Liberty Maven

Throughout Ron Paul’s campaign he has been called many inaccurate and demeaning names: kook, mayor of crazytown, etc.. It is interesting that not many people call him a pacifist. For someone who rejects preemptive war and wishes the troops would come home from overseas, that is surprising. Also interesting is that it is proper not to label him a pacifist, but the truth never stopped them before.

He voted for going after Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan. He has continually spoken as a proponent for the Christian “just war” doctrine. So if an attack is truly imminent or if a retaliatory strike is required he would be for it. It comes down to a matter of focus. He focuses on defense, while our recent policy focus from both Democrats and Republicans has been on offense.

Contrast this with labeling John McCain a warmonger. Ed Schultz, a left leaning radio talk show host, called McCain a “warmonger” at an Obama rally over the weekend. The McCain campaign cried foul and sure enough, the Obama campaign rejected the remark as false. By definition John McCain is a warmonger. No one should be apologizing or crying foul. He advocated the “surge”. He advocates maintaining a presence in Iraq for possibly 100 years. He has also said that “there will be more wars.”

If John McCain is not a warmonger then Ron Paul doesn’t believe in the Constitution.

It’s too bad the Obama campaign doesn’t have the political chops to publicly stand behind a comment everyone knows to be true. I guess that’s why his campaign is all about the audacity of hope, instead of the audacity of truth. For me, I’d rather have truth.

The ideological Ron Paul math can be summed up with the following expression:

Ron Paul(Foreign Policy) + Ron Paul(Economy) = The Solution

Ron Paul’s position on foreign policy is consistent with his position on economics. He preaches non-intervention overseas and the deregulation of markets. His positions are interesting in that they steadfastly refuse to contradict each other. Likewise, He is pro-life and against the death penalty. Many other Republicans contradict their pro-life view by supporting the death penalty.

His is a true non-interventionist position. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have a faux non-interventionist position. They make the colossal mistake of thinking that pulling out of Iraq is enough non-intervention. Ron Paul correctly and consistently points out that Iraq is only part of the entire foreign policy portrait. Obama and Clinton do not preach non-interventionism because they don’t believe in the principle. They will not bring our troops home from Germany or Korea. They advocate repositioning troops from Iraq to Afghanistan. This is hardly any real “change” from George W. Bush. Chances are neither would even follow up on their promise to bring our troops home from Iraq. Certainly, some new excuse to keep troops there can be manufactured when the time comes.

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Throughout the Ron Paul campaign amateur and professional pundits on television, newspapers, blogs, and forums were quick to point out that Ron Paul supporters were made up of crazy conspiracy theorists. This apparently, meant that by association Ron Paul was one as well. Similarly, Obama was guilty by associating with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Both were and are unfair.

The recent events of Ron Paul supporters organizing and working within GOP convention rules to win delegate seats and resolutions has been labeled by the Republican establishment as a coup against the Republican party. This notion is preposterous and is nothing more than a conspiracy theory of their own in order to motivate opposition to true conservative ideas. Ideas that they say they believe in, but rarely practice anymore.

The recent events at GOP conventions in both Missouri and Texas show that Ron Paul supporters are not going away no matter what tactics are used to thwart them. Ron Paul supporters are not trying to “take over the Republican party”. They are merely trying to revive the conservative roots of the party.

There was a time when Republicans were conservative. They believed in non-interventionism, low taxes, controlled spending, small government, free markets, individual freedom, and the Constitution. Today’s Republican Party is nothing more than a public relations firm set up to hide that Republicans rarely vote in line with conservative principles anymore. Ron Paul and his supporters just want to restore truth to the rhetoric.

Political discourse in America is a washing machine spinning without any clothes inside. It’s all about the power and money grab to get elected. In Ron Paul many see something different. A candidate of integrity, honesty, and principle. Those that latched on to his campaign were quick to point out that once you actually listened to the man, ignored the media marginalization, and researched his positions, he was hard not to support.

In a perfect America we would all be tuned in to the rhetoric of our leaders and potential leaders. In a perfect America our leaders and potential leaders would stay true to their principles once in office. In a perfect America we would not dismiss a candidate because of his perceived “zero” chance at winning. In a perfect America we would vote for the candidate who we believe would best uphold the Constitution. After all that is their ultimate oath and supposed obligation.

The American citizen has become nothing more than a polling demographic for office seekers to utilize for snake oil pandering. Whatever happened to our founding principles of individual rights? There were many words spoken by Ron Paul during his campaign that resonated with me, but there is one I will always remember, “I serve the smallest possible special interest group: The Individual (paraphrased)”. Bravo Doctor.

Now the Republican establishment is accusing Ron Paul supporters of taking over the party. Maybe they should stop with their own conspiracy theories. Ron Paul supporters are merely trying to rescue the Republican Party and take it back to its true conservative roots. Something that is long over due. Instead of denigrating and blocking the Paul supporters, they should welcome the infusion of new blood. Hopefully they realize it before it is too late.

If John McCain had his way a book released last month would be banned. “Who Speaks For Islam? What A Billion Muslims Really Think” analyzes the results of a 6 year survey (2001 - 2007) about what Muslims think about America and the West. The survey sample represents “more than 90% of the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims, making this the largest, most comprehensive study of contemporary Muslims ever done.”

