GOP: Hijacked by Ron Paul's people

Marie Antoinette told her hungry subjects to “eat cake” and Idaho Republicans in convention recently advised us to buy gold and silver to solve our economic problems — in a time when many people are struggling to make their mortgages. Where is the average citizen going to get the money to buy gold coins at $1,200 each?

The energy behind this proposal, of course, was the Ron Paul faction which has formed an alliance with other conservative groups to produce a ruling coalition in Idaho’s GOP. It is appropriate that the media has begun to scrutinize this faction’s leadership.

From Ron Paul’s speculative investments in gold (as reported by the Washington Post) to our own Phil Hart’s tax maneuverings, it is a good idea to question whether their motives are as altruistic as they sound, or do their policy recommendations represent an attempt to enhance their portfolios? In other words, is it patriotism or is it greed?

Getting rich is not unpatriotic, but we should question proposals which seem to use government to game the markets. I was pilloried by Ron Paul Republicans in the last primary election because I proposed a state bank as a solution that benefits everyone equally. Some called it “socialistic” when really it simply offered an economic solution that didn’t do anything for their speculative hopes for gold. Have they so quickly become just another special interest group?

If so, then an intractable and self-serving conservativism threatens to make the Idaho GOP into the “party of the regressives” - Antoinette-style.

JAMES STIVERS

Desmet