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I agree that Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum have sympathies with the homeschooling movement, which is why I’m surprised that they have not been more outspoken. I have long voted for those who say they support school vouchers, but Ron Paul seems to actually mean it, since he endorses it on his website. Perhaps that’s why he’s so popular with homeschoolers. His ad about politicians who bark like big dogs and then act like little timid dogs later struck a chord. Here in Virginia, we had McDonnell fawn all over private schoolers, but so far, nothing. Now that he has a Republican Senate, I’ll be interested if he pursues a little more on the voucher front.

Not that I’m looking for government handouts, but we do pay our school taxes and yet are unable to attend local schools because they are so bad.

Jefferson’s Declaration is based on the philosophy of Locke, and I don’t find it to be Biblical. He designed UVA to center around a library (human reason) and not around a chapel. He predicted young men would all be Unitarians before he died, and he didn’t count on the second Great Awakening. But absolutely - the moral code we follow is based on the Bible. Jefferson attended church in the Capitol. I think Ron Paul’s emphasis on simple liberty appeals to many, many Evangelicals. He also says that in war, he follows the creed of Augustine.

In terms of the Founders, wouldn’t Patrick Henry’s anti-federalist stance be more in line with Ron Paul? I would think so. On abortion, he has voted for pro-life laws while in Congress. He seems to think it’s a states-rights issue. I do disagree. I do also think that slavery was not a states-rights issue, but he thinks it was. I am very much a Lincoln Republican in many regards, but as Walter Russell Mead pointed out in an excellent article two days ago, we are long overdue for a Jeffersonian correction.

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2011/12/06/the-age-of-hamilton/

A few things that I find a little baffling:

(1) When a granny gets strip-searched by the TSA, the freepers are all over it. Ron Paul is just about the only Republican complaining.

(2) When the Federal Reserve debases our currency, the freepers are all over it. Ron Paul seems to be the only one talking about this.

But maybe I haven’t been paying close attention. I just find our current Republican crop a little baffling. Rick Santorum was on the Senate Banking Committee, and did absolutely nothing about the growing housing bubble. Newt said he didn’t see it coming, and got millions from Fannie and Freddie. Ron Paul was the only one warning against these bubbles - this distortion brought us Barack Obama and killed the Republican party for a time. And now we want to raise up the people who were blindsided? Seems odd.

Also, when I talk about young people and problems with the Republican Party, I’m talking about people under 60. I’m 40, and I’ve been treated with icy coldness when I mention conservatism around Republicans here in Virginia. I’m also called young by the Tea Party. The young people who support Ron Paul that I know were homeschoolers, so I assume they are heavily influenced by their parents.