The 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference is underway, and once again, for the third year in a row, Rand Paul was the winner of the Washington Times/CPAC presidential preference straw poll. Rand's father, Ron Paul, won the straw poll twice, but we saw, when it came to translating that into a number of voters, the number one position in the CPAC straw poll had only a minor influence. Scott Walker, who has been labeled the front runner for 2016 since his dynamic speech in Iowa, placed a very strong second place in the poll. The remaining persons in the fight for political presidential candidacy positioning with conservatives were so far separated from the two front runners that they seem as if they are not even a consideration, with Jeb Bush actually receiving "boos" when his name was announced in the poll results. Ted Cruz, who had a strong second place finish in the last CPAC straw poll, dropped to third. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who gained attention when he directly confronted President Obama at a prayer breakfast in 2013, and then faced demands that he should apologize for challenging Obama at a non-partisan event, finished fourth. He replied to calls for his apology to Obama by saying, "If the shoe fits, wear it," and then in interview after interview intelligently told America about how we, as Americans, need to be "problem-solvers" through gaining knowledge, accomplishment, and individuality. The White House even warned Dr. Carson, prior to his speech, to not "be offensive" to the President during the event, even asking for a copy of his speech, of which he could not produce because Dr. Carson is a "spontaneous speaker." On one television program, after being confronted about apologizing to President Obama for his remarks at the prayer breakfast, Carson responded by asking, "Is Obama king?" Marco Rubio's participation in the "Gang of Eight" team regarding immigration reform, and his questionable position on a number of issues, dropped his finish to the middle of the pack. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, considered to be too moderate for the Republican platform by many, finished 10th.
41.5 percent of respondents listed Mr. Paul as being in their top two, and 40.8 percent listed Mr. Walker in the same manner, putting the top two winners in close proximity of each other. Mr. Cruz and Mr. Carson trailed with little more than half that support. Respondents praised Scott Walker as being the person that is more of a candidate that unifies the party than any other candidate in recent history, largely because of how he stood up to the attacks by the Democrats and Labor Unions in Wisconsin, when he applied conservative principles to his State, and even had to survive a recall election in the process. Scott Walker has been described, in some circles, as being a Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan combo, exactly the kind of candidate we need in these perilous times.
Of those who voted in the 2015 CPAC poll, a number exceeding 3,000 participants, 41% voted that they support the legalization of marijuana, with 26% supporting that the drug should at least be available for medicinal purposes with permission of a doctor. From a constitutional point of view, I must remind everyone that the decision regarding marijuana should be made at the State level. The federal government has no constitutional authority to be dictating to States what they can or cannot do in the form of legislation regarding drugs, and without a constitutional amendment granted the power to the federal government, technically all current federal drug laws are unconstitutional, and therefore, illegal.
Personally, I don't support the legalization of pot for recreational use, but I do support it being available for medicinal purposes if it is properly monitored as is any other medical drug. Once again, however, I urge, with the caveat, that those regulations must be applied by State governments, rather than the federal government, unless someday in the future, through amendment, the federal government obtains permission from the States to centrally regulate substances that are defined as being "drugs."
The voting at CPAC also revealed support for the legislative branch to act in a manner it is constitutionally allowed to, using the House of Representatives' "power of the purse" to stop President Obama's expansion of executive powers, including his actions through executive fiat to alter immigration law. The support for such legislative action came in at 60% of the voters saying they “strongly agree” with the tactic.
The straw poll also revealed that conservative voters remain skeptical of military intervention on the global stage, and that the participants in the poll are eager to undo Mr. Obama’s health law and his unilateral immigration moves.
Regarding Common Core, an attempt to standardize education through centralized control, and a system through which the federal government has been meddling with the constitutionally "local issue" of education by offering subsidies to school districts that implement the educational curriculum that has become a flashpoint recently, 57.6 percent of conservatives at CPAC said they would not be able to vote for a candidate who supported the standards, an opinion that will likely knock Jeb Bush out of any chance at contention (unless the establishment decides to pump all their money into him, and enable him to rise from the dead like McCain did in 2008), especially since Mr. Bush remarked to the conference this week that he was willing to defend Common Core.
One must remember that though the CPAC straw poll is usually a fairly accurate indicator of conservative opinion, it does not always reflect the entire mood of conservatives, and often the winners don't find themselves in the driver's seat as the presidential primary season approaches. Remember, Ron Paul won the straw poll twice, but never fared well in the Republican Presidential Primaries (not that I was a huge Ron Paul backer like many of my readers might be). We may have the Republican Establishment to partially thank for that, as well as the participation of independents who, though I believe them to be largely conservative, don't always find Republican agenda items to sometimes be the most palatable.
One must remember that though the CPAC straw poll is usually a fairly accurate indicator of conservative opinion, it does not always reflect the entire mood of conservatives, and often the winners don't find themselves in the driver's seat as the presidential primary season approaches. Remember, Ron Paul won the straw poll twice, but never fared well in the Republican Presidential Primaries (not that I was a huge Ron Paul backer like many of my readers might be). We may have the Republican Establishment to partially thank for that, as well as the participation of independents who, though I believe them to be largely conservative, don't always find Republican agenda items to sometimes be the most palatable.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
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