I've liked Ron Paul forever... or at least since 2007 when I first mentioned him on my blog. He's the only libertarian conservative running for the Republican nomination for President this year, the only constitutional literalist running for the Republican nomination for President this year. He may have some crazy thoughts regarding fiscal policy, but he played all the right social issue chords and role-of-government melodies with me.
I wouldn't vote for him anymore (though I would have before), because his fiscal policy is too severe a bludgeon in a time that requires more tact and gentle approaches to a shaky economy, but at least he is consistent. He is an old-school fiscal and governmental conservative with liberal views on society and government's need to stay out of it... just like me.
Unfortunately, he was at one point in time, a virulent, unabashed, dyed-in-the-wool racist, anti-Semite, homophobe, and conspiracy theorist of the highest tin-foil-hat-wearing order, and published all of those facts repeatedly in a regular personal newsletter. I knew it was sort of bad 4 years ago, and I figured: The guy's a bit of a kooky old man, allow him a few peccadilloes that he can deny and we can ignore if anyone ever asks. (If I had been more seriously examining him as a candidate, instead of just "pondering", I may have been a little serious about looking into the content of those "newsletters", but I wasn't, so I waffled on the racism stuff.)
But of course, now the newsletters are front and center... and they are bad. And now Ron Paul's denials are front and center... and they are weak.
Sorry Ron Paul. I gave you a whole heaping plateful of spaghetti-a-la-benefit-de-la-doubt and it was not nearly enough.
You no longer appear to me as a rough-edged old coot with a heart cast from American Gold Eagles, the hand-me-down spirit of John Jay, Adam Smith's blood, and Oakshott's tongue. Now I see a sad old politician trying to dodge reasonable questions, avoid responsibility, deny culpability... while at the same time (as we all deep down knew would happen), more newsletters with your signature on them are being discovered filled with ever-nastier white-supremacist content.
I'm sorry we can't find a better person to put your ideas in, because those ideas of yours... and those ideas alone... are worth something to this country. And the country will be all the poorer as nobody will appreciate those ideas because they are coming from the person who is Ron Paul.
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6 comments:
don't fret, his son Rand in waiting in the wings, and I think will be a force to be reckon with in the next elections.
Dude, I totally forgot about Rand Paul. I'll have to check him out a bit.
Like I said, there simply is no place on my ballot for people who want to start more wars, balance the budget only by cutting social welfare programs, save marriage by hating gay people, get information about terrorists by torturing prisoners, et cetera, et cetera... but that does not preclude me from voting for a Republican candidate ever... only CURRENT Republican candidates...
Except for Ron Paul... and, well, you read this post.
jil rand paul is the reason i started to fear ron. he's out there where the tin foils run. ron came to the mainstream, while his son is still firmly out 2 stops past where the busses stop. i am amazed ron was able to appear so normal so long. i actually liked the guy somewhat, but i was afraid this would happen. you can't be that far out on the fringe for that long and not have some crazy crap in your closet. it is almost beyond belief that the republican party has fielded this class of idiots. even my diehard republican friends are just aghast. how in the hell could this happen?
You know, it's all Sarah Palin's fault. She's the one who basically dropped all pretense and became the politically-feasible version of Anne Coulter. Donald Trump then stepped in and said, "I can be an Electable Rush Limbaugh", and suddenly all bets were off as to which candidate could be the most jarringly entertaining with the "red meat" and vitriol. Michelle Bachman and Santorum's gig is to wrap it all up in a hyper-Christian-supremicist message. Perry and Herman Cain were all about being the uber-patriot who will save America from the brown people. Romney and Gingrich are the most straightforward of them all with their "helping businesses (millionaires) succeed" approach.
But they are all working out of a playbook that has nothing, really, to do with any traditional approach to political success. Instead, it is a dark, angry, twisted, corrupt version of demagoguery and jingoism all focused on a xenophobic worldview... where anybody not in their political party is not to be trusted or worked with... and it is creating a huge population of dark, angry, twisted, corrupted American demagogues who view a very large portion of their countrymen as, literally, the enemy.
When Obama wins another 4 years, the anger that all of these retarded candidates have fostered all this time really could boil over and turn ugly.
you guys complain about the republicans; but President Obama hasn't signed a budget since March 2009 his 3rd month in office. He had a democratic control congress and could NOT even pass a budget, why not????
Tomm: "You guys complain about the Republicans..." How stupid IS that? I mean really. You are the one who should be complaining about the Republican candidates because they are the ones making sure that you are going to have to live through 4 more years of Obama.
Let's put it this way: If Obama sucks as much as whatever shit website you get your political info from has managed to brainwash you into thinking he does, this should be the easiest presidential election in history for the Republicans. But of course, deep down inside in an area of your mind that you have locked away that is called "reality", you know that Obama is going to get re-elected based on nothing more than the fact that every Republican candidate this election sucks some serious ass.
YOU and your tea-party friends are the dingleberries for being suckered by your dingleberry "conservative" websites into supporting those awful candidates instead of criticizing them right from the beginning. After all, if you and your Tea Party friends had the common sense God gave a cotton ball, then John Huntsman would be in the lead in Iowa instead of the crazy jew-hating racist.
If you and your Tea Party friends and their shit websites hadn't intimidated the better candidates like Huckabee, Fred Thompson, Chris Christie, and god knows who else from running by threatning to attack them "on the issues Tea Partiers hold dear", you would actually have Conservatives running for President, instead of the bomb-Iran/enrich-millionaires/hate-Mexican shock-jocks-as-presidential-candidates you have been suckered into thinking are oh-so-great. Really? Do you realy think they are great? Would you vote for any of those douche bags over, say, John McCain? Or Bob Dole? If you would, then you might as well kill yourself now because your brain is hopelessly ruined by that shit you are digesting from those bullshit conservative sites all the time.
All your candidates suck, Tomm. They are the worst set of god-damned candidates ever put forth in the history of The Republican Party and the only thing they are going to provide you with is 4 more years of Obama. Might as well start figuring out how to deal with it now because nobody wants to hear you crying like a baby for another 4 years.
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