CPAC 2011 Straw Poll Results -- and Commentary #cpac11

The results of this year's Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll are in.

The number of voters were up dramatically this year, emblematic of increased interest in constitutional conservatism nationwide.

Here's a preview of the results: the biggest bloc of voters were college-age students.

Like last year, 18-25 year old attendees dwarfed all other segments, which makes the straw poll less than useful for predicting anything of significance.

In addition, voters were overwhelmingly male.

Interestingly, 91% of all respondents listed cutting the size of government and reducing government spending as their #1 or #2 priority.

Cutting spending was, by far, the preferred choice for balancing the budget.

And attendees were generally optimistic that Congressional Republicans could achieve their highest priorities.

The collegiate-aged attendees stuffed the ballot box for Ron Paul. While Paul has admirable stands on many domestic issues, his isolationist foreign policy positions are downright nutty. He's a foreign policy kook, plain and simple.

In response to the young idealists, may I suggest they contemplate the following: You can't be a super-power without the ability to project power.

We defeated the Nazis by teaming with known bad guys -- the Soviets. After teaming with them, we immediately devolved into the Cold War stalemate. The Cold War was won through an aggressive foreign policy that involved protecting our national security interests -- energy and freedom among them -- across the globe.

Today we are in the midst of a war between Christendom and Islam that has heated up and cooled down for centuries. At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam appeared poised to overrun all of Christian Europe. We are simply in a new phase of a very old war.

Today, we can't run and hide and hope that advanced weapons won't harm us here at home. China's 2007 anti-satellite test demonstrated that crippling technologies -- which could throw our society into chaos -- are very real.

Iran continues its work on nuclear armaments and intercontinental ballistic missile technologies, its steady progress delayed only by a clever cyber-attack. Its leaders believe that the return of the Twelfth Imam can be hastened by fomenting 'argmageddon'.

Mexico, on our unprotected southern border, is a failed narco-terror state with roughly 30,000 of its citizens killed in the last five years alone -- and refugees streaming north on a daily basis.

Venezuela, Hugo Chavez' dictatorship, is now said to be fielding Iranian military personnel and missiles with 'scientific' collaboration revolving around warhead design and nuclear technology.

The military regime of North Korea recently torpedoed a South Korean warship and is threatening to retest its nuclear weapons.

China is on the move: building aircraft carriers, stealth fighters, destroying satellites in an effort to test space-based weapons, and locking up energy contracts across the globe.

Again, you can't be a super-power without the ability to project power. SDI and missile defense must be expanded. Our military power must be increased, not decreased.

The world is a very dangerous place -- and many take for granted that our civil society will always be as it is. History tells us otherwise. All over the world people live in desperate squalor, under despots, tyrants and maniacs. For most of human history this has been the case.

We have a precious society, our United States, and we must do everything in our power to protect it.


p.s., I am encouraged by Michelle Bachmann's showing -- she is a forthright, brave constitutional conservative who understands the reality of the situation in Washington and abroad.

p.p.s., I would recommend that anyone looking for a historical perspective read the seminal article "No Substitute for Victory."


Hat tip: Tabitha. Linked by: Michelle Malkin and The Tatler. Thanks!