Back to Work: Is Ron Paul The Truth?
After the obligatory Tryptophan overdose during the Thanksgiving holiday, it's back to blogging, and trying to stay abreast of what's going on in the world. Sure, I could talk about the food, family, etc. of the holiday, but I'd imagine that such a thing would be boring.
So, first on my agenda is a quick look at Ron Paul, the Texas Republican running for President. Maybe Paul has no actual shot at the office, but he is certainly having an impact on the race. He raised $4.3 million on Nov 5th, the most ever raised by any GOP client in one day.
Paul is anti-war on drugs, and against the war on terrorism -- two things that most Republicans would find completely antithetical. He was also against the war in Iraq and voted against the Patriot Act. He's also for the deauthorization of the IRS. Go Figure. Paul is certainly setting his own course, and starting to win in the process.
Of course, he holds some views I don't agree with, like his support of building a wall on the Mexican border, and his opposition of a woman's right to choose. This just proves Paul is human, as no one is perfect.
What's interesting is that Ron Paul is capitalizing on a new trend in American politics. In April 2006, the Pew Research Center published a study finding that about 9 percent of Americans hold a "libertarian" ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." Now, certainly, such an ideology is purely situational, of course, because we all have pet projects and such for which we'd like to have federal monies. One can be sure though, that Paul's list of pet priorities probably has a much smaller pricetag than do any of the other candidates on either side of the middle.
Most interesting to me, he's tapping into a latent distrust of government that people have developed over the past couple of decades. People have grown tired of increasing government intrusions into their personal space, increasing tax burdens on the middle class in particular, and completely tired of the government's lack of respect for the opinion of the populace that elects them. Rampant corruption and the return of structural deficits created by the so-called conservatives in the White House and congress have surely raised Ron Paul's cachet as a small-government free-wheeler. That's what conservative voters thought they got in George Bush and Dick Cheney. Not so much.
With all that, can Paul win the GOP nomination? Probably not. Can he move both parties to the center? I believe so. He's proven that he can garner donations, and he's got an unexpected, and strange set of bedfellows for supporters: rabid conservative, small-government folks aligned with ultra-liberals in the entertainment circles in Hollywood. His laissez-faire attitudes might just attract some more mainstream, disaffected Dems to his camp, especially in open-primary states. Should he advance beyond the GOP primaries, he'd pose a very significant challenge to any of the Democratic candidates. Can Ron Paul be ignored? Sure, but at the other candidate's peril.
So, first on my agenda is a quick look at Ron Paul, the Texas Republican running for President. Maybe Paul has no actual shot at the office, but he is certainly having an impact on the race. He raised $4.3 million on Nov 5th, the most ever raised by any GOP client in one day.
Paul is anti-war on drugs, and against the war on terrorism -- two things that most Republicans would find completely antithetical. He was also against the war in Iraq and voted against the Patriot Act. He's also for the deauthorization of the IRS. Go Figure. Paul is certainly setting his own course, and starting to win in the process.
Of course, he holds some views I don't agree with, like his support of building a wall on the Mexican border, and his opposition of a woman's right to choose. This just proves Paul is human, as no one is perfect.
What's interesting is that Ron Paul is capitalizing on a new trend in American politics. In April 2006, the Pew Research Center published a study finding that about 9 percent of Americans hold a "libertarian" ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." Now, certainly, such an ideology is purely situational, of course, because we all have pet projects and such for which we'd like to have federal monies. One can be sure though, that Paul's list of pet priorities probably has a much smaller pricetag than do any of the other candidates on either side of the middle.
Most interesting to me, he's tapping into a latent distrust of government that people have developed over the past couple of decades. People have grown tired of increasing government intrusions into their personal space, increasing tax burdens on the middle class in particular, and completely tired of the government's lack of respect for the opinion of the populace that elects them. Rampant corruption and the return of structural deficits created by the so-called conservatives in the White House and congress have surely raised Ron Paul's cachet as a small-government free-wheeler. That's what conservative voters thought they got in George Bush and Dick Cheney. Not so much.
With all that, can Paul win the GOP nomination? Probably not. Can he move both parties to the center? I believe so. He's proven that he can garner donations, and he's got an unexpected, and strange set of bedfellows for supporters: rabid conservative, small-government folks aligned with ultra-liberals in the entertainment circles in Hollywood. His laissez-faire attitudes might just attract some more mainstream, disaffected Dems to his camp, especially in open-primary states. Should he advance beyond the GOP primaries, he'd pose a very significant challenge to any of the Democratic candidates. Can Ron Paul be ignored? Sure, but at the other candidate's peril.
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Thanks for shedding light on Mr. Paul. It's refreshing to know that those of us who are disenchanted by the status-quo have options to explore before time runs out.