Vying for the King of "Upper Left"

Carl Milsted posits that Ron Paul is in the Upper Left. He may very well be, but I would think the candidates with real bona fides in that area would be Mike Huckabee and Dennis Kucinich.

Huckabee is also pro-life but not pro-states rights on this issue - if abortion is wrong one place it is wrong any place. Like me, he believes that the country made the mistake of state differences on the thorniest issues once, the result being the Civil War, and that it would be unwise to repeat that particular experiment in federalism. The Governor, like Paul, is an advocate of social spending, although he would go further in subsidizing families. He is catching fire among the Upper Left in Iowa, as well as among the traditional evangelicals. He is a significant chance of moving his party back to the right - if the authoritarians and corporate types in his party don't sabotage him. Of course, if they do such a silly thing he, like Paul, could be forces that move this contingent toward a break with the Republicans, leading to an upper right or even middle center party.

The fact that Dennis Kucinich is in the upper left needs little explanation, which is why he is considered a fringe candidate among the Democrats who are more to the right than Carl will admit.

Michael Bindner
Alexandria, Virginia