Ron Paul’s Biggest Fans

This morning’s Washington Post analysis of Ron Paul’s recent big win in government seems particularly accurate in highlighting the discontent with the current Republican party and its associated abandonment of its major economic position of fiscal responsibility. So many in the MSM write about all the independents and Democrats crossing over for Dr. Paul, but people like me — i.e., disgruntled Republicans who favor limited government — play a large role in Ron Paul’s popularity. His growing campaign is not merely peopled with pimply-faced basement dwellers soaking off Mom and Dad because it’s cool to be against the war. True conservatives (and the Republican party in general, historically) have been against sending our troops overseas to play policeman of the world. Conservatives crave a return to the Goldwater/Reagan legacy that is still very much alive, despite G.W. Bush’s attempts to thwart it with cries for amnesty and “compassionate ‘conservatism.’” I want my party back, and so do many other Republicans.

Gracias, Jorge

Pandering a Democrat would be proud of. I want my party back.

Please Don’t Call Them "Liberals"

In a political forum I recently encountered a leftist’s claim that “leftists” were responsible for all the good in society, such as standing up for the right of women and blacks to vote, etc. I’m all for that kind of “leftism” — but the Republicans were right on slavery and they’re right on abortion, not to mention the fact that egalitarianism is a huge, hideous part of leftist ideology. By that reasoning, the Republicans have historically been the “liberal” party. Theodore Roosevelt (who actually didn’t like being called “Teddy”) was one of the first conservationist presidents, and was also a Republican. Leftists like to claim that being “pro-choice” is “progressive” and “enlightened.” Pioneer feminist and advocate of women’s suffrage Susan B. Anthony was not only pro-life, she cast her historic vote for, appropriately, Republicans. Where were the Democrats on the side of slavery? Women’s suffrage? Where does the Democrat party stand on abortion today? Most Democrats are not for a colorblind society and want to keep racial discrimination in place — even encouraging its legislation — by using propaganda to justify their own racism.

I try to avoid using the word “liberal” when describing today’s collectivists — after all, why should they deserve a term with such a rich and honored history as “liberal,” which comes from the Latin word for “free”? Talk about a misnomer. They hijacked the word and, even worse, they try to call themselves “progressive.” There is nothing “progressive” about their tired and disproved theories of a quasi-socialist government. “Progressive” would be a libertarian way of thinking. The founding fathers were “progressive.” The founding fathers were “liberal”, i.e., for freedom. Their ideas were groundbreaking and courageous and new. Today’s members of the Democrat party and leftists/statists are neither. Besides, “leftards” has such a nice ring to it.

Ron Paul GOP’s Only Hope for 2008

The GOP will be doomed in 2008 if it doesn’t return to its conservative roots — and fast. Ron Paul, GOP presidential candidate and free-market champion, has been attacked by the scarily-becoming-mainstream war-mongering, big-spending Republicans as being a “kook” and, in an attempt to scare what’s left of the base, unconservative. As Ron Paul pointed out in the South Carolina debate, however, non-interventionism is conservative: Americans elected the Republicans to stop the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and were against getting involved in Europe during World War II until we were attacked at Pearl Harbor. Is it “conservative” to waste billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money and, more importantly, American lives on a war that really doesn’t have much to do with September 11?

Unlike many of his colleagues who so often try to desperately allign themselves with Reagan for political purposes, Ron Paul doesn’t usually feel the need to invoke the Gipper’s name at every opportunity to make his points; he is more than comfortable with his well-reasoned positions and rightly feels that they stand on their own. During the Fox News debate on May 15, however, he spoke of the Middle East and its peculiarities that Reagan understood existed. In simplified form, middle easterners have been killing each other for millenia — are Americans really going to change that? Is it our duty to do so? Is it “conservative” to fight for a republican form of government for people who may or may not appreciate it, let alone keep it while we leave our borders wide-open? Think of the Andrew Speaker debacle: it would only take one terrorist to sneak through one of our underfortified borders with smallpox to vastly outdo 9/11. If we spent less money — and American blood — on the sand of the middle easterners who have been killing each other for centuries and decided to spend more resources on fighting our own borders, the Andrew Speaker Problem may never have happened. Ron Paul’s non-interventionist stance is not only conservative, it is something that 70% of the American people support.

