As Stone sees it, his own journey from lifelong Republican to libertarian outsider was a consequence of the Republican party's rightward march on social issues and double talk on spending. "It doesn't take long to get corrupted," he said, "therefore you say I want to reduce spending and debt, but oh I'm for TARP and the auto bailout and Medicare part D. It's hypocrisy. That's my whole problem with Republicans today. They sound good. They talk a good game. But when we had both houses of Congress and George W. Bush was president, we spent worse than Democrats. Why would anyone take us seriously?"
Rick Santorum, he says, "is a religious fanatic and a state-ist. He wants the state to decide for the individual. He is about as far from Barry Goldwater as you can get." Mitt Romney has no core. Paul Ryan talks a big game but is a product of the establishment...
I asked him how the convention was shaping up. "Too early to say," he replied. Romney, in Stone's view, is a weak candidate. "He just was stronger and had more staying power than anyone else. He had to the good fortune to run against Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Herman Cain. None of those guys were viable." He said he was not at all impressed with the Romney campaign organization. "I see Fat John Sununu is back in the hierarchy. That's a bad sign."
Stone said Sununu, who was George H.W. Bush's chief of staff, had pushed to raise taxes. "He's not a conservative ... I mean, John Sununu is a self-important bullshit artist."
It wasn't just Romney, or Ryan, or the state of the party that bothered him. On his birthday, Stone was feeling generally gloomy. "I think the country is in desperate trouble," he said. "I hate to say I'm pessimistic, but I'm very pessimistic. The party that I once thought stood for individual liberty has morphed into the same party as the Democrats. They're both big government, Wall Street–dominated parties. All the Wall Street guys went for Obama last time, and now they're for Romney this time. It's government by Goldman Sachs for Goldman Sachs." He has no love for Obama, either. "Worse than Carter," he declared. "Carter was a governor. At least he ran something in his life. This guy hasn't even run a bath."
Monday, September 3, 2012
Roger Stone on the Republican Party
Gabriel Sherman reports:
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