the Republican party before
the rise of Nixon. It sounds
like Walter Jones' victory was
a win for the people and America
to me.
John Powers says:
So if I have this straight, Walter Jones (and the remarkably inconsistent Ron Paul) are in favor of free trade for prescription drugs, and against free trade for cars, clothes, refrigerators, steel, or the other 99% of items which are traded.
Free trade has brought us at least 17 years of the economics growth, despite some of the most ridiculous social programs imaginable. Why kill the last driver of the American economy?
JBP
RobertL says:
This is a wonderfully written piece. I am an Iraq vet and I personally called Congressman Jones' office to offer whatever help I could against this neocon hack he ran against.
To the first comment I would say (and I am a Ron Paul Republican) there are some things that all US citizens can agree on whether we are in the American Conservative Union or the ACLU. This war is a blight on us and on humanity. More power to Walter Jones for standing on principle in the face of much pressure.
To John Powers, there is nothing free about trade deals like CAFTA and NAFTA. These are deals written by and for corporate lobbyist. The cause of any depression we have will be because of your boys at the PRIVATE central bank.
To the author: awesome column. Keep up the good work.
John Powers says:
Well Robert,
Since Dr. Paul refuses to write Free Trade deals preferring (along with the leftists) to wallow around in search of the perfect to fight with the good, who besides a lobbyist is going to write these deals?
And yes, there is something free about free trade...the consumer gets more "free" money to spend using his free will, rather than the lobbyists and leftists in Washington deciding what is in the consumers best interest.
There are certainly less tariffs on incoming goods Mexico, Canada, Chile etc than there were before the series of bi-lateral trade agreements.
The everyday consumer has reaped a huge gain from these deals. American Manufacturing could reap some gains (Caterpillar exports to Colombia for example) if only the statists would get out of the way.
JBP
daveg says:
<i>And yes, there is something free about free trade...the consumer gets more "free" money to spend using his free will, rather than the lobbyists and leftists in Washington deciding what is in the consumers best interest.</i>
John, is that "free trade" like the free market that did so well on making loans to people who wanted to flip homes?
John, does china practice free trade? No, the government is VERY involved, trust me.
Same with S. Korea.
Free trade is a myth.
John Powers says:
Daveg,
Well of course the government is involved. And when the government is involved, huge problems happen, like the housing mess (ethanol mess etc) we have now.
So the solution I keep hearing is, since the government messes up trade, let's get more government involvement, because we are not smart enough to think for ourselves.
Having met many people in import export regulation, and (unfortunately) plenty of politicians, I can assure you that the average intelligence of the woman in the mall to decide what she wants to buy is greater than that of the Statists who want to decide for the consumer.
JBP
Richard A. says:
Supporting drug reimportation makes one a free trader. Opposition to reimportation is protectionism.
Red Phillips says:
John, Ron Paul is a free trader and you know it. In fact, as a believer in Austrian economics he is a doctrinaire free trader, and you seem well educated enough to know that also. The fact that Ron Paul is a free trader has even caused him some problems in paleoconservative circle. The issue for Paul is sovereignty. The Constitution specifically grants to Congress the authority to regulate trade. Congress can no more cede that authority to a supra-national organization than it could cede taxing authority. All conservatives and free traders should be against sovereignty sacrificing/Constitution shredding agreements. It is not a matter of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. It is a matter of following the Constitution. Back when NAFTA was being debated, it was opposed by Lew Rockwell, Murray Rothbard, and the American Enterprise Institute among others. Surely you don’t think those people were all protectionists or “inconsistent.” The neocon lie that Paul isn’t a free trader because he opposes NAFTA is either ignorant or a willful distortion. Since I don’t think most neocons are ignorant, I suspect the latter.
Robby says:
My understanding, of why Walter Jones denounced the war, is that no wmd were found. In addition to being to being a blow-hard patriot (the Freedom Fries legislation made me want to crawl under a rock) he's your basic fundamentalist social conservative, towing the Republican line.
Given all that, I find it miraculous and a statement to individual integrity that he could reverse his position on this war based on one issue: we invaded for wmd and we were wrong about the reason so we were wrong about the invasion.
I have politically little in common with Jones. But I do know something about the personal fortitude it takes to publically denounce your own mistakes and take the necessary actions to correct them.
