US elections 2008: A visit to a legalised brothel in Nevada underlines how the Republican coalition is unravelling
"I like what Ron Paul says about healthcare, breaking it up so it's affordable for everyone. Now I'm an independent contractor, it can be quite expensive to find good health insurance," Brooke Taylor explains, as she waits in her workplace lounge a few miles east of the Nevada state capital of Carson City for a new client to arrive. "He's for bringing the troops home. Those are my peers. I want them home. These men and women are experiencing things nobody should have to. I like what he has to say about education."
Brooke - along with the owner of the company she works for and several of her colleagues - has begun campaigning for Texas congressman Ron Paul, the maverick libertarian Republican presidential candidate. They have even been offering two-for-one specials to clients who go onto their computer, access Paul's website and donate money.
And if Paul wasn't running? Well, then Taylor, who has a degree in music therapy and whose best friend is a political science graduate, would revert to her usual pattern - voting Democrat, hopefully, she says, for Obama.
Brooke's colleague, Max, disagrees. She's a Hillary Clinton supporter, hoping that if she made it to the White House the Bill Clinton magic would return. Why doesn't she like Bush? I ask, on a day the stock market has fallen by 300 points. "The economy. My income was drastically different seven or eight years ago. People are much more aware of what they're spending, and what they not going to spend now."
Just your everyday political discussion in the run-up to the Nevada caucus this Saturday. Except for the fact that Brooke, Max, and the dozens of other young women milling around the Moonlite Bunny Ranch, at the end of a road with a historical marker for the old Pony Express and a ramshackle car repair shop, in various degrees of lingerie are prostitutes. They are working in an upscale brothel in the only state in the union with legalized prostitution.
The Bunny Ranch's owner, Dennis Hof, has - to the embarrassment of Ron Paul - been touting his support for the congressman for a few months now. Above the lounge fireplace is a sign (photographed above): "We pound for Paul". Just inside the entrance is another pithy banner: "Pimpin' for Paul".
For decades, the Republicans have cobbled together a somewhat improbable national electoral majority, based in large part on a marriage of convenience between libertarian-minded, live-and-let-live westerners in states like Nevada, and Southern fundamentalists. Reagan worked the coalition to perfection; Bush used it to eke out two narrow election victories. In the current election cycle, however, with growing national unhappiness over Bush's tenure, that coalition seems to be breaking down.
While Ron Paul isn't going to go anywhere, even in a quirky state like Nevada, for a Republican candidate to take the White House in November they are going to have to be able to woo voters in Nevada - who support legalized prostitution, forty-plus percent of whom voted to legalize marijuana in 2006, high numbers of whom identify themselves not as Republicans but as libertarians, and many of whom rely on the gambling industry for their livelihoods - as well as deeply conservative evangelical voters in states like South Carolina.
With the stock market tanking, the housing market at a standstill - one in 60 home in Nevada is under foreclosure - inflation clawing away at Americans' real income, tens of millions lacking health insurance and too many not being able to feed their families without the aid of food banks and churches, fewer voters are willing to give the fundamentalist-libertarian coalition the benefit of the doubt.
From conservatives there's anger because all the scapegoating, all the deflected rage, hasn't actually worked. We've gotten tough on addicts and terrorists and welfare cheats, we're getting tough on illegals, and yet we're still in a mess. The answers Kansans looked for, as written about in by Thomas Frank, in What's the Matter With Kansas? haven't panned out. A GOP administration that promised endless tax cuts and funded wars and pork barrel spending and kick-backs to favored companies based on the notion America could endlessly borrow and run trade deficits like no other country with no negative consequences, has run aground against basic economic realities.
From progressives, there's some hope amid the rising gloom because, like in 1932, the economic hurt, the bursting of bubbles, is opening up room for new liberal voices to emerge; there's room for a radical reinvention of the social contract, the creation of a better, fairer system. Until recently, I feared the GOP just might be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat and eke out a presidential victory in November. With the current economic data, I'm betting that's not going to happen. Like in 1992, "it's the economy stupid." Except the economic legacy of this Bush is worse than that of his father.
