Ron Paul: The Crazy Candidate?
By admin on Nov 8, 2007 in Politics
It’s fascinating to see that days after Ron Paul’s biggest day thusfar - November the fifth, which gave his campaign an injection of $4.2 million - major bloggers, both liberals and conservatives, are going after the Congressman from Texas in an aggressive style usually reserved for one of the major (polling-wise) candidates of the opposing party.
Their major point of criticism: Ron Paul wants to go back to the gold standard. O, and he’s strange. And anti-war.
Luckily for Paul, Libertarian bloggers rushed to his defense shortly after the posts linked to above were published. John Cole basically tells Dean Barnett to shut up since his own record isn’t the brightest in the world, while Cato’s Justin Logan seems to believe that the fact that neoconservatives hate Paul is a good thing.
What’s more, Reason Magazine’s David Weigel points out that if conservatives believe that Ron Paul is crazy because of his gold-obsession, well, this means that their hero Ronald Reagan was crazy as well.
What all of this indicates is that political analysts and commentators are beginning to take Paul more seriously. They ignored him for months. They made fun of him for months.
They thought that whatever he would do, getting a lot of people to support him wasn’t one of them… But they now realize they were wrong; at least fundraising wise.
Is Paul scaring the crap out of the establishment?
If so, that’s only a good thing I’d say. Analysts, politicians and commentators often think that they know exactly what it is voters want. Something like this reminds them that they too can fail and that their opinions aren’t automatically the opinions of the majority of voters.
What’s more, if Paul’s campaign gains momentum - and I’ve got to admit that, although I would never vote for him because I’m a conservative not a libertarian and I, therefore, disagree quite strongly with him on some issues, I’ve got a lot of respect for his views and for the movement he has built - it may force Republican leaders to look at their own records and to, once again, walk the small government walk, instead of merely talking the small government talk.
This will, of course, be a development most American conservatives will welcome.
As for the description of Paul as a “kook.” That’s ridiculous. He’s no kook. He’s simply a libertarian. I think that his views aren’t crazier than those of neoconservatives or socialists. I disagree with both - although I obviously agree more with libertarians than with socialists - but neither are ‘crazy’ albeit a bit extreme.
More opinions at Memeorandum.
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4 Comment(s)
By Allen on Nov 8, 2007 | Reply
In what way is Ron Paul not a conservative? I only recently found out about him and his voting record and his positions on almost every issue are what I thought I was as a conservative:
#1 “Taxpayers best friend”
#1 Strongest position against Roe v Wade
#1 Cut spending advocate in congress
#1 Free trade proponent
#1 Fiscal awareness
The only issue I “had” against his was the war, but I truly believe Michael Scheuer (Former CIA head of Bin Laden investigation) He says that Ron Paul has the ONLY solution to the war on terror. We must elect this man, please look deeper than the commentators before forming an opinion.
Thank you!
By Brad on Nov 8, 2007 | Reply
The Thing That Most Detractors Are Missing Is That He Is Not About Waving The Magic Wand And Making It All Go Away. He Is About TRANSITION To A Position Closer Resembling What The Constitution Intended.
You may believe his ultimate goals may be Extreme, since most do not understand the Logic and Reason of the Broader Scope Of Things, But moving in the Direction He Specifies Would Not Be A Bad Thing For A Change.
Please Educate Yourselves On The Message Of Ron Paul. The Message IS More Important The The Man !!!
By CV on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
Please educate yourself about the unintended (or maybe intentional) effects of RP’s program: Eliminating taxes and regulation on corporations, turning them loose to pillage the American people and the World, Eliminating the IRS, replacing progressive Income tax, Capital Gains, Inheritance and Corporate taxes with regressive Sales and Use taxes that fall disproportionately on the poor and working classes. Elimination of Property taxes, that would wipe out public education and severely damage Town Governments and the services they provide (like keeping the road to your house paved and plowed and paying the Cops and Firemen).
While I agree that we should pull back militarily from our current occupation of 700 bases around the world, we can not afford to disengage from them diplomaticaly or commercially.
Look very closely at this guy before you pledge your allegiance, He’s way to the Right of the pro-corporate thugs we have now.
By regroce on Jan 21, 2008 | Reply
while we can all agree with Paul’s decision to pull out troops, please now that we’ll need them stateside shortly after his presidency were to begin - to handle the civil war we’d have thanks to Confederate Paul.
Everything you can say with positivity about the man, know that he only came out with most of such views when his campaign studies found that younger, first-time taxpayers wanted a candidate that would support their dissatisfaction with their new taxpayer status. Everything else on the concept of freedom, education, health, budget, development of our nation - he could care less.
Grandpa is trying to make new young friends, because he knows he’ll be too old to ever run again.