Posted on 09/13/2007 9:02:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Last week the Republicans had another debate, this one on FOX News. Not much has changed in the last few months; Rudy Giuliani is still in the lead in the polls and Fred Thompson is still in second despite the fact he didn't announce his intentions to run until a few days ago. What has changed, and changed for the worse, is the surging popularity of a Texas Congressman by the name of Ron Paul. I've been running into normal, intelligent people who support Paul, and it really scares me.
The reason Paul is as popular as he is has to do largely with his sudden support from Democrats and I have to admit, when I didn't know much about him I thought he sounded like a good candidate. He wants to end the Iraq war, have tighter borders, lower taxes and decrease spending, what's not to like? The problem doesn't lie with his policies and ideas, but rather his execution of said policies. How to end the war in Iraq: immediate pullout not only from Iraq, but from the whole of the Middle East. Never mind the slaughter that will occur with our exit. Paul, by the way, denies that this will happen, as the people saying it will are the same that said it would be an easy win. It was a mistake and we never should have been there.
He has more than one unworkable policy. Who else here wants to abolish the FDA? Dr. Paul is your man. His case against the FDA is that they take taxpayer money and are supposed to regulate the food and drugs coming into the country and those produced here, but there are still cases that get by them. Obviously, he claims, we would be better off with no Federal regulation. Corporations should police themselves. Paul is a big fan of the free market and wants to see an end of just about every federal agency that does anything useful or helpful. DEA? Gone. Medicare/Medicaid? History. IRS? The government has no right to take your money.
Paul is such a fan of the free market and letting businesses do whatever they want that during a recent session of Congress he was the one dissenting vote when Congress decided to stop giving tax money to corporations profiting from the genocide in Sudan. It seems pretty cut and dry, companies are making money off of a genocide. Why would you give them money to keep doing that? Paul's answer: We shouldn't tie the hands of corporations by limiting their business dealings. That pretty much covers foreign policy for Paul.
Paul doesn't like the federal tax system and actually signed a document circulated by the National Libertarian Organization a few years ago affirming this belief. Lower taxes is one of the tried and true methods of getting people to vote for you. The problem with Paul saying he'll get lower taxes is that it's not entirely true. Yes, your income will be less taxed, but Paul wants to raise the sales tax to 23 percent at the least. Have fun being poor, because you won't be able to afford anything under Paul's administration. What would be really interesting is seeing how much price gouging we would see with no regulatory bodies, but I'd rather not think about it.
More interesting is Paul's absolute belief in the free market. He wants to see an end of public service agencies and governmental controls. Private post offices, for example, would be bought up by companies and if you're not served by the same post office as say, the people sending you bills, you might never get the bill. Or you might incur a fee when you get the bill. Imagine all roads in the country being up for sale: Paul sees a future where this has happened and thousands of toll booths are being constructed across the country.
We wouldn't have a nutcase presidential candidate without him being a racist, not these days anyways. Paul luckily fits that bill. He's made his case against the African American community known very well, starting with this comment back in 1992, "If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be." Later he would say the age to be prosecuted as an adult should be lowered to 13 because "black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." It's no wonder White Supremacist Website and forum Stormfront.org has come out in support of Paul, as has former Ku Klux Klan member and politician David Duke.
Here's a list of things Paul wants to end because they have had failures in the past, or he sees them as useless: CIA, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, FDA, IRS, Medicare, FBI, DEA, UN, NATO, NAFTA and CAFTA. That's the short list. This is my biggest problem with Ron Paul. He offers no constructive thoughts, only destructive ones. He doesn't think a single thing can be made to work if it failed even once. Bad intelligence? Cut it out completely, don't try to reform it.
Overall, Paul has no workable ideas. He wants to return to a gold standard, which would destroy the US economy. He wants to cut nearly every government department and build a giant wall (not a fence) on our border with Mexico. I honestly don't understand how people can think he would make a good president.
That’s nice. You have claimed that the Constitution controls certain aspects of our education system but haven’t backed up your claims. Are you going to retract them and admit that our federal control of the education system is unconstitutional or are you going to continue to waffle around and insult people? I’m guessing the later because I doubt you can swallow your pride.
Neither is the Center for Disease control.
How’s the small pox outbreak in your area?
How about the NTSB?
FAA?
Hell let’s just trash the whole damn Government!
If you have an issue, get your congressman, and get it up for a vote.
Oh and good luck with that.
Amazing how these people either don’t get it or are blinded to the fact that our Government, by the Constitution, has the duty to govern, through legislation, issues that arise, and that this has been going on for well over 200 years now. The Framers of the Constitution were so far ahead of their time, and these people are mental midgets by comparison.
Yet you make an argument in favor of the Federal government doing something it clearly is not authorized to do by the Constitution. Interesting conception of 'conservative' you're walking around with there.
Neither is the Center for Disease control.
Good. Get rid of it.
How’s the small pox outbreak in your area?
Non-existent,thanks.
How about the NTSB?
One can make a marginal argument for the Constitutionality of the NTSB and the FAA, although I'd privatize the FAA in a heartbeat.
Hell let’s just trash the whole damn Government!
Just about 2/3 would be right if you ask me.
Anything else?
L
Hell I want a smaller government as much as anyone. But I don’t want to be figuring out what to do with a bunch of Mississippi dumb asses in 20 years who can’t get into college. Trust me the Mississippi Department of Ed can't even follow existing guidelines. Damn if they are left to their own devices...