That new social compact will ultimately be a creature of the American West - not of Dennis Hof's weird vision, but of a West that has a live-and-let-live attitude on social issues combined with a progressive approach to the environment, to healthcare, to the minimum wage and other big-picture economic issues. It will give much power to the states and cities to create experimental policies around expanded health care, environmental clean-up, anti-global warming strategies, and ways of integrating millions of illegal immigrants into the broader society, but it will be backed up by a more regulation-minded federal system.
Even if the Republicans, however implausibly, manage to reinvent themselves as economic saviors for the downtrodden, for the millions who have lost their homes and the tens of millions who can't access medical care and rely on charities to feed their families, they still won't be able to win much of the West. The glue binding religious conservatives has lost its force - the GOP caucus-goers in Iowa who handed Huckabee his victory, the Bible-thumpers of the South who have voted Republican since the Democrats embraced civil rights back in the 1960s - to the socially libertarian but economically conservative voters who have voted Republican in states like Nevada in almost every presidential election since the Goldwater campaign in 1964 has lost its stickiness.
That's why there's no clear GOP frontrunner. The various parts of the alliance are vying for supremacy, and none of them are powerful enough to enforce allegiance from the others.
On Saturday, South Carolina and Nevada both vote. They are as culturally distinct as, say, Amsterdam and rural Poland.
Of course, Dennis Hof and his "girls" aren't representative of Nevada as a whole; but there is widespread tolerance for institutions such as Hof's, and there is widespread distaste for in-your-face morals politics of the sort that has come to define much of the Republican Party in recent years. South Carolina, by contrast, is solidly evangelical, the conservative edge of its politics laced with the legacy of segregation, the "morals" issues of abortion, pornography, gay marriage and so on always high up in voters' concerns.
Squaring this particular circle, winning Nevada as well as the South, might just prove one trick too hard for the Republican candidates to pull off.
For more blogs on the US elections, click here.
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This entry was tagged with the following keywords: 2008election unitedstates ronpaul nevada republicans libertarians prostitution
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Comment No. 1063833
January 18 19:24
USALOLOLOLOL! Hookers for Ron PAul!!!! Now i really have seen it all. (and yes, i have seen a man eat his own head.)
[edited by moderator]
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063858
January 18 19:38
USAyeah, it is possible to derive too much insight from a trip to a cathouse.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063878
January 18 19:52
USAI dont even know why Nevada votes. Las Vegas is the perfect example of converting sin into virtue, as the city has won prizes (I dont know how many times) for the most lucrative city transferred into the common good. New schools, hospitals, state infraestructure grows big in Nevada. Las Vegas Mayor and Nevada Governor have been laurated several times.
What can be best than that? Gamble, Gamble, Gamble... have fun and while you are at it, we're building new schools (with your bucks)- Forget Washington!
No wonder they like Paul! It's true (what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, including my money!!!).
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063910
January 18 20:10
GBR--"What can be best than that? Gamble, Gamble, Gamble... have fun and while you are at it, we're building new schools (with your bucks)"--
We have the same sort of idea here with the National Lottery.
Would Jesus approve?
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063921
January 18 20:17
GBR"I Think Paul is an anti-semitic, Z.O.G., NWO, piece of garbage"
Anti-semitic? That's a new one! NWO? Oh deary deary me.
You can tell the anti-democratic elites are getting worried when we have two smear attacks on Paul in two days on CiF.
Anyone who doesn't know Paul, just watch this 6min youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I73Ac1r2Ko
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063926
January 18 20:24
GBRReasons why Ron Paul needs to be smeared:
1. He would mean the end of US Empire, taking troops home from all 700+ military bases straddling strategic points of the globe.
2. He'd open relations with Cuba, Venezuela et al. (he has a business mind, not an imperial mind)
3. He would end the fiat currency monopoly of the private Federal Reserve banking cartel, which enslaves the US economy by printing money and charging interest on it.
4. He would put a stop to the spiralling $9trillion debt that is set to bankrupt America (intentionally)
5. He would roll back all the civil liberties and rights lost through "Terror legislation".
6. He would eliminate the unconstitutional income tax and make up the shortfall by cancelling much of the military budget.