Ron Paul is a real conservative. He is a champion of the taxpayer, having never voted to raise taxes — ever — during his entire congressional career. He is a strong supporter of second amendment rights. He is pro-life, having sponsored the Sanctity of Life Act while in Congress. The Libertarian platform has officially made their plank pro-choice in recent years after some debate within the party. This is why I never voted Libertarian after Harry Browne and why the Libertarian Party is no longer an option for me. Ron Paul is unabashedly pro-life and argues that it is unsettling to say the least that “if you abort a ‘fetus’ one second before [birth] it’s legal, and one second after it’s born, it’s murder.”

Though many in the mainstream GOP and neoconservative camp of the Republican Party may try, Ron Paul’s conservatism is not something that can be easily challenged. His conservative values go way back: Ron Paul was one of only four congressman to support Ronald Reagan for president in 1976 (the others opting for Gerald Ford) and was one of Reagan’s earliest supporters. Reagan himself has said:

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.”

Ron Paul is right on immigration, second amendment rights, abortion, taxes, and foreign policy, arguably the big five issues if the day. Ron Paul is part of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, something that will become extinct if the GOP doesn’t take heed.

Enter Stage Left: The Ron Paul Democrats

For those who are following Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, it is becoming more and more apparent that many of his supporters are people who say “I have never voted Republican in my life but you have my vote, Ron Paul.” The sentiment is echoed all over the place. Who was the last presidential candidate who had this ability to attract lifelong Democrats to his campaign? You guessed it: the other Ron, and those supporters from the Democrat party were referred to as “Reagan Democrats.” Momentum is building for Ron Paul. Bring on the Ron Paul Democrats.

Ron Paul Google Search Results Top 3 Million

Last week if you searched for “ron paul” on Google, the results were coming in at just over 2 million. A couple days ago they were coming down a bit to around 1,400,000 (the censorship controversy with Yahoo and ABC had started to die down a bit), but now when you google “ron paul” you get over 3 million search results. For random comparisons as of 7:43 P.M. tonight, “ernest hemingway” yields 1,930,000 results, “alisteir crowley” yields just over a million results, and “mother teresa” yields 1,240,000 search results.

Ron Paul Closing Gap with Mitt Romney in MySpace Friends

A week and a half ago Ron Paul was about 4,000 friends behind Mitt Romney in MySpace friends. Now, he is only 2,936 friends behind Romney. Paul is in third place in GOP MySpace friends, which is a considerable feat, considering that he barely gets media coverage in the mainstream media.

Fox News Finally Runs a Fair and Balanced Article on Ron Paul

Fox News finally runs a fair and balanced article on Ron Paul

Brit Hume Knows Where It’s At

Brit Hume asked Ron Paul about economic policies during the last five minutes of the debate, which gave the good doctor a chance to shine, especially in the venue of a South Carolina GOP debate.

Ron Paul in First Place on Fox News Text Message Poll

Ron Paul is in first place in the post-debate poll from Fox News with 30%; Mitt Romney came in second with 27%, and Giuliani third with 16%.

The ever-annoying Sean Hannity was sure to pipe in, on hearing that Ron Paul was in first place with 30%, beating out establishment candidates Mitt Romney and Rudolph Guiliani, “I don’t think Ron Paul won the debate,” or something to that effect. It’s sad that I’ve always liked Alan Colmes better on that show… Sean Hannity gives conservatives a bad name. He comes off as cocky and a little bit pushy, and rarely intellectually stimulating. He’s not intelligent enough to want Ron Paul for president.