He's not polling very high in Iowa, but Ron Paul is raising money like a beast: $6.2 million in one day! I don't quite understand the internet phenomenon surrounding Paul, the only candidate to my knowledge who favors disbanding Medicare, the Department of Education, and other popular programs. Plus, what's the deal with this conspiracy about a North American Union? Is this so much better than Kucinich believing in aliens?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
The internet has always been to some extent disproportionately populated by people with both anarchist and Ayn Rand-ian leanings. There's also a big isolationist constituency that the major parties almost never address,including a significant segment of conservatives who are opposed to interventionist foreign policy. Paul appeals to all of the above, as well as to people who are just kind of paranoid, like this guy I know who insisted I watch "Zeitgeist".
His viewpoint may be wacky but it's also consistent and very firmly established in the American character.
There's also the simple fact that pretty much anyone of an ideological perspective other than your "Cold War" liberalism (or its ex-Trotskyist twin, neoconservatism) agrees with Paul about something.
Besides, I think we should abolish the Department of Education (an abysmal failure that is "popular" since...when?) and at least radically reform the monetary system if not outright abolish the Federal Reserve and the fiat currency system that has once again gotten our economy stuck in a stagflationatry spiral. (The Fed is often criticized for being too slow to respond to pressure from Wall Street, but I think the opposite is true - it's much too willing to inflate the dollar to placate irrational investors.)
Of course, I'm way too "liberal" on other issues to support Paul; I considered doing so only when Florida was stripped of its Democratic delegates.
"His viewpoint may be wacky but it's also consistent and very firmly established in the American character."
Yes, it is established in the worst of the American character.
http://www.gwdiscourse.com/domesticintelblog/2008/1/20/the-real-ron-paul.html
Yeah, way to deliberately miss the point. You know full well I was referring to his Jeffersonian, Constitutionalist campaign platform.
The TNR article that revealed those newsletters lost him a lot of support, as it should have, but your reply was rather patronizing.
(Example:
http://www.reason.com/blog/show/124284.html)
Yes, I am aware of what you meant. I'm also saying that they're related. Believing in the gold standard isn't going to make you a racist, but the way Paul and other paleocons glorify past policies, ugly ones show up too. His emphasis on states rights will lead him to say things like "the Civil War was unnecessary."
Post a Comment