Monday, January 14, 2008

Cutting The Paul Hype

As everyone on the internet knows, but almost no one who watches cable news, Dr. Ron Paul is running for President.

I have two things to say about him. He is not a real Republican. He is saying and doing nothing extraordinary.

Dr. Paul is not a Republican. He may have been when Republicans stood for individual and property rights, no foreign entanglements, and support for personal achievement. But today's Republicans are indistinguishable in most ways from their counterparts across the aisle. This is by design.

The money behind the politics needs the race fixed. Like the old sideshow promise, it wants, and gets, a winner every time. We've had two primary elections, and New Hampshire's is already under official recount. Hand counted ballots, matching 4 statewide opinion polls, showed an entirely different outcome (in favor of Obama) in the Democrat primary results. There are allegations about Diebold's programmable voting machines creating potential vote count fraud. Why not only paper ballots?, a sober person asks.

Nobody gets to be a mainstream candidate unless he or she is approved. That approval used to come from the people. Now it comes from media bosses, spin-doctored polls, international banksters, and at least one foreign government. All of those elements have to agree on a candidate, and must be certain that their puppet truly works for them.

Today, popular approval's making a comeback.

Enter Ron Paul, a U.S. Representative from Texas, a member of the people's house of the legislature. He's a man outside the lines of the party he's long been affiliated with. Over the years, Dr. Paul has remained true to Republican ideals, while his peers have not. He has a consistently Constitutional voting record, because he swore to uphold it and takes that oath seriously. At this point in time, as Dr. Paul himself pointed out, being in favor of the Constitution is highly politically incorrect. And, it's apparently offensive to the Parties and the media. So, no, Dr. Paul is a RINO, a "Republican In Name Only", a patriot in goat's clothing. Good thing, because the country deserves no less.

Now, about that second point. Because he is doing exactly what our Founders laid out in the body of the Constitution, Dr. Paul's message is in no way strange or even noteworthy. At least it wouldn't be, if our country were living those principles. It wouldn't be if our children were taught about their inherent rights which that document protects. It wouldn't be if government were limited. It wouldn't be if the Congress were doing their duty and performing checks and balances on the President. It wouldn't be if private bankers didn't print our money, and charge us both a printing fee and interest on it. It wouldn't be if we viewed gun ownership as a means of family, neighborhood and national protection rather than as a right only of criminals and the State. And it probably wouldn't be if we kept our earnings free from the Federal pickpockets in the IRS.

Everything Dr. Paul espouses is written down for everyone to see. We don't need all this government, and we sure as sunrise don't need a criminal government at all. We have rights, inherent and untouchable rights, not grants by government. Those rights were laid down for us, specifically so as to prevent the government from taking them. The first time a law was passed which limited absolute free speech, or restrained gun ownership, or allowed violative searches, or assigned States' rights to the Feds, we lost a part of ourselves, our values and our country. Enough's enough.

As a man, Dr. Paul is simply a candidate. He is by all accounts a quiet, intelligent, friendly, loyal and thoroughly decent man. He is running for President, of course, but while many people genuinely like him, he himself is not important. Like the title character in "V for Vendetta", he is just the carrier of an idea. Personally, I like the man: his manner, his genuine character and his honesty. But in this year, my vote will not really be for Ron Paul, but for the resurrection of the United States Constitution. For once, I hope every American voter casts their ballot with that thought in mind.

No comments: