"He might make a dandy new leader for the Branch Davidians."
Vi, I think you are a piece of $%^ with absolutely no intellectual integrity after posting this, and that you have a staked interest in watching this country plummet as fast as possible into hell. The previous posters who called you out were absolutely correct: this was pure bullshit. No one thought that was some innocent post, and you should expect the wrath of people who care...
Point by point, you know, just a conversation starter...
1. Ron Paul is Inconsistent:
If this were true, Ron Paul would change his positions often, as he has no intellectual integrity or principles whatsoever. Compare this to reality:
Ron Paul is the only Republican I know of who voted against the Iraq War when it was most popular because it was
unconstitutional, a guiding principle of his which has garnered him the label of either "flake" (Soledad O'Brien on CNN), "Dr. No" for his [note: constant] opposition to bills that ignore the Constitution and increase the size, expense and role of government to the detriment of society, or, his self-proclaimed title (and who would honestly contest this???) of "Champion of the Constitution." [This is beside the point, but I do consider this last one my personal favorite
] I know of one position that he has openly admitted changing: he now opposes the federal death penalty.
2. Point two doesn't lend itself to a simple summarization of it's main thesis as it contains mostly ignorant accusations backed up by no facts.
Definition of Isolationism: "A national policy of abstaining from political or economic relations with other countries." (American Heritage Dictionary)
Definition of Non-interventionism: "Abstention by a nation from interference in the affairs of other nations or in those of its own political subdivisions."
As you can see, Isolationism requires economic isolation from other nations, and avoids even political contact. Paul's commitment to
real free trade and diplomacy with all nations with which we are not at war stands in direct opposite of her thorough and delicate research that failed to define, or even search for, the definition of a word she does clearly not understand.
Where she takes this, however, is perhaps her stupidest critique overall: Ron Paul, the libertarian, who presumably values liberty above all, is willing to deprive someone else of his because of a policy disagreement?
The crime is the most obvious element in this case, which carries a penalty of incarceration. I know that peace-loving Americans were co-conspirators in the Nazi march to war via McCain, but this is new territory for Paul attacks: Scooter Libby would be denied his just and honestly deserved freedom by the moral Gumby Ron Paul!?! Paul answered the question perfectly: would he pardon Libby? No. And why not? Because he has no sympathy for a man that committed a crime and whose character lent itself to the biggest (non-official) crime of this new century: the Iraq War and the propaganda surrounding it.
And in a similar vein of statements that contain no logical glue whatsoever, Ron Paul becomes incapable of analyzing history because he constructs a tradition in which he is very much Republican: he claims to be a representative of the traditional conservative foreign policy of non-interventionism (which he actually talks about stretching back to the Founding Fathers, repeatedly quoting their advice to avoid entangling alliances; he also mentions Robert Taft quite often)
Paul's arguments surrounding Eisenhower and Nixon have been (although I personally believe he misspoke at the debate as he is quoted there) made to make the point that even in somewhat recent times this policy has been supported by Americans. Eisenhower was elected to end Truman's war in Korea as Nixon was elected to end Vietnam; these actions would have reflected the non-interventionist policy that Paul puts forward. This doesn't mean that either of these two men was an isolationist or a non-interventionist. Indeed, Nixon seemed right at home with not ending the Vietnam War. But Ron Paul has never made such a claim about them. This claim has been added to a false description of Paul's views to make for an especially pitiful attempt at honest critique.
Next, Ron Paul is absolutely serious about abolishing the IRS. It is (though this is completely out of touch with his principles, and is his weak spot
) an unconstitutional program that he would eliminate as soon as possible. He would also like to get rid of the
apparently very independent CIA and conduct intelligence operations though the DOD, which he would keep. It is simply a secret organization with carte blanche to create problems that an interventionist army can solve later with no accountability to anyone and a huge budget. It's current status is simply unacceptable, and they didn't stop 9/11 anyway. It also goes without saying that this woman has no evidence or arguments for his proposals being "unserious" but her own head; this has been demonstrated to be so far up her ass that anything that she considers speculation (as in she didn't even bother to forge an argument) should be immediately discounted.
Guilt by association with fringe elements is also irreverent and disturbing. He was on a radio show with someone who happens to care very much about his country, even if what he believes isn't true. She wouldn't know anything about the substance of his work, because that's not part of her research. FOX News' website had only bad things to say about him, I suppose. That or Ann Coulter got drunk with her to help her write the hit piece.
But really: If I had good arguments for saying 9/11 was an inside job designed to give instant trust and leeway to Bush in all matters foreign and domestic, Iraq was about robbing the treasury and causing thereby an economic crisis that would help spawn a North American Union and stealing Iraq's national resources to ensure the fuel supply of this new union and it's largest oil companies, I'm not crazy. I may be wrong, but I'm not crazy. Paul's association, therefore, with "thought criminals," (thought criminals whose works she has never seen or heard), is too much for her. They have different ideas. Crazy! Blasphemous!!! Ickky! He should lead a cult he's so crazy...
Talking about non-violent, non-racist thought crime in the US is unamerican, period. Posting this without commentary just as a way to get to us (the obviously majority in this forum so far) excited was an act of intellectual cowardice. This was a horrible article, Vi.
But I should end this by saying something positive about Ron Paul, and why you, Vi, miserable wretch that you are after all of the things you have spewed time and again, should vote for him:
He is a true conservative that will respect individual rights and believes the role of government is to protect individual liberties. This would involve repealing the Patriot Act, Military Commissions Act, Income Tax and ending the War on Drugs.
He is a true conservative that believes high taxation and a regulated free-market fascism is intolerable. He would seriously put thousands of dollars back in your pocket every year. You could buy pounds of pot, or setup a new grow, or buy a library and read for the rest of eternity. You could do whatever you wanted to do. You could even send the money to foreign aid organizations without supporting the corrupt practices of Washington politicians! Imagine the freedom you would have!
He would repeal the right of a secret law-enforcement official to lurk around the corner and wait for me to leave my house so he could write his own warrant to raid my wife's underwear drawer, as 73% of these cases were for non-terrorism related incidents. Your house is your castle.
He would take serious action to limit illegal immigration and stop the NAFTA superhighway from ever being built without debate.
He would never, as was done in New Orleans after the hurricane, take away your right to bear arms or hire a private mercenary company to patrol the streets with machine guns.
He would restore the Republic. If it has become crazy to utter those sentences, this country is no longer a constitutional democracy. It is a democratic dictatorship, a two-party one-party State that is destroying itself. If you can't connect to your roots anymore, you have no right to ever toot that horn again. You can celebrate the post-9/11 America of 1930's Germany. Or you can join the Revolution.