Jim Antle has a new article on Virgil Goode in this month’s issue of TAC.
During the Republican primaries, conservatives turned to one candidate after another to be the right’s alternative to Mitt Romney: Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and finally Rick Santorum. One by one, their campaigns fizzled. Now, with the nomination in Romney’s grasp, conservatives seem to have run out of choices.
Virgil Goode wants to remind them not to settle. So serious was the former congressman about expanding conservatives’ options this November that he secured the presidential nomination of the Constitution Party, which has spent the last two decades trying convince conservative Christians and constitutionalists that there is a purer, more principled alternative to the GOP. “I’m in it to win it,” Goode says, fusing a slogan of Hillary Clinton’s with a platform to the right of Barry Goldwater.
Goode isn’t a household name, but he is the most politically experienced nominee in the Constitution Party’s 20-year history. He has won more elections than Romney and President Barack Obama combined, starting with a special election to the Virginia state senate when he was just 27…
Jim Antle’s column on Goode is interesting, but be sure to read the comments that follow the article.
OK, I will agree with Red Phillips on disqualifying everyone from military service. The Goldwater position is the best, if you do believe in having a military.
So Virgil Goode objected to Keith Ellison being sworn into Congress on a Koran? A couple of points.
Congressmen do not swear on the Bible for their formal swearing in to Congress. Swearing on a Bible, or in Mr Ellison’s case, a Koran, is more of a photo op
Secondly, Article VI of The Constitution of the United States says “no religious test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office of public Trust under the United States.”
Third, Rep. Ellison is not an immigrant, but was born in Detroit, Michigan. His family has been in the United States for several generations, as indicated by his grandfather’s work for the NAACP in Louisiana. Pointing to Mr Ellison’s election as a reason to be opposed to immigration is not logical.
What does allowing gays to serve have to do with limited government? So gays can serve as cannon foder in Uncle Sam’s wars as well? Arguably the most limited government candidate would disqualify everyone from service.
“…a platform to the right of Barry Goldwater.”
Barry Goldwater came out for legalizing marijuana in 1969. In the 1970s he stated his support for legal abortion, and denounced the “moral majority.”
In the 1990s he defended the idea of allowing Gay servicemen in the military. “You don’t have to be straight to shoot straight.”
Gov. Gary Johnson is clearly much closer to Barry Goldwater’s idea of limited government than Virgil Goode is.