It took me a long time to give up on politics. If I vote in any presidential primary or election this time around, it will likely be because Ron Paul was lucky enough to still remain on the ballot by the time the elections are held in Texas.
I wish it did not take me so long to warm up to Paul’s ideas. In part, I blame me for that. But I also blame the media.
Paul has been around for a long time. The media has made him out to be the joke of campaigns. That’s the media’s fault. However, my fault has been lapping up the idiotic media propaganda for so many years. I am not unlike a lot of people. When the people laugh and cajole someone who is different, it is natural to want to join in on the side who is doing the laughing and cajoling. It is nothing more than a natural need to feel like one belongs to some “superior” crowd – more appropriately, it is “gang mentality.”
I am not saying that everything Paul says is something with which I wholeheartedly agree. He has a few positions that lead me to question whether they are right or workable, but I find it very easy to step back and evaluate Paul from a big picture perspective.
First. He is genuine and consistent. Where are those string video compilations of Paul’s long line of flip-flops? To my knowledge, they do not exist. Compare this fact, alone, to all the other candidates. Paul +1.
Second, Paul has capably predicted the direction of our nation when pretty much everyone else was either ignorant, delusional, or in denial. Take a look at this video and this video, for examples. Paul +1.
Third, Paul has a far better instinct for peace than the other candidates. If you watched the videos, you will see that he does not buy into the propaganda of his own party. He has the guts to buck his own party’s consensus to continually subscribe us to multi-trillion dollar “wars” that never end and result in death and serious injury to 100′s of thousands of people. He does not predispose himself to “preemptive war” ideology.
In my younger years, I used to proudly align with the war hawks and pride myself in supporting our nation’s will to run around the world to show its might and to “shock and awe” the world. I don’t subscribe to this view anymore. I think it is shallow, juvenile and worse than that, abominable. Peace is always better, and war should be reserved only for matters of an imminent threat of serious harm – not perceived threats of “possibilities” and conjecture about “boogeymen.” Paul +1.
Fourth, there is a class warfare occurring. It has been occurring for years. Paul recognizes that our nation is largely governed by an oligopoly of interests that use monetary policy and taxpayer bail-outs to redistribute wealth from the bottom-up and to loot the nation’s resources during the most pressing of economic times such as these. Paul wants to end that. Paul +1.
Do you see any other candidate, from either side, that can meet the simple standards above – i.e., maintain integrity, consistency, compassion and good financial sense – all at the same time? I didn’t think so. Paul +1.
Finally, I will address the fact that Paul is “my man,” even though I am not 100% convinced of all his positions. To make my point, we have to get “real” about elections and politics. In my mind, I think his position concerning returning to the gold standard is akin to Perry’s position on ending Social Security. Ain’t gonna happen. So, why would I vote against a candidate because he might espouse a preference for something that will never happen? It’s silly to evaluate a candidate based on extreme scenarios. With Paul, I think we can at least count on his ability, as commander in chief, to reduce our foreign entanglements and to bring all these forces with such great productive capacity back home – where we can use our resources domestically and promote peace through non-intervention. That, I think, is reality. That, alone, is worth trillions and trillions of our tax dollars. That alone, could be what saves our future. That, by itself, is good enough for me.
It’s time for a change – a departure from scripted party lines that we all know are failing us miserably.
