Does he really walk the walk or does he just talk a lot? He is the leader in Pork Barrel spending among the Texas congressional delegation and constantly gets mentions in the Pig Book. His excuses for this contradict, on one hand saying it is OK he requests Pork because he votes against it (completely ignoring the existence of the impact on baseline budgeting), but on the other hand claiming it is his duty to return the money to his district (ignoring that many requests are for items out of his district such as a reading program in Boston). He regularly misquotes the Constitution in things like requiring the fed gov to be on the Gold standard (the Constitution only limits States to use gold or silver, it doesn't limit the feds to this) or that the only way we can use military force is through a formal declaration of war (Article 1 section 8 actually gives three options for the calling and using of military force, only one of which mentions a formal declaration of war). He as actually waffled on even the declaration of war issue in regards to Afghanistan where he was originally fine with the 'authorization to use force', then damned it for not being formally declared, then supported it again as the 'proper' war on terror.
More than all that though, the fundamental principle of Conservatism in regards to philosophy is that of the free and empowered man who can accomplish anything in spite of what happens in DC- in that he fails. He plays the Libertarian philosophy of the fearful man who, while he preaches against government interventionism(sic) is still always looking for a government solution to the bogeymen of the trilaterals, Bilderbergs, or fed reserves. They just replace the external enemies with internal ones to keep people fearful. His movement (revolution, ha ha) is just making a generation of people in fear- little Alex Jones acolytes.
Applauding!
I urge you to review Paul’s voting record. It’s invariably pro-constitution and anti-tax. So, yes, he walks the walk.
He’s not remotely my first choice for President, but as I said in an earlier message. I’m tired of the libertarian bashing that occurs every time Ron Paul’s mentioned in this forum.
From what we’ve seen today, this bashing comes from those who’d know little if anything about Paul or even about Ronald Reagan’s ideology.
Nonetheless even such uninformed people helped create a fractured Republican party. This intraparty intolerance helped Obama and the left win broadly in the 2008 elections.
I’d prefer that not be repeated.