It is exactly this sort of sermonizing which makes you Paulites so tiresome. The talk of "toddlers" and "statists" and etc. etc. etc. "If they only knew what we know, they'd be supporters of Ron." It's almost a Gnostic cult (I mean that in the nicest sociological way, and in no theological way whatsoever).
The more I read of Ron Paul, the more I find I disagree less with what he says and more with his fairly infantile view of the whole process. If you'd indulge me for a moment, I'd compare Ron to a homebuilder who comes upon a group of people who have been promised a home.
These people have had to live in tents without electricity and have been told (perhaps by the neoconservative military-industrial globalists) "You're living in a home." And they respond, "This isn't what it looked like in the brochure." And the nameless, faceless powers-that-be say "Shut up and like it." And so Ron Paul says to these people, "This is no home." And he's right. "A real home would be like this..." And he proceeds to tell them what they are missing and the countless accretions to their lives that they have had to endure when they were simply promised a home. And he's right (in the main).
And so he says, "Let's build the perfect house." And he describes the perfect house and what the original architects would have wanted a house to look like. And, 1) it sounds pretty darn good, and 2) it sounds not much like any other house that is currently being built. And some people get really excited. "This is what we've been waiting for. This guy gets it. He knows what houses really are."
And some people say, "Yeah, some of his ideas sound really good, but there's not really any resemblance to his house and any other houses that are being built. Can any architects actually design that house?" And the excited folks say, "Are you saying it's not the perfect house?" "No, we're just saying that it might not be the easiest thing to execute." "Oh, you toddlers."
And some other practical folks say, "Ron, do you think you can find concrete workers to help you with your house?" And there is silence except for the excited people who say, "Why do you hate perfect houses?" And the practical folks say, "Hey, it sounds like a good idea in a lot of ways, but I'm not sure it would work within the current framework we have." And the excited folks say, "But the current framework is wrong!"
By now, my allegory is surely growing tiresome to you. Even with his less-than-appealing view of the world stage and international relations (from my perspective), Ron Paul says a lot of things that a lot of people here on Free Republic agree with. We like less government. We like lower taxes. We like sound fiscal policy (when he goes on to the gold standard, my eyes do glaze over, I confess, but I'm no finance whiz). We like the government leaving us the heck alone.
But in the end, Paul is an idealist loon. He has a perfect house in his head and it's a great ideal. But HOW would he do ANYTHING in his agenda? GWB couldn't even get a really rather modest form of SS reform through a Republican Senate and House. I somehow doubt Miss Pelosi and Mr. Reid would be amenable to use "dumping the UN", "doing away with the Gold Standard," "abolishing the FBI," etc. ad nausea
Plus, he says dumb things. His silly Sinclair Lewis quote the other day was a idiocratic moment of the first order.
So,even laying aside his penchant for sounding a bit like the Daily Kos when discussing foreign policy, his domestic agenda is unworkable and unplanned. It's pie-in-the-sky idealism of the worst kind - the kind where the architect knows it won't ever happen. And he says dumb things.