7. He would end the "war on drugs" and pardon non-violent drug offenders.
8. I could go on but the readers probably get the point. He needs to be smeared, and if that doesn't work, he'd better stay away from open-topped cars.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063939
January 18 20:33
USAtruthsux
I think Paul is a little crazy. However, how can he be both anti-semitic and part of the ZOG - which as I understand it is a neo-nazis term meaning the Zionist Occupation Government (I do not believe the ZOG exists as I am not a nut, but am asking a logical question)?
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063942
January 18 20:34
USA"Randy Gray, the Midland County, Michigan coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign is also a longstanding active and vocal organizer for the Knight's Party faction of the Ku Klux Klan.
A number of people have brought this to the attention of the Paul campaign, to which they have had no response. However, quite mysteriously the list of Michigan county contacts on the official site of the Ron Paul campaign has vanished.
It's just too bad the Ron Paul thugs can't make Google's cached pages disappear, because phenry over at Daily Kos has located the missing pages."
http://www.bloggernews.net/113194
phenry's links can be found here:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/17/151257/047/916/438430
We are all anxiously awaiting your response, Strongman.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063956
January 18 20:42
GBRRon Paul is running for president and he is seventy-two years old. No-one has ever heard him say or do anything racist. He has never written anything racist.
He would pardon all non-violent drug offenders, most of which are African-Americans. He supports individual rights and does not think of people in terms of groups.
I pity those who try to smear this guy. They truly know not what they are doing. Most smearers are also big fans of warmongering imperial America/Israel, so we can tell a lot about their standards and morals off the bat.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063965
January 18 20:49
SASHA -- You are quite the elitist!!! Regular folks go to Sherri's, not the ranch. Why'd ya choose Carson City over the Sparks brothels? In any event so dish: What'd ya get? How much did ya pay?
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1063967
January 18 20:49
USAI think there is a real problem with the GOP coalition, and the best sign is Huckabee. The social conservatives have one real demand - revoke Roe vs. Wade. Now if you look at the Supreme Court only two out of the nine have been appointed by a Democrat (Bader Ginsberg and Breyer). All the rest were appointed by Republicans (we might not want to count Stevens because he was appointed by Ford), and yet they have not overturned Roe. You only need five votes, they have at least six. How many more do they need?
It would seem to me that the social conservatives have been screwed over on this issue (of which I am personally glad), and I am not sure they are going to take it anymore. I think this is the problem that Rudy faces (he is pro-choice, and if he was candidate he will not get the social conservative vote no matter who his VP is, or what he says) and also Romney (who was pro-choice, wife gave money to pro-choice group etc., and said on Meet the Press last year that he only started thinking about abortion a couple of years ago).
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064030
January 18 21:26
USAThe personnel at the Bunny Ranch are sex workers, the oldest profession, not any different then many others that provide a service for well being and feeling good. Like going shopping, to a restaurant, exercise gym, football game, or even church with the end result of having lessened the stress, relaxed and feeling good. It is best for the conservative republicans with wam bam and thank you mame attitude. Plus they get an education from some well educated ladies, who claim to have Ph.D's in whorticulture. For that matter Nevada is not much different them Washington DC, where madams run the same kind of business and they have clients that include people from all walks of life including high end State department people, military admirals, generals, senators, congressmen/ congresswomen, judges, lawyers, doctors, media celebrities, sport heroes, CIA, FBI, local police, preachers, tv evangelicals, and the like. A list that that movers and shakers in Washington would kill to keep secret. In fact it has been ordered by the court to be kept secret.
As far as John Paul, there is plenty of evidence in published from to link him directly to be a regular conservative republican with the usual racial, discrimination and segregation bend. Like all his kind, he is a conservative republican first and American second.
Yes indeed, they should all go to Nevada, get laid, spend some money to improve the economy, relieve the stress, feel good instead of the same old SOBs bad disposition, hate, fear, rotten politics , waste of taxpayers money, lying cheating and being Sunday Christian hypocrites.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064044
January 18 21:33
GBR"As far as John Paul, there is plenty of evidence in published from to link him directly to be a regular conservative republican with the usual racial, discrimination and segregation bend. Like all his kind, he is a conservative republican first and American second."
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]*
*
Yes, you know so much about him, except you can't remember his first name. Stick to what you know -- ignorance.
