By Keven Keller
We have all recently caught wind of the mainstream media’s neglect of Ron Paul. With this, his campaign has been able to isolate certain issues that critics have with his ideas and policies and address them accordingly. The one we’ve heard about for years would be his electability. I don’t want to focus too much on this topic because it’s as pointless as trying to define what is “cool”. Electability can only be determined by the people who educate themselves on a candidate’s stances and make a choice to either vote or not vote for said candidate. However, based off of where citizens obtain their information to educate themselves, their decision could be swayed tremendously.
The mainstream media (MSM) believes they know how voters vote based off of polls conducted rather by themselves or by an outside company who tends to poll within a low specified amount of participants “selected at random”. The MSM also regrets to inform viewers that no matter how “fair and balanced” they claim to be, they only tell you what they want you to hear. Jon Stewart, and just recently a Pew Research Center’s study from January 1-August 14, made perfect references to MSM’s inclusion/occlusion of candidates. Those who fall within the realm of the status quo and side with corporate America viewpoints enjoy much more attention than Ron Paul. I could whine and moan about this all day, but it would deter me from focusing on the main criticism Ron Paul’s supporters have to defend, his foreign policy.
Where to begin on defending Ron Paul’s foreign policy? First off, Ron Paul is not an isolationist, he is a non-interventionist. Completely different. Closing some of our 900 bases in about 40 countries and allowing the troops to come home and spend their lives and money here is not a bad idea in my eyes, but I also believe that when somebody is in my backyard, my private property, doing whatever they want, I tend to get a little agitated and want to defend what is mine. I understand having bases in strategic military jumping off points, but 900 of them? Even closing half of those bases would not isolate us in the least. However, instead of wanting to close those bases now to save money, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said the restructuring of the military retirement system could be helpful with budget cuts. I’m shaking my head too! We won’t dare touch congressional pay/benefits, but we’ll consider “restructuring” our own military’s retirement system. I digress. Ron Paul understands that fighting militants in guerrilla warfare only increases our risk, not only as a military, but as a nation.
We the people have allowed and are allowing our government to do what they see fit with respect to militarism and protecting assets, instead of following our Constitution. Here’s a brief history lesson on causes of recent military interactions abroad. The Gulf of Tonkin incidents, one of which was a blatant lie, caused a stir in the media and scare tactics/war propaganda ensued to bring us into the Vietnam War. Osama Bin Laden and his forces were created and trained by our very own CIA to combat the USSR with economic warfare, i.e. spreading them too thin to make them vulnerable for a financial collapse. Saddam Hussein was funded by US money and weapons to combat Iran and secure the “petrodollar” scam, an attempt to challenge the US dollar by wanting to use the euro as an alternative currency for oil transactions. Oh the irony! The U.S. also created Gaddafi and Mubarak, amongst others, but now we’re subjecting our servicemen/women’s lives and our economic stability (that’s gone) to fight in unconstitutional wars that we, in essence, created.
Instead, people want to attack Ron Paul’s foreign policy. We cannot continue wearing our World Police badge and putting our nose in everybody’s business. Why do you think we’re viewed so negatively across the world? It’s not because people are jealous of our personal liberties, which are being stripped away slowly, but because we are the bully at recess that doesn’t know when to quit. When is enough, enough America?
Special thanks to Will Winston
American foreign policy does not make any sense. American taxpayers pay to blow up a bridge in Iraq, then American taxpayers pay to rebuild the same bridge i Iraq. Why could we not pay to rebuild a bridge in the United States? After 60 years why are taxpayers footing the bill to defend Germany, Japan, and Korea when they are capable of paying for their own defense? America is following the path of all great empires British, Roman, and Soviet in that our military is stretched too thin and it has bankrupted us. Bring our troops home to defend our own borders not the Afghan/Pakistani border. Stop killing innocent civilians with drone attacks. Ron Paul’s foreign policy of only fighting a just war approved by congress makes sense…
we never stop learning from each other
honesty, compassion, intelligence, guts
at his speech at the sf tea party event, he said “al queda and our foreign policy” were the causes of 9/11. ive still yet to hear someone justify this in among the ron paul supporters. if this is ‘just politics’, then he’s not much different then john dennis in my view
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FobnAnrFG3c
his comment is at 15:17
i want to believe in him.. can someone justify this statement beyond ‘just politics’?
