You aren't coming across as snarky. :) I imagine we agree on a lot of things, but there are too many issues where Paul is vastly divergent from what most conservatives stand for.
I definitely want much smaller government, would love to see a rollback of the excessive laws, regulations and ridiculous taxes that have been imposed on just about everything and I have always supported a balanced budget requirement with line item veto capabilities.
I actually applauded Ron Paul's speech he gave during the debate that preceded the October '08 bailout vote. He's made a lot of sense on economic issues, but then he just goes way out into space on so many other things. I don't like his foreign policy platform at all and I don't believe his utopian ideas of isolationism are viable in today's world. I don't support this globalism garbage, but Ron Paul veers too far the other way in his stance.
I also find a lot of what he says just far too wacko. He regularly appears on Alex Jones, his supporters align themselves with Code Pink and ANSWER and Paul often says one thing but does another. For example, he was incensed that people were running against him in his district's Republican primary last week. Paul is quick to criticize Republicans but you rarely, if ever, hear him utter so much as a slight against Democrats.
I also do not like or trust the swarming and spamming tactics of his followers, such as showing up to conservative events en masse and pretty much hijacking them. I believe that these people (led by Ron Paul) are not working with us; they are working against us.
So, there's my take. As I said, we probably agree on most things. It's just that the ones I don't agree with Ron Paul on are very critical, IMO.
Understood. I just hope people focus on the things that they like about him. Conservative often tends to be defined as strong on defense, which he is, but in a different manner and that’s where a lot of disagreements begin. Then it spirals into “how did we get here” but you really have to go way back to Woodrow Wilson to see where the intervention stuff started. As I read history, the progressives have got us into a lot of wars because they like to centralize power in d.c. and like to be admired as saviors (sound familiar?)
From my point of view, and RP’s, we need a defense force that is capable beyond anything anywhere in the world and we should never wait till the U.N. gives us permission to act (RP made a point to say that even though he disagreed with the Iraq war he applauded GW for not begging for a consensus from the global socialists.) None of these arms limitations things that we follow and everyone else ignores.
I do think that he should be more critical of the democrats, especially prior to elections and I was pretty incensed at a lot of my Libertarian buds for acting as if Obama wasn’t the danger that he is. Too many spent so much time bashing Bush that I was starting to wonder if they’d started to lean left!
And I vehemently oppose anyone who “pushes” their way into someone’s face or group. I didn’t see CPAC as that, because it’s a largely open event. But I think I know what you mean about the aggressive tactics that some folks who call themselves libertarian use. I’ve warned some here and there not to become the thing that we’re railing against but you always have some that take any “movement” too far. It’s wrong no matter who does it.
As for Alex Jones - I’ve only ever heard him once or twice, but I think of him sort of like CoastToCoastam and Art Bell’s bunch. “Out There” as you say, but once in a while there’s something that rings true (which makes it even more scary). I seem to recall he was one of the people who called out George Soros a while back? (I might be wrong - I’m just going from something I heard on Rush or somewhere).
Well, you’re right in that we probably agree on more than we disagree but you have to do what you think is right (or else you might end up in office LOL!) Be safe over there and safe travels whenever you come back.