Friday, August 6, 2010

Meet Clint Didier

Posted by Jack Hunter on Fri, Aug 6, 2010 at 10:59 AM

Speculating who might become America’s-next-top-conservative-idol has become common sport. No doubt, the GOP establishment would love to anoint a Mitt Romney, Scott Brown, or Tim Pawlenty. Many rank-and-file Republicans have begun to gravitate toward men like Congressman Paul Ryan and Senator Jim DeMint. One national poll has the Tea Party split between former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Ron’s son Rand, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky, and GOP outsider Sharron Angle, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada, are also now being portrayed as national leaders of the rumbling that continues to brew on the grassroots Right.

It should be noted that before the 2008 election, most Americans had never heard of Palin, Angle, or either Paul, and before Obama became president, few had heard of Ryan, DeMint, Brown, and a host of other Republicans whose profiles have been elevated in recent months. This goes to show you that pundits can make all the predictions they want—but figuring out who tomorrow’s political celebrities will be is no exact science, if possible at all. Most “expert” predictions for the 2008 GOP presidential primaries, pitted former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani against movie star-turned-Senator, Fred Thompson, with the rest of the Republican pack eating their dust, with the exception of Romney. Today, the Giuliani and Thompson campaigns are insignificant and distant memories, and who were the biggest political celebrities to emerge from the 2008 elections on the Republican side? Sarah Palin and Ron Paul.

Clint Didier is also a candidate most Americans, to date, have never heard of. The Tea Party-anointed candidate in his home state of Washington, Didier has received the endorsement of both Palin and Paul in his bid for U.S. Senate, but his politics are far more in sync with the latter. While many on the libertarian or traditionalist Right, or critics of the Tea Party on the Left, wonder if Palin-loving conservatives are truly prepared to break free from the pro-war, any war rhetoric that animated the Right during the Bush years—rhetoric Palin still mouths herself—Didier makes his foreign policy clear: “I subscribe to Jefferson’s view, and favor a non-interventionist philosophy. We need to stop trying to police the world and telling other nations how to manage their affairs. It is depleting our wealth and draining our national spirit. America is a republic; therefore let’s stop trying to spread ‘democracy.”

Whether the Palin wing of the Tea Party can widen their critique of government spending to foreign policy—an absolute necessity if they are serious—remains to be seen. Whether Tea Party candidate Didier’s critique of government largesse extends beyond foreign policy is already clear to see—as the multigenerational small farmer has included ditching federal farm subsidies as part of his platform, along with slashing the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, phasing out Social Security, and opposing just about every unconstitutional department, function, or folly the federal government now chooses to involve itself in. Says Didier of ending federal farm subsidies—money that has benefited both him and his neighbors—”It’s the kind of a move that we all better be willing to make for this country… We’ve got to all realize this is unsustainable. We’ve got to quit taking this money.”

While Didier might appeal to Barry Goldwater-style, fiscal conservatives, how about the larger masses, particularly on the Right, many of whom seemed more impressed by Romney’s smile and haircut, or Palin’s caribou hunting, than by any discernible policy positions? Didier has this all-important “style” factor down too—as the 51-year-old family farmer was also a former member of the Washington Redskins, even scoring the final touchdown at Super Bowl XXII. Didier’s campaign slogan is “A Game Plan for Washington,” and the well-spoken and personable candidate uses locker room strategy imagery and rhetoric frequently.

So how is this mixture of farm-boy philosophy, Redskins nostalgia, and hard-line Ron Paul Republicanism playing out for Washington primary voters? While his campaign started out slow, recent polls put Didier in a dead heat with his fellow Republican contenders. This is quite a feat considering his strict constitutional conservatism, newcomer status, and the fact that his daughter schedules all his interviews-operating out of the family farm.

And Didier is but one of many unconventional and potential conservative leaders, now running for state office or Congress, nationwide, many of whom were inspired by Ron Paul, the Tea Party or both, and who-more importantly-are bringing together it’s disparate parts, under a solidly conservative banner.

Read the entire column

Topics: National Politics
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Comments (12)

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Thanks for a good column and taking the time to showcase another grassroots conservative candidate that most people have never heard of. Now, if we can just convince him to leave the family farm in liberal leaning Washington state so that his voice and ideas can begin to be heard nationally. Hey, it worked for Palin.

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Posted by Older & Wiser on August 6, 2010 at 12:02 PM

Clint is great man with a good shot at winning. Actually, Eastern Washington is very conservative and he will have to hope on a high voter turnout in that region of the state to win. Polls show the race very close.

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Posted by Petersen45 on August 6, 2010 at 4:59 PM

Geeez, how many people are the GUESSERS going to put in the White House? How about Elmer Fudd,Bugs
Bunny, Mary Poppins? Fats Domino? Ricky Nelson,Buddy
Holly? What? They are dead?! So what, just as good a chance as all these names you are coming up with!
It is going to be Mitt and you are going to love it after
his second year there!!!
Gene

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Posted by elvis on August 6, 2010 at 5:15 PM

Today, it is not clear that conservative thinkers have compelling alternatives to Obama's economic or foreign policy. At best, the right is badly divided over how to fix the economy or how to deal with Iran and Afghanistan. So for the time being, the populists alone have the spotlight.
I hope Didier can manage to get a little of the spotlight too.

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Posted by gadsen on August 7, 2010 at 4:43 AM

Elvis (isn't he dead too?), Mitt and the old gang are on their way out, and good riddance. Cilnt represents the future, Mitt and the gang had their chance and blew it big time. Lets try some people who actually believe in smaller government, not just different big government than liberal dems.

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Posted by Northwestern Localist on August 9, 2010 at 12:24 PM

i have seen the future of american politics--and he looks like . . . wayne newton???

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Posted by Mario Delgado on August 9, 2010 at 3:38 PM

Mario, is that what you base your vote on?

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Posted by Douglas on August 9, 2010 at 4:57 PM

Who else read the headline as "Meet Kiddie Diddler"?

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Posted by mat catastrophe on August 9, 2010 at 9:23 PM

I like the fact that Jack is bringing awareness to endorsed Liberty Candidates here in Charleston. So, I guess we can now expect him to do an article on Keith Blandford, a Liberty Candidate that's running for congressional seat 1. Imagine that happening.

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Posted by kdawg on August 14, 2010 at 11:49 AM

I'm in the bag for Gov. Gary Johnson, chairman of the OUR America Initiative. Check him out.

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Posted by Divinryan on August 17, 2010 at 4:31 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/us/17kil…

surprised there's no memoriam for another of the avenger's heroes?

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Posted by Mario Delgado on August 19, 2010 at 7:04 PM

Seems to me that true conservatism has been dead for well over 2 decades.It is hard to tell nowadays who is the liberal(snake)in wolf's clothing and who is the muslim in a Perry Ellis suit.The GOP has truly lacked a leader in their party for a while and it certainly scares the shit outta me to think that Sarah Palin is the best that they can possibly produce;she has the brain cells comparable to a palmetto bug in my opinion.Ron Paul is the best they have to offer and he certainly has his faults.I think this nation better bend over and kiss our asses goodbye with the likes of Osama and Pelosi running with the ball.Soon enough The U.S. will be just another third world nation full of mongrels and immigrants....

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Posted by Motoman on August 22, 2010 at 9:59 AM
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