Ron Paulian Rhetoric...

Ron Paul rally at Union Station in Kansas City, MO

I had the opportunity to see Ron Paul at a rally in Kansas City tonight at Union Station. One of the things I have noticed about the crowds of people that support Ron Paul in comparison to those that support other candidates is the rhetoric. Even in chants which in most cases tend to be the epitome of mindless agreement have far more substance than in other campaigns. In the re-election of George W. Bush we heard things like "FOUR MORE YEARS" and with Barack Obama, we were subjected to "O-BA-MA" and "YES WE CAN" which were rooted in nothing but demagoguery and campaign propaganda. At best, phrases such as "yes we can" were at least cleverly thought out to be malleable to whichever point of view the person participating in the chant held. 

Take those phrases and contrast them to those such as "END THE FED", "RON PAUL REVOLUTION; GIVE US BACK OUR CONSTITUTION" and "BRING THEM HOME" which are all chants that are substantive and have some actual depth to them and you will see a stark difference. Those chants are also backed with actual knowledge of current events and familiarity with our political system and the Constitution. At other campaigns you might find someone that knows a thing or two about the constitution but beyond rattling off portions of the preamble and a couple amendments, you would be hard-pressed to find people who could explain how the assassination of Anwar al-Awlaki and other US citizens was a violation of the Executive powers and how it was a bad moment in our countries history for our civil liberties. I believe it would be equally challenging to receive and explanation of how the Federal Reserve act is a violation of our constitution. 

You can take that even further and contrast the kind of literature that people read at these events. You can count on finding a handful of people at any Romney or Gingrich rally that have either read or at least familiar with the latest book of their candidate but by far, the Ron Paul supporters have more often read several Ron Paul books and did not stop at the literature of their candidate. You will find people familiar with the works of F.A. Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Andrew Napolitano, Ayn Rand and the list goes on and on. 

In my experience, the knowledge of Ron Paul supporters goes far beyond, media talking points as heard on television and talk radio. It seems that even the group chants heard at a Ron Paul rally cannot be confined to the limits of the herd mentality that it so often accompanies and much transcend that by actually containing a meaningful message! Kudos to Ron Paul supporters for educating yourselves.  I can only hope that as the cause of Liberty trends upward in popularity, that people continue this habit of self-education. It can only bring about better things! 

Identifying a Crazy Person. (Newt Lasso's the Moon)

a newt

In my experience, you can tell that someone is crazy once they start coming up with elaborate plans like get rich schemes and unusually lengthy and hard to follow explanations of the mechanics thereof. A con-artist comes to mind.  I usually apply the same common scrutiny sense in identifying a loon as I do the politician giving a speech.  People can swap some goofy stories about people trying to get their friends to go in on some sure-fire Ponzi scheme but Newt Gingrich takes the cake!

Not too long ago, crazy uncle Newt pitched his grand idea in Florida to colonize the moon! Several things set off the crazy alarm on this the biggest and most notable being the condition of our economy. With high unemployment and soviet style run away spending, why would anyone want to increase by 15% our already bloated debt?  How does one claim to be the conservative alternative to a "Massachusetts moderate" and then have great money inflating ideas like that?

Is it fair that we try to put a tin foil hat on Ron Paul who is basically saying that we've tried the Keynesian/big government thing, lets try sound money and more individual Liberty? This man is clearly been channeling the paleo-conservative ghosts of Reagan, Goldwater and Eisenhower. Is that fair when his opponent so vocally defies all reason with ideas of recession-funded moon colonies that would make John Maynard Keynes proud? If you can't see the horrible delusion in that, please sign up for the new moon colony. I'm sure you'll like it.

Don't Run Against Obama...

It seems to me that people are making a huge mistake when buying into the notion that this election is about getting Barack Obama out of office. Mainly because when we reduce the issues from ideology to men, it does the democratic process a great disservice. People do not seem to think through with whom we would replace him  and tend to be happy with whoever can simply defeat him.

Barack Obama signing NDAA into law

In reality, Obama has not been much different from George W. Bush.  Both candidates voted for huge stimulus spending, expanded the role of government in healthcare, over-extended the military and signed legislation into law that compromises the liberties afforded us by habeas corpus (e.g. N.D.A.A. and the Patriot Act). There are many more things I am sure they have in common that I could spend all day on but the point is that we apparently have not learned our lesson with George W. Bush.  We are poised to elect Mitt Romney who would be just like the two previous presidents (Obama and Bush) if not worse.  The ideology between the field of G.O.P. establishment candidates and that of our past 4 presidents is not significantly different.

The ideological impact of replacing our incumbent president with Gingrich, Romney or Santorum would be the equivalent of replacing Communism with Fascism. All of the current contenders with the exception of Ron Paul have "plans" to fix every problem while all along it has been the plans that are the problem.  As long as we keep electing men who think they have the answer to the problem, we'll only be making it worse.  This idea that we can use the government to fix all of our problems is in reality the root of them! Ron Paul is the only candidate who is running on the idea that we take power away from the government and let people live life the way they see fit! No matter how good a politicians promise sounds it is only a recipe for tyranny when it involves government action in place of individual autonomy as government action naturally does!  We need a passive government that will allow us to take care of ourselves. Ron Paul is the only candidate who truly embraces that ideology!

Dr. Ron Paul

When we make an election about voting the incumbent out we lose sight of the issues and create fertile grounds for intellectual dishonesty. We embrace one man who will do the same things that we hated in another and give into a double standard.  The hypocrisy has to stop one day and it will. Whether it comes because our system has collapsed and can no longer be sustained or because we have had an awakening of people who are no longer willing to vote for a party or a man but insist on electing an ideology.