Can Ron Paul Score in Indiana?

Besides being the birthplace of the hottest women in America's northern flyover zone, Indiana is known for basketball, and a libertarian streak—cheap cigarettes, retail Fourth of July fireworks and 191 proof vodka.

But like the rest of the rust belt, there is a strong feeling that if NAFTA was repealed and a Wall of Tariffs built around America, we would return to the 1960's, when manufacturing jobs were regularly putting two new cars into every suburban garage.

I don't know how this will play with the Democratic candidates, neither of which has a committed libertarian bone in their body, one of whom does not really believe his protectionist blather, and the other a convenient convert to economic nativism.

But it will be interesting to see if the Dean of the Red States, and homeland of Dan Quayle, will improve on Ron Paul's surprising showing in the Pennsylvania primary.

Although it was barely mentioned in the main stream media, Paul was able to get sixteen percent of the vote in the Pennsylvania primary. Why is this? Since Pennsylvania was a closed primary it may be indicative of a significant dissatisfaction among Republicans, which has nothing to do with McCain's unpopularity in fundie circles and his support of obscure campaign reform legislation.

Ron Paul is libertarian minded in most ways, but he is not a libertarian. He is a kinder and gentler Pat Buchanan, and they are both what the Republican Party was all about , especially in the Midwest, before World War II, and the ascendancy of monolithic communism made it impossible for the United States to hide behind two oceans, and let Main Street be--to hell with the rest of the world—whether it was the squabbling of Europeans or the teeming masses of Asia and Africa.

In this Andy Hardy world, everyone knew that Congress was a necessary evil, but we were glad they were way off in the little southern swamp known as Washington DC—and the only government we had much to do with was the local constabulary.

Ron Paul, would slash back the federal government to those idyllic times of the 1880's when there were no lead tainted Chinese imports, morphine was sold over the counter and sometimes the bank couldn't give you a loan until the old prospector returned from the hills with a bag of fresh gold.

But seriously, Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate who understands, and has anything sensible to say about the economy. Unlike John McCain, who admittedly doesn't understand, and really doesn't care about economics, the dismal science has been Ron Paul's passion for decades.

He has long warned that the spendthrift practices of the federal government, along with the inflationary policies of the Fed , are creating great wealth on Wall Street, but taxing the people on Main Street right out of the middle class. Ron Paul was warning about this before CNN noticed that a trip to the supermarket was only marginally less unpleasant than pulling up to the pumps.

And about this war, that McCain is so fond of. Indiana has sacrificed a disproportionate number of their young men and women to the Mesopotamian conflagration. And most of those are the sons and daughters of old fashioned Republicans, many of whom are past wondering whether the troubles in that distant land has anything to do with their cherished freedoms, which they have noticed slipping away almost as fast as their economic prosperity.

This is a Republicanism that is quietly simmering in America's flyover zone, and one that is completely off the radar of modern Republican strategists-- drowned out by the voices of Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly. And on the Left Coast, and in Manhattan, no one really cares what folks down on the Wabash have to say, once the election jocking is over.

The Republican Party is about more than the Cult of George Bush, neoconservatives and tedious promises to keep gays in their place. And the heady American Imperialism of McCain's hero Teddy Roosevelt, is just not the source of pride it once was.

The Party, at its peril, takes the heartland for granted.