The Intermission

I almost hate to use the name Ron Paul in my blog, because he’s already all over the internet (my friend Ian would, at this point, rub his palm on an invisible computer screen in front of him and say “Eww! Get off my internet!”). But I just can’t help it.

I’ve watched several video clips of him in interviews and debates, and the guy is just so stinking honest and articulate. He says what he thinks, regardless of the negative reaction he might receive. He is also unflinchingly bound to the constitution. It seems that, no matter what the question, he’s always referencing the constitution to back up his point of view. I like that, and I like that he does it skillfully.

I won’t even bother linking to videos of him in interviews because there are hundreds of them on YouTube. Just do a search and you’ll find something good.

But, for more substance, you might check out his Wikipedia article, a review of his stated views and voting record on various issues, and this interesting piece Ron Paul wrote about why he is pro-life (something I did not expect). Interestingly, Ron is personally pro-life, but he favors letting the states set the laws regarding abortion (and nearly everything else for that matter).

Of course, he has some ideas that are a little more off the beaten path. He favors a return to the gold standard, free market health care, as well as withdrawal from NATO, the WTO, and the United Nations (for reasons of national sovereignty). He would like to abolish the Federal income tax, the IRS, and federal control over education (letting states handle their own educational standards instead). Many of those things sound a little crazy, and maybe they are. But I think part of the reason they sound crazy is because we (or at least I) have a hard time imagining how you would jump from our current economy back to the gold standard. Or how the US could reasonably withdrawal from the United Nations. If Ron Paul really holds these points of view, then I think he needs to:

1. Say whether he thinks these are just good ideas, but impractical to implement, or whether he would actually try to make these things happen as president.
2. Explain how he would make these things happen. If you want to return to the gold standard, how would we do that without massively disrupting our economy?

Ron Paul is an interesting guy with a lot to contribute to our government. His campaign is the first thing that’s gotten me really interested in politics in a long time. It’s just unfortunate that he gets no attention from the mainstream media.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 10:47 pm and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.