Anti-War Activist Adam Kokesh Mounts GOP Campaign for Congress

[babylonsister]

Anti-War Activist Mounts GOP Campaign for Congress
McCain Heckler Emerges as Front-Runner in Ron Paul-Inspired Bid
By David Weigel 12/18/09 6:00 AM


Adam Kokesh at an antiwar rally in September 2007 (Flickr: ragessos)


Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had barely begun to give his acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention when a clamor went up in the upper levels of St. Paul’s XCel Center. Adam Kokesh, a marine who had become a leader of Iraq Veterans Against the War, stood up and unfurled a banner with two sides. On the first side: “YOU CAN’T WIN AN OCCUPATION.” On the other side: “MCCAIN VOTES AGAINST VETS.”

Security guards went into action and dealt with Kokesh’s banner; an irritated crowd of Republicans chanted “USA” until the banner was removed. McCain moved right on, but Kokesh hadn’t finished yet.

“I’m grateful to the president of the United States for leading us in these dark days following the worst attack in American history,” said McCain.

“Ask McCain why he votes against veterans!” shouted Kokesh.

He didn’t get another chance to rain on McCain’s parade, but Kokesh remained proud of what he did. A video that cut together the interruption with jokes, subtitles, and a pounding soundtrack went up on Kokesh’s YouTube account. It’s still there, even though Kokesh’s relationship to the Republican Party is very different now. He’s a candidate for Congress in New Mexico’s 3rd district, looking like the Republican front-runner just one short year after he crashed the convention. Over the course of a year, he’s made the move from confrontation-seeking anti-war activist to clean-cut politician in the mold of the man he supported in 2008, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

“The ground has really shifted away from the neocon agenda,” Kokesh told TWI during a break in his campaign schedule. “There was no influx of young people getting into the Republican Party to support John McCain. By contrast, Ron Paul brought a huge number of young people into the Republican Party. It’s really exciting to see that happening again with my campaign.”

Kokesh’s move into electoral politics–he is 27 years old, and this is his first stab at campaigning–unifies two trends that have made the GOP that will fight the midterm elections dramatically different than the one Kokesh used to protest. The first is the rise of Ron Paul’s libertarianism. After years of obscurity, Paul came out of the 2008 elections with a national fundraising base and new respect for his ideas about war and economics among Republican activists and voters. The second trend is the Tea Party movement. After feeling ignored by George W. Bush’s Republicans, the conservative base has come together to demand commitment to the Constitution, commitment to small government values, and guarantees of national and state sovereignty.

“He never had an official role in the campaign, but we could count on him to energize people,” said Jesse Benton, Paul’s spokesman. Kokesh was a late edition to Paul’s 2008 “Rally for the Republic,” an event meant to “bring the Republican Party back to its roots” held in Minneapolis before McCain’s address to the RNC in 2008.

“I’d like to think that this symbolizes some good old-fashioned traditional conservatism making a comeback in the GOP,” said Benton. “Republicans have seen that running as the ‘war party’ is a loser for them.”

Today, Kokesh argues that the efforts of Paul supporters look more or less successful. Bush-era “neocons” are out of the political mainstream, replaced by people like him. “Our nation is drifting dangerously from freedom to fascism,” Kokesh said at a July 2008 rally for Paul in Washington, D.C.; at a 2007 Senate hearing, he was photographed holding up a tally of how many times then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had said “I don’t recall.” But rhetoric that sounded out of the mainstream that year sounds perfectly in line with the comments of Republicans like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) or Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), and criticism of the GOP or the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are no longer controversial in the party’s grassroots.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/71424/anti-war-activist-mounts-gop-campaign-for-congress

[TheNev]

1. If you've never looked at libertarians...

you'd better start looking at them hard. If you hate Republicans, you're going to despise Libertarians.

Social Liberal (they don't care if you're gay or smoke pot)
Strong Fiscal Conservatism
Strong Constitutionalists (this means federal entitlement programs are a big no-no)

When the democrat party left me (and I grew up), I went libertarian. Libertarians are the most direct threat to the Progressive movement because their base is the same group of college kids (and other captive audiences), except they make more sense than your average che wearing, commie flag waving, marx reading brain full of whatever someone told him that day.

I know that this is sort of insulting to progressives, but i've been lurking around here a long time now and it's time you guys take your head out of the bubble and look around, else you're going to be stamped out in short order.

Ignore it if you want, but a recent poll (within 3 months) showed that more than 40% of people identified themselves as Libertarians when the party was explained. Social Liberal, Fiscal Conservative, Strong Constitutionalists.

[superduperfarleft]

2. Plenty of ignoramuses identify as libertarians, mainly because they're too embarrassed to call

themselves republicans these days. I've never met a Ron Paul fan who could give a detailed explanation of his positions other than, "AT LEAST HE SUPPORTS THE CONSITUTION!!!!" (then ask them specifically what it is in the Constitution that's not being supported, and watch them drool on themselves). Big-L Libertarianism as an ideology is nothing more than a cop-out for people who don't want to think too hard about actual policy and how it is implemented in the real world, like thinking that police departments and roads all spontaneously generate.

I predict in the 2012 presidential election, the Libertarian Party will have a better showing than they did in 2008, but it will have zero impact on the election overall.

[Ikonoklast]

3. Go away.

You guys live in a Randian fantasyland.

[Kalyke]

4. It's DemocratIC Party.

The word "Democratic" is an adjective used to describe "Party," in this case.

The word "Democrat" is a noun.

To wit: I am a Democrat who works for the Democratic Party.

Get it? Got it? Good.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. DemocratIC Party

Enjoy your stay, however brief it may be.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. He's now a teabag libertarian

And he's running in a fairly liberal district.

A sad ending to what could have been a promising career.

[babylonsister]

8. I thought of you when I saw this story; weird, isn't it. nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. I'm on his email list and have been following his campaign

The stories I could tell. LOL

[cali]

6. screw him. hope he gets beaten badly in the general- if he makes it that far.