I know he's a wack job .. (0.00 / 0)

but he's right on the general point of fiscal policy .. reducing spending ... spend with in means ... obviously I disagree with him on what to cut I am sure(except for military ... which as Glenn Greenwald points out .. is nuts) .. but overall .. he's a conduit for the PO'ed .. and disaffected .. is Ron Paul goofy ... yes ... but he can serve a purpose .. like him debating at the Faux debate

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by: Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 05:36:25 AM UTC

No Offence... (4.00 / 3)

But I dislike when people try to rationalize Ron Paul as having some good points, but just being a wacko. He is not a wacko, he is a libertarian. He is committed to a very specific ideology, and that ideology - at least on the economic front - is anathema to everything the left believes in. It is a rational ideology, but one that most of Western civilization has deemed harmful to society. In fact, most government institutions to arise since the Great Depression have been specifically designed to move us away from Ron Paul's vision of society and economy.
To see this ideology suddenly  experiencing a resurgence in America (as it has in lesser forms in some parts of the Republican party) is a frightening trend. The only solace I find in the 'Ron Paul Revolution' is that most of its adherents don't seem to actually grasp what Paul believes in. They just hear 'legalize drugs', 'abolish the IRS' and 'end the war'.

With that said, I do welcome the wrench he has thrown in the Republican primary. I just hope that if his followers truly understood the extent to which a libertarian government would threaten the well-being of our society and our environment, they would reconsider the efficacy of Paul's platform.

"Don't hate the media, become the media" -Jello Biafra

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by: LandStander @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 06:07:28 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Woo! (0.00 / 0)

Yeah! Fuck those dangerous libertarians!
...
-scoots away-

So anyway.
Riddle me this:
Indie Ron Paul run in 2008:
Hurts or helps Democrats?

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by: Brad O'Donnell @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 07:58:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Oh? (0.00 / 0)

"He is not a wacko, he is a libertarian. He is committed to a very specific ideology..."

He's not a libertarian, and seemingly cares little about ideology.

If he was a libertarian, he'd believe in free markets.  The closest thing we have to a market regarding the presidential elections are the Iowa Electronic Markets -- which have been fairly good at predicting winners. Here's the graph for the republican nomination.  Paul is buried in "RROF_NOM", which is "Republican Rest Of Field".  He's in fifth place.

The market has spoken: Ron Paul, go home.

That's even before we get into his positions that require massive statist intervention, such as the gold standard or dissolving the Federal Reserve. (One may argue that it would be "freer" after the intervention required, but there's no question the market ain't going for either of those alternatives just now.)  Or his crypto-aristocratic agenda at using a title in everyday speech, when Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the US Constitution forbids such tomfoolery.

No, Paul is a Naderite egoist.  He doesn't give a damn about the country, he just wants attention.

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by: hbobrien @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:21:07 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Offense taken (0.00 / 0)

I couldn't disagree with you more. Ron Paul supporters are some of the best informed out there. That's why he's so popular on the internet, because it is on the internet where we can analyse and go through mountains of information. We know exactly what he stands for. We also know that a Ron Paul administration would seriously change America. It would slash the Federal Government to a minimum level. It would cause all troops to come home from every country. It would abolish the income tax. It would try to demolish the Federal Reserve. All of these things would be gargantuan in scope. And supporters like myself actually want this to happen. We're called libertarians. We believe in individual liberty and not in the state. Get used to us, we'll be around long after this election is over.

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by: wackjob @ Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 03:46:58 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Libertarianism (4.00 / 1)

Libertarianism is a matter of degrees. In the most extreme versions of this ideology, we would have no mandatory public education system, no public mass transit (meaning little or none), no environmental regulations (NONE - welcome back, CFCs!), no Social Security, no TANF, no affordable housing, no minimum wage, the list goes on and on and on....

Hell, a truly libertarian society, wherein individuals are free to make any social or economic decision they choose, would entail the freedom to produce and sell and food or drug without any government regulation or mandatory testing. No FDA. And advertisers could simply lie. No FCC - media monopolization would get even worse than it is now. Hard to imagine, but true. Goodbye net neutrality. Goodbye national parks system. Goodbye USPS.

I am not saying Paul endorses scrapping all of these government institutions - I honestly don't know if he does or doesn't - but that is the standard libertarian fare.


"Don't hate the media, become the media" -Jello Biafra

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by: LandStander @ Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 05:42:50 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Perot & Paul (0.00 / 0)

A few years ago I read one of J Goldberg's columns and sent him an email.  Details are fuzzy (and he never responded) but I remember writing that the country was primed for the second coming of Ross and cited the night of the Medicare Part D vote as exhibit A.  It was the moment Republicans officially abandoned any pretense of fiscal responsibility and (I believe) has generated deeper, more fundamnetal unhappiness than perhaps anything else.  Certainly more than the Schiavo affair.  The latter was a pander to the base, the former an open defiance of it.

Bush & Delay will be reviled by most everyone in time, but a particularly harsh species of scorn will be held among conservatives.  They lost more than anyone.

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by: danps @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 11:29:22 AM UTC

The view here in suurban CT, (0.00 / 0)

I have 4 Paul supporters in my neighorhood.they're all male,all voted for W both times he ran and will all stay home or vote for the Democratic nominee in Nov.(unless it's Hillary in which case they'll vote "AGAINST THAT BITCH").

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by: ctkeith @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 14:25:41 PM UTC

Um, actually... (0.00 / 0)

Ron Paul is very much a wacko, and the Daily Kos explains why

by: CajunGypsy @ Sat Jan 05, 2008 at 15:55:17 PM UTC