Posted on 10/04/2007 8:43:18 AM PDT by traviskicks
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul seems to believe that both major parties are wrong on most things most of the time, most of all about fiscal prudence and foreign policy. That's why, though he has Powerball odds or worse of winning the presidency, it's refreshing and thought-provoking to have the 71-year-old surgeon in the race.
Paul, a five-term Texas congressman, ran as the Libertarian Party's candidate for president in 1988, but he's on the national stage this time because he's running as a Republican. He is passionate about his belief in small government, fidelity to the Constitution, faith in the free market and fear of foreign interventionism. He backs a return to the gold standard and the abolishment of the income tax. He is often marginalized as an extremist. But he is not an angry man, and that's part of his considerable charm.
Paul met with the Monitor's editorial board yesterday. He is charismatic in the way television doctors of the 1960s like Marcus Welby were. He seems incapable of not saying exactly what he believes, and he's the only Republican candidate to call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The diversity of opinion he brings to his party is healthy and provides anti-war Republicans with a choice.
Paul smiles often and cuts to the quick of political folly. He was, he says, in the Air Force during the Cuban missile crisis, when nuclear warheads 90 miles offshore were pointed at America. That crisis was defused with diplomacy, he said. Now, politicians are talking about going to war with Iran and "hysterical over a weapon that doesn't exist."
Paul adamantly believes that it's both arrogant and counterproductive for the world's only superpower to meddle in the affairs of other nations and engage in nation-building. It makes Americans less safe, he says, because occupying another country turns some of its most desperate and troubled residents into suicidal terrorists. It's a point that few Republican candidates are willing to make.
Paul fears the loss of freedoms at home more than he does terrorist attacks. The prescriptions he dispenses are common sense and fidelity to the Constitution. The United States began going astray about a century ago and then rapidly under President Woodrow Wilson, he said. He believes in market solutions to most problems but says he is not running to undo the welfare state. The needy will receive care, he said.
Paul can simplify problems in a way that must give his Republican rivals fits. On Iraq and the use of military force as an instrument of foreign policy he said: "We're taxed to blow up their bridges, then we're taxed to rebuild their bridges. Meanwhile, our bridges are falling down."
There is nothing to be gained by staying in Iraq, Paul said. America left Vietnam and it became a friendly trading partner. No one knows what the outcome of leaving would be, but in time, the same thing could happen in Iraq.
At times, Paul seems to be campaigning on issues history discarded a century ago. But he does so with so much wit, concern for personal freedom and an absence of malice and ego that, rather than put people off who disagree, he makes them think. That's why his candidacy contributes so much to the race.
ping, talk of banning on this thread, I thought it might excite you.. :)
“Republican Ron Paul”?????
Are there two Ron Paul’s running now?
“I think a CM editorial interview with a major Republican candidate is hardly spam”
With less than a reported polling # of 4% Paul is hardly a “major” player anywhere other than in your own mind.
Paul would still be a better Commander-in-Chief than the Democrats. I don’t agree with him on Iraq but at least he’ll seal the borders and would wage war and let our troops fight without the politically-correct BS and going to Mother UN.
At what point in your life did you completely lose your survival skills?
His “bridges” comment was witty and, alas, all too true! People should stop dissing, and start listening to, Ron Paul.
Count me as one who strongly encourages the purging of suicide-withing threads. I also strongly encourage purging Freerepublic of the last 10 remaining suicide monkeys from this forum as well.
*****The “diplomacy” was the threat of war with the US that caused the Russians to back down.
When JFK does it, it’s “diplomacy”, when Bush does it, it’s “hysteria.”*****
Actually part of the deal was that Kennedy agreed to remove some of our missiles which were very close to the Russian border. (In Turkey, I think.)
If you can’t see the evaporation of the liberty of the next generation, any response to you is pointless.
For me its not the Ron Paul supporters per se that frosts my butt as we are on the same side of the fence of certain issues. Its the RP junior operatives that pollute this website with constant posting of inane propoganda and garbage one expects from Democrats pandering to idiots.
Paul thinks we needlessly create enemies, and suffer "blowback" from interventions.
Paul did not advocate cooperating with Bin Laden, but rather killing or capturing him via letters of Marque and Reprisal.
That's absolutely insane! How could anyone support such a loon?
I love you all and love your race and your religion, too.
Yours truly,
BJ.
In other words, he advocated doing absolutely nothing, since letters of marque and reprisal are completely useless instruments that no longer have any application.
What many people fail to realize is that a strong military and the willingness to use it is also diplomacy. It is on the opposite end of the scale from negotiate/surrender.
If lack of military prowess and willingness to use it appropriately was a successful “diplomatic tool”, Switzerland, Fiji, and Iceland would have fixed all world problems decades ago.
Some also argue that President Bush is a reptilian alien, doesn't make it even remotely true.
IMHO, the 'blowback' argument from is juvenile at best as one can easily look at history and count more non-blowback incidents than blowback.
We have a $50 Million bounty on Osama's head, no takers yet.
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