Comment No. 1064090
January 18 22:07
USAConservative Republican .. strongman.. In Nevada, when at the Bunny Ranch, it is John Paul. There everybody is a john.. and your conservative republican Paul, is not any different. As to his past read his own words of apology to NBC moderator, about how he accepted responsibility, when he neglected to edit the publication that he controlled and his conservative republicans like minded were churning out for people like you.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064108
January 18 22:18
USAtommydog posted
Comment No. 1063858
January 18 19:38
USA
yeah, it is possible to derive too much insight from a trip to a cathouse.
hi tommydog
I think the inaccuracy is introduced not by the venue, but sampling error caused by small sample size.
Sasha should ask his editor to fund multiple visits to the bunny ranch, or visits to a number of cathouses. Purely in the interest of research.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064120
January 18 22:28
USAroger
I dunno. we have no idea what the sample size was - could have been significant. Would that expense report make it through accounting? Maybe they'd be stumped if he said they were doing regressions and working on standard deviations.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064125
January 18 22:31
GBRLascoma#
"The personnel at the Bunny Ranch are sex workers, the oldest profession, not any different then many others that provide a service for well being and feeling good. Like going shopping, to a restaurant, exercise gym, football game, or even church with the end result of having lessened the stress, relaxed and feeling good. "
You wish, in your dreams maybe, but that is just fantasy!
In reality, sexual infidelity is one of the most destructive things known to mankind, equally today as it was when the "oldest profession"! ( Where the evidence of this comes from I dont know, but I dont see how it justifies it)
Adultery and promiscuity, irrespective of how liberal you are today, are still hated by the partner who feels used and betrayed when their partner has sex with whoever they want.
Aside from the resulting divorce, relationship breakdown, domestic violence and murder, family break up, broken hearted delinquent fatherless or motherless kids, unwanted pregnancy, STD's, abortions, cost to the health service, and rapid increase in international sex trade slavery that every law enforcement agency is trying to prevent, I still think you have a job comparing it with popping out to Tesco's or working out at the gym!
Sex is a moral issue, it destroys lives!
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Trivialising it, implying a prostitute is no different then a checkout girl at Wal-mart, and my wife (or any woman) would have no problem or objection with me spending some time with a "bunny girl" the same as if I was being served by a female waitress or working out is plain fantasy!
Comment No. 1064202
January 18 23:14
USANunovalente! Sex is a moral issue only in the hypocrite Sunday Christian, conservative republican mind in the US. The SOBs control freaks after church get drunk and fornicate like minks. That include the unsatisfied spouses that stray looking for action. The US conservative republicans have the highest divorce rate, spousal abuse, incest, spouses that stray, drunks, bankrupts, hypocrite control freaks with their family values.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064355
January 19 1:20
USARon Paul is an annoying little gnat who will be President when pigs are ice skating in Hell. But the women interviewed at the brothel are legally employed and are as entitled to campaign for their chosen candidate as any other adult in the country.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064388
January 19 1:54
USASrongman--
"6. He would eliminate the unconstitutional income tax and make up the shortfall by cancelling much of the military budget."
Exactly how is the US income tax unconstitutional? I hope you are not referring to tax protester interpretations of the ratification of sixteenth amendment. Those arguments have been held meritless by the courts hundreds of times.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1064419
January 19 2:29
USAgazpacho
Comment No. 1063910
January 18 20:10
GBR
--"What can be best than that? Gamble, Gamble, Gamble... have fun and while you are at it, we're building new schools (with your bucks)"--
We have the same sort of idea here with the National Lottery.
Would Jesus approve?
hi gazpacho
"Render unto Caesar's Palace that which is Caesar's"
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065010
January 19 13:01
USASasha: The comment, "a West that has a live-and-let-live attitude on social issues combined with a progressive approach to the environment, to healthcare, to the minimum wage and other big-picture economic issues. It will give much power to the states and cities" neatly sums up my political approach, provided it is based upon fiscal responsibility. As a resident of the Mountain West, I think you've garnered a basic understanding of a fair percentage of those who live in the region.
Scanning the above comments, it appears you visited an upscale brothel. I agree the suggestions that the sample size may be too limited. Would you mind surveying those whose political themes aren't, "Pimping for Paul", rather those who advertise their wares with, "I'll make you holla for a dolla"?