To put it simply, the findings show that Ron Paul is right and John McCain is wrong.

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George Bush’s comments yesterday about the Iraq war were laughable. I suppose he wasn’t joking though. He said, “No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq.” Over the course of the last five years in Iraq the United States has paid with the immeasurable cost of the blood of her sons and daughters in order to, as Bush says, protect against “a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq.” How nice that must make those of us feel who have lost loved ones to the war. No wonder Bush’s approval rating is the lowest it has ever been.

It has become cliche to criticize Bush for Iraq, but Congress is equally to blame. From the beginning they broke their oath of upholding the Constitution by voting to turn war declaration authority over to George Bush. In later years they continued to vote to fund the war because they feared by not doing so they would be accused of not supporting the troops. This is hogwash. You would think their own penchant for wanting to “take care of the children” would apply to bringing our slightly older children home from Iraq and out of harm’s way. Once again the game of politics usurps the hard truths of compassion.

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Ron Paul is using his over 800K voters throughout the country to seek change within the Republican Party. There is an excellent article on the topic from the Washington Times today. It seems Ron Paul’s strategy going forward is starting to be revealed a bit. Many wish he would run as a third party or independent candidate, but from the looks of it that will not happen. He is utilizing his donor list and his many voters to push for a voice within the GOP.

He is doing it passive aggressive style by saying things like “I guess the GOP doesn’t want the more than 800K supporters who voted for me to be included in helping the party move forward.” His actual words were “I don’t think they want them.” This is a slippery slope for McCain and other neo-conservative GOP’ers. If they continue to ignore Ron Paul their numbers will continue to shrink. If they somehow come out and support Ron Paul and seek the support of his supporters they will be forced to change their positions on some fundamental issues. That is unlikely.

If Paul’s estimations are correct that his supporters make up about 10% of Republican voters, it would behoove the McCain camp to at least give Ron Paul a voice at the GOP Convention. They certainly don’t want that 10% to vote Libertarian or even Democratic in the general election. If McCain loses the election with less than 10% of the vote without courting Ron Paul’s support he has only himself to blame for his loss.

Ron Paul supporters swarmed to the GOP Missouri county caucuses over the weekend. There were internet reports of varying degrees of success in passing resolutions consistent with Ron Paul’s true conservative platform rather than the typical neo-conservative platform. The most interesting story covered by the Kansas City Star involved a protest walkout led by the Jackson County Republican committee chairman.

It is stories like these that give one hope that someday, perhaps soon, our country will be restored to its Constitutional roots, where it belongs.

I’m not sure he even knows who he is. He preaches straight talk, but is just as wishy washy as any typical politician. One aspect of him that seems to escape many is his thirst for attention. His philosophy seems to be he who has the most attention has the most power. By itself that is an undeniable statement, but applying it to a potential President pushes it into the undeniably worrisome element.

For proof of this here is a quote from McCain’s memoir “Worth The Fighting For” after getting a huge amount of news exposure following coming out against Reagan for sending troops into Lebanon:

I was gratified by the attention and eager for more.

So McCain seemed to learn early on that playing the devil’s advocate, whether he actually believed it or not, was a boon for getting his name out there for recognition.

Fast forward to last week when he started making a big deal out of al Qaeda stepping up the violent attacks in Iraq for the sole purpose of helping the Democrats beat him in the general election. Wow.  This just puts him in the self important jerk category for me. It’s not like terrorists don’t already have a reason to attack us. And no it’s not because we are free. See Ron Paul for a bit of an explanation on that.

For more on McCain’s Clinton infection see John McCain: The Chameleon.

The buzzword “change” has been tossed about by candidates of both parties, but it has been mostly associated with Barack Obama and the Democrats. In fact it now seems like the Democrats are addicted to change so much that they vote against their own front runner out of habit rather than conviction. Early in the campaign Hillary was the anointed one. They didn’t like that much so Obama had his own messianic rise to the top.

Apparently that too wasn’t good enough for the blue team. With Hillary Clinton’s recent big victories in Texas and Ohio the race for the Democratic nomination changes yet again. Perhaps the voters are a whimsical bunch on the Democratic side. Perhaps some strategic minded Republicans put Hillary over the top in Texas, as some conservative talk show hosts have suggested. Whatever the reason, this most recent swing shows the Democrats may not only have an addiction, but an identity crisis as well.

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Today voters in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island go to the polls. The polls suggest a neck and neck race on the Democratic side. Originally I though Obama would probably win both due to his momentum we keep hearing about. Now he seems to have become the candidate with a bullseye on his back. The front runner backlash has taken him down a few notches. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him win both, but I have a feeling Hillary may eek out a few victories today. It really is too close to say for sure one way or another.

On the Republican side McCain is set to lock up the nomination. If he wins just half of the delegates at stake today he would do so. I’m interested mostly in Ron Paul’s results in Texas and Vermont. Texas because he’s on the ballot twice. We get to see if he can win his own parties primary. He’s up against a neo-conservative warmonger named Chris Peden. Polling suggests Paul will win and win big. We’ll see if that remains true. As for his performance in the Presidential election I’m hoping for double digit percentages in at least 2 of the states tonight. McCain locking up the nomination may help with that since he is now a foregone conclusion.

I wish I was living in Ron Paul’s district at least for today. Why? If I lived there I could vote for him twice. The results tonight should be interesting.