John Hawkins submitted last week that Ron Paul (whom I am not supporting) is "the least conservative member of Congress running for President." Hmm ... I'd have to look into that. Maybe a little side-by-side of Paul with Hawkins' buddy Duncan Hunter. Oh, and don't bother following Hawkins' link. There's NO information there about either candidate's voting record. For good measure, I'll put Fred Thompson's voting stats up as well. After all, he's the one I currently support. Stats are from ontheissues.org, a really good site for issue-by-issue voting record research. Let's just see who's who here.

Issue#1: Abortion

Paul: Of 14 votes/positions, 10 Conservative - 71%
Hunter: Of 14 votes/positions, 12 Conservative - 85%
Thompson: Of 3 votes/positions, 3 Conservative - 100%

Issue #2: Budget & Economy

Paul: Of 3 votes/positions, 2 Conservative - 66%
Hunter: Of 1 vote/position, 1 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 3 votes, positions, 3 Conservative - 100%

Issue #3: Civil Rights

Paul: Of 7, 4 Conservative - 57%
Hunter: Of 7, 5 Conservative - 71%
Thompson: Of 9, 7 Conservative - 77%

Issue #4: Corporations

Paul: Of 2, 0 Conservative - 0%
Hunter: Of 1, 0 Conservative - 0%
Thompson: Of 0, 0 - 0%

(note: Bankruptcy votes were not clear enough to make a proper comparison, so they were omitted)

Issue #5: Crime

Paul: Of 3, 1 Conservative - 33%
Hunter: Of 6, 3 Conservative - 50%
Thompson: Of 5, 3 Conservative - 60%

Issue #6: Drugs

Paul: Of 5, 4 Conservative - 80%
Hunter: Of 3, 1 Conservative - 33%
Thompson: Of 2, 0 Conservative - 0%

Issue #7: Education

Paul: Of 8, 5 Conservative - 62%
Hunter: Of 8, 5 Conservative - 62%
Thompson: Of 8, 7 Conservative - 87%

Issue #8: Energy & Oil

Paul: Of 10, 9 Conservative - 90%
Hunter: Of 10, 7 Conservative - 70%
Thompson: Of 6, 3 Conservative - 50%

Issue #9: Environment

Paul: Of 3, 1 Conservative - 33%
Hunter: Of 4, 4 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 4, 2 Conservative - 50%

Issue #10: Families & Children

Paul: Of 2, 2 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 2, 1 Conservative - 50%
Thompson: Of 1, 1 Conservative - 100%

Issue #11: Foreign Policy

Paul: Of 9, 7 Conservative - 77%
Hunter: Of 6, 4 Conservative - 66%
Thompson: Of 7, 7 Conservative - 100%

Issue #12: Free Trade

Paul: Of 8, 8 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 8, 6 Conservative - 75%
Thompson: Of 7, 2 Conservative - 28%

Issue #13: Government Reform

Paul: Of 13, 13 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 12, 8 Conservative - 66%
Thompson: Of 7, 2 Conservative - 87%

Issue #14: Gun Control

Paul: Of 6, 3 Conservative - 50%
Hunter: Of 3, 3 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 4, 4 Conservative - 100%

Issue #15: Health Care

Paul: Of 11, 6 Conservative - 54%
Hunter: Of 11, 4 Conservative - 36%
Thompson: Of 8, 3 Conservative - 37%

Issue #16: Homeland Security

Paul: Of 17, 14 Conservative - 82%
Hunter: Of 13, 7 Conservative - 53%
Thompson: Of 9, 7 Conservative - 77%

Issue #17: Immigration

Paul: Of 6, 6 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 6, 6 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 3, 3 Conservative - 100%

Issue #18: Jobs

Paul: Of 4, 4 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 5, 4Conservative - 80%
Thompson: Of 3, 2 Conservative - 66%

Issue #19: Socialist Security

Paul: Of 3, 3 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 3, 3 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 4, 3 Conservative - 75%

Issue #20: Tax Reform

Paul: Of 14, 14 Conservative - 100%
Hunter: Of 13, 13 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 4, 3 Conservative - 75%

Issue #21: Technology

Paul: Of 4, 3 Conservative - 75%
Hunter: Of 5, 1 Conservative - 20%
Thompson: Of 2, 2 Conservative - 100%

Issue #22: War & Peace

Paul: Of 5, 0 Conservative - 0%
Hunter: Of 5, 5 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 4, 3 Conservative - 75%

Issue #23: Welfare & Poverty

Paul: Of 4, 0 Conservative - 0%
Hunter: Of 4, 4 Conservative - 100%
Thompson: Of 4, 2 Conservative - 50%

I really expected Ron Paul to perform better in that last category. I would think any scaling back of the welfare state would be a yes vote for a Libertarian like Paul, yet he voted for $70 million in grants for just that - the welfare state. He also voted no on a number of conditions that would be placed upon welfare recipients - conditions that would make it harder to be on welfare - conditions that would have amounted to a significant scaling back of the welfare state, possibly even to the point of its phasing itself out.

I also expected Hunter and Thompson to be more conservative. Not more conservative than Paul, but I noticed in general that Hunter may, in fact, have turned out to be the most conservative, even of the three. So now with that having been said (these were mere thoughts), let's tally the result:

Before doing this, let me emphasize that I consider Libertarians to be conservative - and MORE SO THAN REPUBLICANS. I don't see the political spectrum as a big square upon which you could plot points in quadrants. I see it as a simple line along which you would plot your point as in a number line. Libertarians are CLEARLY to the right of Republicans, especially if you look at things this way. Call it two-dimensional if you like, but it is correct and a whole lot more accurate than any attempt to three-dimensionalize a political position. In a nutshell, it's either conservative, or it ain't.

In deciding what to call conservative, I considered factors such as a position's constitutionality (which the Republicans ignore and the Libertarians obsess over) and its relevance with regard to said constitutionality and/or freedom (getting the government out of places it doesn't belong - like your wallet). Also, Thompson's votes, unlike Paul's and Hunter's, were made in the Senate, where there could be significant differences with regard to the actual vote. I tried to keep this in mind as well. Here we go ...

Conservative Average

Ron Paul - 66% Conservative
Duncan Hunter - 70% Conservative
Fred Thompson - 72% Conservative

This study turned my understanding of the candidates upside-down. I had previously viewed Paul as a staunch Libertarian type who could seriously out-conservative any of the major candidates - certainly Fred Thompson, a Senator. My hypothesis at the beginning was that Paul would run away with the "most conservative" label, despite his non-support of protecting Americans from terrorists, with Thompson and Hunter coming in second and third, with second place being too close to call.

Instead, I do wind up seeing Hunter as the more conservative congressman (between himself and Ron Paul, at least - kudos to Hawk for picking up on that), with Thompson actually coming in a little more conservative than Hunter. Of course, as a Thompson supporter, this is a very pleasant surprise. To this point, my support for Thompson has been largely on the grounds that he is optimistic, ELECTABLE (Hunter and Paul are not), and a supporter of one of the most important philosophies of our culture (federalism), which has been coming under attack by powerful, greedy liberals. His open support of Federalism is a strong point that no other candidate has expressed.

And now we learn just how conservative he really is.

RWR