A couple of weeks ago, I had a post headed “423 to 4.” Why? There had been a 423–4 vote in the House. It was to affirm America’s commitment to NATO, and in particular Article 5 (which says, in brief, that an attack on one is an attack on all). I was interested in the four. They turned out to be Republicans, all of them.
This tells you something about the present political pass.
I explained in my post that I’ve always been interested in lopsided votes — not the majorities but the minorities. I said that, years ago, when I was learning about politics, I would check into votes that were 423 to 4 or what have you. And the No voters often turned out to be strong leftists (such as John Conyers) and Ron Paul.
That taught me something about libertarianism, at least of the Ron Paul variety.
A few days ago, I read an article about U.S. sanctions on Russia. The Senate has passed a strong Russia-sanctions bill — which the House GOP is holding up. The article mentioned that the vote in the Senate was 97 to 2. Naturally, I was curious about the two.
They are Rand Paul (Ron’s son) and Mike Lee.
WFB said, “Every conservative has within him a streak of libertarianism.” He did, I do. I am solidly in favor of the Senate bill, and dismayed that the House is holding it up. Yet I admire legislators (and others) who are willing to be in a minority, even a dinky minority. Especially the dinky ones!
By the way — I just checked — John Conyers is still at it. Still in Congress, where he has been since 1965.