Instead of a similar wave of principled examination, we've ended up with, from all levels of government and media:
stop'em there so we don't have to stop'em here
free the Iraquis
spread democracy
stop the Islamic caliphate
blah
blah
blah
That Jones didn't go with the masses on that one is a triumph of the human spirit and one "conservative value" (personal accountability) that's in desperately short supply
John Powers says:
Again Red, Dr. Paul is pitting the perfect against the good. The idea that the Dr. or any of the politicians in Washington know more about what the consumer wants than a Wal Mart Shopper is pure arrogance.
I don't need Dr. Paul, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or anyone else telling me they have such grand knowledge of the Constitution, work conditions in Ciudad Juarez, or Union Rules in Colombia that they have to proetct me from commerce. I can decide what I want to purchase by myself perfectly well without them.
JBP
LibertyNC says:
As soon as someone who is actually from this district weighs in (besides myself) I will start paying attention to these comments... The bottom line is that if you RINOs want Walter B Jones Jr as your Congressman you can take him, but make no mistake about it - he won this race compliments of the radical left who he now spends his time in Washington hob-nobbing with (or at least the free time he has when he isnt drunk at the Capitol Hill Club)... so if you dont mind spare me the BS about what a conservative Walter Jones is... no conservative votes to raise taxes, raise the minimum wage, and for BILLIONS in wasteful spending including 2 million for the Charlie Rangel center in Harlem, money for grape genetics research, a mule museum, and an f-ing lobster institute. If you agree with Walter Jones on the war then fine but dont waste my time or anyone else's trying to convince me that someone who consistently votes with the liberals on taxes and spending is a conservative...
Chris Baker says:
I find it interesting that this dumbass who once supported changing the name of "French fries" to "freedom fries" is now against the war. Usually a dumbass is always a dumbass. I don't know of any examples of one suddenly becoming smart.
Red Phillips says:
John, you are advocating the violation of the Constitution. And yes, Ron Paul does know more about the Constitution than almost all the clowns in Washington. And he actually attempts to follow it unlike anyone else.
John Powers says:
I am not convinced that Dr. Paul, nor any other of politicians know more about the Constitution than the average Wal Mart Shopper.
I would gladly submit to the overwhelming common sense of the mass of consumers vs. the esoteric ramblings of a politician trying to constitutionally protect us from the smiling yellow price drops at Wal Mart.
JBP
Bill Wilder says:
So John Powers has inveighed in service to Mammon and "Liberty NC" has told us that George W. Bush is a RINO . . . except that he's a warmonger so that makes him a "conservative."
Distilled examples of the intellectual bankruptcy of "conservatism" when it elevates the "Wal-Mart Shopper" to policy arbiter.
John Powers says:
Bill,
WalMart shoppers vote in elections. There are a lot of them, too. Policy Arbiter? Exactly.
JBP
Red Phillips says:
John, you are being disingenuous. Ron Paul is a free trader. You must concede that or you are just being intellectually dishonest. He doesn't believe in sovereignty sacrificing, unconstitutional supra-national trade deals. What part of the power to regulate trade being "vested" in Congress do you have trouble understanding? Would it be OK with you if Congress entered into a supra-national agreement with other countries that allowed them to originate taxing legislation?
John Powers says:
Red,
I am not a theoretician. I am a Wal Mart, Target, and Sears shopper.
Like most Americans, I do not give a hoot about all the high-minded fluff coming from politicians about "sovereignty" and "supra-nationalism" rather I am concerned with getting a good value for my $.
If Ron Paul is so much of a Free Trader, he should vote that way, instead of staking out some impossible position for the sake of maintaining his theoretical brilliance, while voting to kill US Exports to Colombia for example.
JBP
LibertyNC says:
Walter Jones voted to raise taxes THREE times, opposed 41 of the 50 anti-earmark amendments in the House, voted to raise the minimum wage, voted for drug re-importation, voted for 5 of the Democrats 6 in 06 bills, opposed CAFTA, opposes the Colombia FTA, and was rated THE most LIBERAL US House member south of the Mason-Dixon line. So before you start pontificating on this race maybe you should get your facts straight. Walter Jones is a liberal and a liberal who's campaign was supported by Code Pink organizers, http://Moveon.org front groups, and the ACLU.
By the way, Jones outspent McLaughlin 6 to 1 thanks to his liberal special interest supporters and for the record Seymour Johnson AFB - while in Wayne County - is NOT in this Congressional district (indeed much of the county isnt). Thanks for pontificating on something you were clueless on tho...