Mickey Kaus: America Can Have Its Own UKIP

Columnist Mickey Kaus argued Monday that the United States of America can have its own populist right organization like the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) that has swept politics across the pond in London.

Kaus, whose Kausfiles blog is featured on The Daily Caller, wrote that “yes,” there can be an “American UKIP”:

There’s a big opening for a U.S. party or faction that promises to raise living standards at the bottom and in the middle by encouraging growth (pruning regulations, approving Keystone, etc.) plus pushing against elite business-backed policies (wage-undermining immigration increases, corporatist deck-stacking, including Wall Street protection and various other forms of crony capitalism) while preserving the structures of Medicare and Social Security, which for many people provide the only framework of stability they have in a disorienting, degraded economy.

Kaus added to his post, though, to note that for such an “American UKIP” to emerge, there needs to be the “emergence of a U.S. version of Nigel Farage, the articulate British UKIP leader.” He stated that nobody currently at the national level fits the bill–that not even Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) would cut it.

“The Republicans could tap their UKIP potential if someone could wrest control of the party from the Karl Roves and Haley Barbours,” Kaus wrote. “More likely, a Perot-type candidate might eventually run as a third force. Remember, Perot got almost 20% of the vote and he’s no Farage.”