I longish essay at Front Porch Republic yesterday wonders “what if William Jennings Bryant …?” The whole thing is worth reading if you’re contrary like me, but knowing that few will, I’ll quote the very, very contemporary Indiana implications — contemporary like Tuesday, May 4:
This brings us to contemporary political application. History can be interesting but so what? Are there any modern-day Bryans? Can we find any candidates who exemplify FPR values? Yes we can. …
John Hostettler of Indiana could be a Feingold counterpart across the aisle if he’s elected to the Senate this year. A genuine Republican maverick, Hostettler is a former six-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Like Ron Paul, Hostettler is a constitutionalist on domestic issues and a noninterventionist (anti-imperialist) in foreign affairs. He opposed Clinton’s wars in the Balkans. In 2002, he was one of only six Republican members of the House and one of only three conservative members to vote against the resolution endorsing Bush’s desire to preemptively wage war on Iraq. At the time, he said the intelligence backing the claim of WMDs was “tenuous at best.”
Following his defeat for reelection, in 2006, Congressman Hostettler self-published Nothing for the Nation: Who Got What Out of Iraq. The book is endorsed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who writes, “We waged war because the president wanted to do so for his own reasons. . . . Congress made an unconstitutional delegation of authority to the president and it was the most tragic such delegation ever made. Had we listened to Hostettler at the time, we would not have done it. If we listen to him now, we might save ourselves the pain, regret, and shame from doing it again. For years I have known I was wrong. Now I know why I was wrong. I’m sorry so many had to pay such a dear price for me to learn what I should have known before I took that office.”
Hostettler is a populist who has never taken PAC money, which is quite a contrast with his main opponent in the senatorial primary, former Senator Dan Coats. Coats left the Senate in 1999, was an ambassador for a while, and then cashed in on his “public service” by becoming a lobbyist. He worked for Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Chrysler, and other big corporations in their successful efforts to feed at the public trough. Now he has moved back to Indiana in an effort to regain his Senate seat. Dan Coats is a typical corporate-centrist-establishment Republican à la Bob Dole.
John Hostettler is something quite different. He voted for Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party for president in 2008, not John McCain. There are mavericks and then there are mavericks. If Feingold’s blind spots on some social issues, notably his support for legalized abortion and same-sex “marriage” are too off-putting to overlook, then maybe Hostettler is your man. He is a Bible-believing Christian who is conservative on social morality. He supports traditional marriage and the rights of unborn children. He was the lead sponsor of the Marriage Protection Act that passed the House in 2004 but died in the Senate. Invoking a power of Congress granted by the Constitution, the MPA would have stripped the federal courts of jurisdiction to rule on the Defense of Marriage Act. He opposes illegal immigration. He supports Second Amendment rights. He has championed First Amendment religious freedom. He voted against NCLB on federalism grounds. These stances have earned him the support of conservatives like Bay Buchanan, Tom Tancredo, and some portions of the Tea Party movement.
The Republican senatorial primary that pits Hostettler against Coats, and a few other contenders, takes place THIS TUESDAY, May 4. He could use some money now. Hopefully, he will win the primary and be the odds-on favorite to win in November.
I would note that Dan Coats, the slight favorite Tuesday, is a Wheaton College graduate. The last time he ran, that meant something to me. I learned more at Wheaton with a 2.5 GPA than I learned elsewhere with a 3.5+. But evangelicalism is culturally captive, I now see, and I fear that lobbyist Coats is no exception. So come Tuesday, I’m not voting for him, or Marlin Stutzman, but John Hostettler.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 