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065084
January 19 13:46
USAOh yeah, truthsux: " i owe waaay to much money to people whos names end in "berg" for it to all be a coincidence,
maybe he's onto something!??"
Thanks for giving me sufficient reason to never read any of your comments again.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065806
January 19 22:35
GBRThe Pro Israel bloggers and posters should listen to what Ron Paul is saying instead of just attacking him because he would cut your money off.
Without the handouts from the USA, the unnatural balance of forces in the Middle East would soon sort themselves out and Israel may at last find peace.
I know many people gain financially from tension in the I/P situation, but it isn't going to last forever.
Israel need to be weaned off the drip.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065809
January 19 22:41
USAAnd yet Romney won a crushing victory.
Parse that bunnykins!
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065819
January 19 22:52
GBRAmericanEngineer
That's because the FIX is in!
Ron Paul is being dissed and cut out by the MSM
This is the very reason the world is in the mess it is!
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065845
January 19 23:12
----""The economy. My income was drastically different seven or eight years ago. People are much more aware of what they're spending, and what they not going to spend now."------
Couldn't be she's getting older.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1065858
January 19 23:23
IRL"However, how can he be both anti-semitic and part of the ZOG - which as I understand it is a neo-nazis term meaning the Zionist Occupation Government (I do not believe the ZOG exists as I am not a nut, but am asking a logical question)?"
You don't understand it all, the term ZOG and the concept are legitimate (nothing to do with neo-nazism). It is simply a way of describing the US government as being controlled by the special interest zionist grouping and suggests that the support given for the movement by Washington politicians is disproportionate to what many or even the majority of ordinary Americans would wish. It exists all right (though perhaps not full-on 'occupation'), the evidence is blank check support for whatever Israel wants to do from virtually all representatives from both parties going back decades, really the only resolutions in the US senate or house that get 95%+ support are those which support zionism or Israeli activities in some way. Perhaps if politicians want to get a difficult bill passed they should add-on some goodies for Israel even if their bill is about butterfly conservation!
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1066170
January 20 3:32
THA56000xp I always appreciate your posts.
Washington has been bought out lock, stock and barrel.
American foreign policy serves the interest of the new masters of Washington.
Flag waving red state knuckle-heads who go on about supporting the troops should stop for a minute and consider who the troops are fighting for.
They should also consider the effects the war is having on the country - specifically, the soon to crash economy.
All the inflation pumped into the economy over the last 7 years was intended to KEEP THE PARTY GOING so the sheeples would not get antsy about the war.
Americans are the stupidest people and Hillary won't change a thing. Say good-bye to your standard of living and say hello to your new role as Debt Slaves to the World.
Stop working to fund the beast. Take your declining dollars and get out while you still have something. You can go back and pick up the pieces when the dust settles.
Timmmbbeeeerr!!!
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1066423
January 20 8:52
CHN"While Ron Paul isn't going to go anywhere, even in a quirky state like Nevada"
Hmm. He came in second to Romney overall in Nevada, and topped the polls in Nye County, the only candidate besides Romney to win a county.
Does that mean he is going nowhere, and if it does, what does that say about McCain, Huckabee, Thompson, and especially Giuliani?
Are they all going nowhere fast?
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1066915
January 20 13:47
GBRlascoma#
I detect that you do have a moral standard! Else why do you feel so strongly about it?
Though not when it comes to sex, well you do when it comes to Christians and sex, when it is every one else then they can do as they please without any degree of shame.
Why such hostility to one and not the other?
Or is it what you call technical hypocrisy that should be villified?
You seem to say "It is OK to have sex with whoever you want causing chaos and destruction of lives in your wake, but God help you if who say or do anything that constitutes hypocricy, that is most shamefull and should be despised."
For the hypocrisy to have credibility, what they are being hypocritical about must be of some moral issue.
Sex is a moral issue, if it is not then you have no business condemning a small sector of society because a few fail to live up to the standards they proclaim when it comes to sex.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1067586
January 20 20:02
CANI prefer the one on the right.
[Offensive? Unsuitable? Report this comment.]Comment No. 1068096
January 21 5:27
USA" A visit to a legalised brothel in Nevada underlines how the Republican coalition is unravelling"
Given that US politics is already a whorehouse I don't see any problem with this.
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