There's a growing segment of Republicans who really do seem enamored by 19th century America. Whether it's deregulation of industry or going back to Dred Scott days or ending women's sovereignty over their own bodies, or bringing back workhouses instead of unemployment insurance, they seem to really like the days when the barons and their political lackeys ruled, and the rest of us served.
Now it's the economy they want to send back, in the form of the gold standard. Meet Colorado's Ken Buck.
The 51-year-old Buck, who as a young man once worked for Dick Cheney and sought out Donald Rumsfeld for career advice, is in an equally furious race to avoid the Paul-Angle tattoo. In an interview with POLITICO, Buck previewed his strategy to resist being labeled by incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet as an extremist and took pains to distance himself from both these fellow 2010 Republicans....
On the policy front, Democratic operatives are circulating “oppo” — opposition research — showing Buck speaking sympathetically about Paul’s father, Texas congressman and quixotic presidential hopeful Ron Paul, and his plan eventually to return the United States to the gold standard. That is an obsession of libertarians regarded as eccentric by most mainstream policymakers.
“You know, Ron Paul’s absolutely right,” Buck said at a 2009 meeting of the Pikes Peak Economic Club. “We’ve got to audit the Fed. ... You know, we don’t have enough gold in this country to go to a gold standard right now. I mean, we could go to a gold standard, but we’re gonna have some — again, that adjustment can’t be made in one day."
Because lugging around bars of gold to conduct all our transactions is such a good idea. Right up there with using farm animals to barter for services, and about as practical.
Ok, then. But he's not a teabagger.
In using the word "horrible" to describe Social Security, he said he meant to convey that the idea of taking money out of the trust fund would leave young workers in a vulnerable position.
And he's not a sexist neanderthal.
In what now may count as his most infamous remark, Buck was captured on tape last month saying he ought to be elected because, unlike his female primary opponent, he didn't wear high heels.
No, Ken Buck isn't anything like Sharron Angle or Rand Paul.