Yes, it’s the dreaded Ron Paul post… Dana and I were chatting and Ron’s name came up. “He’s crazy,” was her attitude towards him. I do think he’s a little crazy, I’m not sure where he comes up with his attitudes about the WTO, I think (think mind you, I’ll have to look at this more carefully) that I would want a more liberal policy in regards to immigration than he would want, and even though I am no fan of abortion, I am very leery of a national ban on them. So yeah, I do think he’s a little nutty, but it’s a kind of nutty I could live with.
Here’s why, he’s the only one that I’m not really afraid of. He’s the only one claiming that the federal government should have less power, not more. That’s a breath of fresh air after all these years under “W,” and is a far cry from the likes of Guliani and Hillary. “W” has set a precedent and I worry that future heads of the executive branch will be loath to give up what has already been granted. Guliani has made it known that he favors a very strong executive, and I believe with all my heart that Hillary would jump at any chance to take more control.
Another nice thing about Paul, love him or hate him, he is very different from all of the other candidates. Quick, can you outline the major policy differences between Hillary and Obama? Or how about between Guliani and Romney? Paul is an actual alternative, he is significantly different than all of the other candidates, regardless of party. He is certainly different from all of the other republicans. He’s no neocon, and that’s a relief. He’s known as “Mr. No” in the senate because he consistently votes against silly spending bills and anything that infringes on civil liberties. He was one of only 4 (I think) republicans to vote against the original Patriot Act and he was the only republican to vote against authorization to invade Iraq. Paul is the only one that is fiscally responsible, let alone conservative in the entire pack and I think he’s the only republican that is steadfastly a noninterventionist.
I don’t think he has much of a chance to go anywhere in this election, but don’t underestimate the power of a “The Government Sucks” platform in today’s political atmosphere. I think the more people that hear about him, the more will vote for him just because they are so fed up with the current government (legislative and executive). He has also set a one day record for fundraising. The really amazing thing is that neither he nor his campaign were the ones that organized it. It was a true grassroots effort organized by volunteers. I think that his best case scenario is to make some noise in this coming election if even in the primaries. With any luck, he’ll have a Goldwaterlike kind of influence. It’s been a while since anyone has run on a smaller government platform. The first Bush was really the last republican that even gave lip service to the idea, and Reagan was the last one that actually tried to do anything about it. Reagan and his cohorts were heavily influenced by Barry Goldwater. It was the election that Goldwater lost that got those ideas back into political conversations. With any luck, Paul’s campaign will make people thnk that there’s another possible type of candidate and maybe we’ll actually elect one of them one of these days…