Chris, thank you for posting that question. It is a huge concern that most people have with Ron Paul. I posted a video of him from 1998 explaining his position about the US causing our own threats on our nation. There’s another video of his speech a day later on the floor of Congress that has similar dialogue that you may want to check out as well. A quick summary would be that we trained and funded militants/governments to carry out attacks for our benefit then we attacked them, killing thousands of their citizens. You could imagine the hate that was felt by those people and the ideas/plans of revenge that crossed their minds. After organizing and planning for about 2-3 years and smaller attacks, they were able to pull off the big one, 9/11.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ldfDCSG6DQ&playnext=1&list=PLCAB13E6601FED9F0
Ron Paul 2012! and 2016!!!
I am an ex-Ron Paul supporter, I helped him in 2004. I am now a “progressive”.
His latest:
Ron Paul: Federal Response To Hurricanes Unnecessary, ‘We Should Be Like 1900′
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/27/ron-paul-fema-video_n_939131.html
It’s funny, because most of his policies are deregulatory back to 1900, if not the 1800s!
Ron Paul compares Social Security and Medicare to slavery – http://t.co/GorydA0
Ron Paul: Abolish FEMA – http://bit.ly/kWhLDi
Ron Paul would not have voted for Civil Rights Act! – http://t.co/LHq8V7O
Ron’s policies are terrible & he’s a racist.
His social policies would be a rollback to the 1920s.
His economic policies would also be a rollback to the 1920s & would cause a depression instantly that would be on par of what the USSR went thru.
His deregulation policies of industry would be a rollback to the 1800s. You think the oil spill & nuke meltdown are bad?
These policies would only benefit the rich & would put the middle-class into the poor house, while killing the economy for decades, destroying the environment, while also inciting racism & bigotry in an official capacity.
Both Pauls suck, take it from an ex-Ron Paul supporter & activist from 2004.
Their positions on nearly all of the issues are far right extremist positions that would make the Bush administration look like a bunch of liberal hippies.
The only thing that Ron Paul is right on is his foreign policies regarding the military & how it should & shouldn’t be used.
ps: This is just something I threw together, there is a lot more good quality data out there that shows that the outcomes of his policies would be horrendous, plus the fact that Congress would not work with him, so it would be the same gridlock.
So you were a Ron Paul supporter then stopped because you got bad intel? His message hasn’t changed, so that couldn’t have been it.
Where to begin? FEMA is $20 billion in debt, they stop citizens and volunteers from going into the damaged area to rebuild, they hand out 0-bid contracts to specific contractors (who chooses those?), repairs are delayed for months up to years, etc. I would go on, but the video I posted should be good enough quality data. Have you seen the response to this “disaster” Irene? News outlets have been speaking with local officials and they all rave about how well their local and state relief plans prepared them, how they evacuated hospitals efficiently, and all the effective designated areas where people are currently sheltered. No FEMA required, only local and state employees and National Guard have done the job required by them. FEMA is just another government agency that is terribly mismanaged and has NO money.
Have you spoke with a small business owner recently about regulations? Probably not because they’re a dying breed. Regulations have only helped the big corporations separate themselves from small businesses and in turn making them more wealthy. Small businesses have a hard enough time trying to get a loan with a decent interest rate, now they have the government holding them down by telling them what they can and can’t do until they fail. Regulations have helped destroy the private sector and with respect to that, the middle class.
Ron Paul would have not voted for the Civil Rights Act, but because he’s racist? Have you read the Constitution? “All men are created equal.” Why should there have been a separate Act to reword what is already in the Constitution? Why don’t you call the people of that era racist and unconstitutional? What they were doing to black people was racist and illegal. The government should have stepped in and arrested those who were mistreating a person because of the color of their skin and not set up a specific Act that only points out flaws and creates more racism. He’s actually been quoted saying Rosa Parks and MLK Jr. (and Gandhi) are HEROES to him because they portrayed an important Libertarian stance of civil disobedience when their liberties were challenged.
Social Security and Medicare compared to slavery. I can keep this one short and sweet. Here’s a definition of slavery: excessive dependence on or devotion to something. We are forced to do something that some don’t want to do. We are forced to pay into a system that has turned into a ponzi scheme. Why can’t we have the option to opt-out?
Social Policies would roll us back to 1920s? If people were more free in the 1920s and didn’t have policies in place like the Patriot Act, TSA molesting, etc. that allowed them to have their personal liberties not trampled on, then bring on back the 1920s! His social policies are all about personal liberties and freedom…do you not like that?
Economic policies…I can’t teach Austrian economics quickly, but how are our current economic policies working out for you? We basically have monopoly money that isn’t backed by any scarce material like gold, which allows a currency to hold its value and disallows the government from absurd spending.
Please re-educate yourself on his policies and stances with different sources. I hope some of this information is helpful with bringing you back! Thank you for your post.