You know what the ironic piece is. When you look at the arguments, it boils down to their idea that once things are left to their own devices everyone will do the right thing. If that were true, we would not have what we have now anyways. But beyond that, there is one other system that relied heavy on everyone pulling together and doing the right thing for it's success. Communism.
Both sets of ideas require Utopia to function.
My own education was in public school, and I think it was OK, though moonbat education policies were becoming very evident in the late '60s. Scratching English literature for Communications/Media, indeed.
Not everyone can home educate or put their kids in private school, and I appreciate that, ergo my concern. Do you really think the individual states are that backward?
We benefit from a mixed bag of policies. The best rises to the top, to be imitated at will.
Mississippi will have a lot more money for bailing out their own school districts, if we make state government primary.
But anyways, that lack of Disease...
Thank the CDC right before you chunk it...
Make sure you stay off any federal highways on your way over there, you are not carrying the mail...
What's really amazing is the fact that people on a Conservative website dedicated to rolling back the Federal government have never actually read Article 3, Section 8 of the US Constitution, let alone the entire document.
The 'mental midgets' around here are the ones yammering for Mama Fed to do things she's got no business doing.
So for the mental midgets I'll restate it once again using small words that even a soldiers dad can understand.
The Federal Government has no power beyond what it was given in Article 3, Section 8 of the US Constitution.
There it is in one sentence and only one word is longer than three syllables.
I disagree with RP about the war, but that's about the only thing I disagree with him on.
L
Education is much more complex that it was even 50 years ago.
Over half of the careers that employ people today were created since 1960.
No pulling together required. We can vote with our voices, our feet, and our wallets. Works for most aspects of life.
You are calling the free market communism. Interesting. I guess you don't believe in Adam Smith's Invisible Hand do you? Why should we have a free market anyways when it requires everyone to pull together and do the right thing for it to succeed. That must be communism.
There are dozens of functions the Fed has now that are not specified in the Constitution. Many are not needed, but many are. It is not 1789...
If you guys want to chuck them all, go for it, hell I’ll stand out of they way. But beware the back lash and long term costs. You may be gravely disappointed.
The real world can be a harsh mistress...
Ignorance is obviously bliss with this people. Oh, and Mississippi is not the only state with systemic educational problems. California has huge problems which they are trying to fix by creating even larger problems by expecting, no, demanding even more from children who are inadequately prepared to even enter school at age 5 or 6. And wanting to completely do away with public education (a seemingly big halmark of the Ru Paulians) means what exactly? That these children will have to just meander their way through life the best they can? So, we’ll have multiple generations of children with zero skills and no way to earn a living for themselves. What do these people think these future generations are going to do? Sit idly on the sidelines and watch those of us who are earning a living and able to buy things? They won’t try and take what they need/want/desire from those of us who have earned them? Yeah, sure. Let’s dismantle the whole of the government because the Constitution does not expressily provide for those agencies. Never mind that the Constitution does provide for legislation that allows the creation of these agencies. These people are not living in reality. My first sentence of this post explains it all.
Whoops, there's that "things are different now" argument again. Really, what do we need to teach them aside from the 3Rs, geography, some science, and history? What's so new about those subjects?
Don't forget you're talking to one who knows how to do it and, frankly, I think a public school could do way better than me if they weren't bogged down in failed policies.
What are their choices?
You see I face this now. In Mississippi you really don't want to put your kids in public schools So private is the way we go at 8-10K a year. And we still pay school taxes. It is not an issue unknown to me.
I want the DOE fixed or replaced so that Public schools, the ones we pay for, are worth using. I also want to know that my son can get to MIT without the fact the he went to Mississippi with different standard holding him back. The SAT and ACT help, but even after that schools still look at records.
A national standard with a minimum bureaucracy can do it. It would not be a bad thing. What we have now does not work, but it does not mean it is invalid as a concept.
Backlash is a very legitimate concern and, believe me, I'm not one for setting our country on its ear overnight. We're talking concepts at this point, a direction.
At least not for those of us who deal with it.
It was stated earlier that the Drug companies in a free market would do the right thing. It is a free market and they haven’t.
So while you misread and misstate what I said (big shock) there is a hint of truth. You depend on the Drug companies to do the right thing to chunk the regulating body.
That is a pipe dream (another big shock)
There are dozens of functions the Fed has now that are not specified in the Constitution. Many are not needed, but many are. It is not 1789...
Then the Constitution needs to be amended. This isn't rocket science! I'd be curious how you would word the amendment that specifically gives over States rights to the federal government and allows the federal government to put its nose wherever it pleases. It probably wouldn't be pretty.
A national standard with a minimum bureaucracy can do it. It would not be a bad thing. What we have now does not work, but it does not mean it is invalid as a concept.
You are arguing socialism over the free market and then saying "really it can work!" Where have I heard that before? Since you are on a conservative forum you might ask yourself why conservatives think that socialism is an inferior system.
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the uneven division of blessings, while the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal division of misery."- Sir Winston Churchill
Don't read much, do you...
From Article 3, Section 8:
To establish post offices and post roads;
You might actually try reading the Constitution before you attempt to discuss it. It might help prevent you from looking like a fool. Of course nothing could prevent that entirely, but I do believe it would help.
L
I agree with you on failed policies, as I have stated time and time again. But that does not mean that we just dismiss everything out of hand...
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