However, on a couple of issues, his views lean closer to those of liberals. He opposes the nation's entry into war without Congressional authorization. Moore is a graduate of West Point, who became an MP company commander at the end of the Vietnam War, and then graduated from the University of Alabama law school. He opposes the U.S. intrusion into Libya on both military and legal grounds. "It's very easy for a president to be sucked into global wars," he says, "but it's not our goal to go over there [Libya] and take out a leader just because we don't like him." Unlike many Republicans, he acknowledges that the Libyan attack, like the U.S. invasion of Iraq under the Bush--Cheney Administration, should have had Congressional approval under the War Powers Act of 1973.
Moore, who owns horses--he once spent a year as a cowboy in Australia working for a fundamentalist Christian--believes that the dwindling population of wild horses and burros in the Southwest, and all wild animals, should be protected. Both the Bush--Cheney and Obama administrations have failed to do so, often influenced by the cattle and meat industry.
Moore, near the bottom of the pack in the polls, probably won't become the Republican nominee. But, unlike some conservative candidates, he doesn't parade his religious beliefs to gain votes. He lives the life of his religious convictions, and isn't afraid to make sure everyone knows what they are, especially when they provide the base for his political and judicial views.
[Brasch is an award-winning social issues columnist. His current book is Before the First Snow, a look at the nation's counterculture and social problems, as seen through the eyes of a "flower child" and the reporter who covered her story for more than three decades.]
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