Not an oxymoron.
America's definition for “conservative” says where you go to church, your boots, abortion, and your car radio. ConLeft is not Right Wing Corporatist.
“Conservative” is read more as “social conservative.” Ron Paul's speech at CPAC brought over 3 out of 10 hard core conservative activists to wildly cheering support for Conservative Left positions. He could be a skinny Michael Moore with a twang:
1. The “Patriot Act” is nothing but an attack on the Fourth Amendment
2. America cannot afford 900 military bases in 135 countries — plus this use of force does not work
3. Diplomacy has to be aimed at maximizing freedom worldwide
4. The Federal Reserve is operating as its own government, its own pot o’ gold for the finance sector insiders
5. Government should never be allowed to do what its citizens are not allowed to do
For EU this is the Social Democrats, your basic straightforward leftist positioning.
The CPAC arch- and hyperactivist-conservatives cheer him wildly.
Plainly, Democrats can do very, very well focusing efforts in 2012 to acquire these Conservative Left voters. YouTube board to the full speech and added commentary below the fold.
This is not retouched or edited:
This speech goes with specific policy positions detailed at his sites:
Reality does indeed have a liberal bias. Here is a list from freesociety:
1. Stop the Wars & Occupations
2. Make large cuts in the Military and CIA
3. End CIA Renditions/Torture, and the “Patriot Act”
4. Stop NAFTA, GATT, CAFTA
5. Stop bailing out Wall Street crooks
6. Expose the (Federal Reserve’s) frauds and hidden giveaways
7. End the Drug War
8. Support government whistleblowers
This is all Democratic Wing of the Democratic Party stuff.
Altogether these positions put Ron Paul, as a social conservative, well to the left of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, Barak Obama and Joe Biden.
You have to go to Paul Wellstone, Russ Feingold, and Jimmy Carter to find parallels.
Then the magic of the situation settles in as these Left positions draw 31% of the CPAC straw vote for president.
“Conservative” does not match up with “corporatist.” Not for the Libertarians.
Move these people to vote for Left-leaning politicians, even half of them, and the GOP loses elections as bad as 2008, maybe worse. Texas and Arizona, for two, get to be up for grabs.
Conservative Left -- there's worse than this going on inside the elected Democrats in the Senate.