Er, no. I didn’t write that. My change in world-view was a process, not an event, and it took years. I was a conservative well before 2004, and only began expressing my views once they had solidified. Constant attempts to frame me as a troll intent upon undermining your most righteous cause, whatever that cause might be, are laughable.
You also wrote, “Take your leftist tripe back to DU and post all day long about how Huckabee, Tancredo and Paul are on the extreme.”
Huckabee and Tancredo are mainstream, although Tancredo’s emphasis on a single-issue campaign hurts him, I think. But Paul? Ron Paul is a nutcase, a crank, a kook. You can’t stick him in the same group as Huckabee and Tancredo in hopes of hiding the man’s tinfoil hat fringe bona fides. Your stalwart defense of Paul, a 9-11 Truther who claims to be working closely with Dennis Kucinich(!), merely reinforces my initial impression.
And no, there’ll be no apologies forthcoming from me. I’m quick to apologize when I’m wrong, but I’m not wrong about you. And if it comes down to it, I’m not the one spewing invective left and right.
Ron Paul:
We must stop special interests from violating property rights and literally driving families from their homes, farms and ranches.
Our country’s founders would roll over in their graves if they saw the takings clause in the Fifth Amendment used to justify booting people out of their homes for the profit of private developers and tax-hungry local governments. The Supreme Court’s Kelo decision said government power could be used to condemn private homes and churches to benefit a huge pharmaceutical corporation and a large property developer.
Today, we face a new threat of widespread eminent domain actions as a result of powerful interests who want to build a NAFTA superhighway through the United States from Mexico to Canada.
We also face another danger in regulatory takings: Through excess regulation, governments deprive property owners of significant value and use of their properties – all without paying “just compensation.”
Property rights are the foundation of all rights in a free society. Without the right to own a printing press, for example, freedom of the press becomes meaningless. The next president must get federal agencies out of these schemes to deny property owners their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property.
Ron Paul:
Working Americans like lower taxes. So do I. Lower taxes benefit all of us, creating jobs and allowing us to make more decisions for ourselves about our lives.
Whether a tax cut reduces a single mother’s payroll taxes by $40 a month or allows a business owner to save thousands in capital gains taxes and hire more employees, that tax cut is a good thing. Lower taxes allow more spending, saving, and investing which helps the economy – that means all of us.
Real conservatives have always supported low taxes and low spending.
But today, too many politicians and lobbyists are spending America into ruin. We are nine trillion dollars in debt as a nation. Our mounting government debt endangers the financial future of our children and grandchildren. If we don’t cut spending now, higher taxes and economic disaster will be in their future – and yours.
In addition, the Federal Reserve, our central bank, fosters runaway debt by increasing the money supply – making each dollar in your pocket worth less. The Fed is a private bank run by unelected officials who are not required to be open or accountable to “we the people.”
Worse, our economy and our very independence as a nation is increasingly in the hands of foreign governments such as China and Saudi Arabia, because their central banks also finance our runaway spending.
We cannot continue to allow private banks, wasteful agencies, lobbyists, corporations on welfare, and governments collecting foreign aid to dictate the size of our ballooning budget. We need a new method to prioritize our spending. It’s called the Constitution of the United States.
Ron Paul:
The biggest threat to your privacy is the government. We must drastically limit the ability of government to collect and store data regarding citizens’ personal matters.
We must stop the move toward a national ID card system. All states are preparing to issue new driver’s licenses embedded with “standard identifier” data – a national ID. A national ID with new tracking technologies means we’re heading into an Orwellian world of no privacy. I voted against the Real ID Act in March of 2005.
To date, the privacy focus has been on identity theft. It was Congress
that created this danger by mandating use of the standard identifier (currently your SSN) in the private sector. For example, banks use SSNs as customer account identifiers because the government requires it.
We must also protect medical privacy. Right now, you’re vulnerable. Under so-called “medical privacy protection” rules, insurance companies and other entities have access to your personal medical information.
Financial privacy? Right now depositing $10,000 in your local bank will generate a “suspicious activity report” to the federal government.
And then there’s the so-called Patriot Act. As originally proposed,
Expanded the federal government’s ability to use wiretaps without judicial oversight;
Allowed nationwide search warrants non-specific to any given location, nor subject to any local judicial oversight;
Made it far easier for the government to monitor private internet usage;
Authorized “sneak and peek” warrants enabling federal authorities to search a person’s home, office, or personal property without that person’s knowledge; and
Required libraries and bookstores to turn over records of books read by their patrons.
I have fought this fight for many years. I sponsored a bill to overturn the Patriot Act and have won some victories, but today the threat to your liberty and privacy is very real. We need leadership at the top that will prevent Washington from centralizing power and private data about our lives.
Loathsome and despicable, all of you, like bugs squirming under a rock. I simply can’t properly convey the contempt I feel for your kind. Fortunately, those sharing your views constitute the barking mad, lunatic fringe, not the mainstream of the Republican Party. So by all means, form your own party, since those who share your views are such an embarrassment to mine. And take Ron Paul with you
That was after you called me an anti-semite. And you now accuse me of being the one hurling invective. You are completely out of touch with reality. You make accusation after accusation with nothing to support it.
I've made my position on Paul and his beliefs about the WOT clear ... I do not support him. Yet you continue to say that I do. You can't support a thing you've said to me, but you keep repeating it as if it will magically become true.
I posted to you three examples of where Ron Paul stands on the issues. Those are conservative positions, though I realize there are some conservatives who support the Patriot Act. Saying that Paul is on the fringe or a kook demonstrates your leftist leanings.
Apologize!
You've made unfounded, nasty accusations against me without any ability to support them other than I didn't put "Barf Alert" in the headline of the article. You claim to be able to admit when you're wrong, then do it. Or find something in my posting history to support your ludicrous accusations.