sailingaway
11-25-2012, 01:27 PM
http://media.nj.com/star-ledger/photo/10081839-large.jpg
Ron Paul recently gave his farewell address to Congress. I encourage you to watch it in full.
As recently as 2007, Ron was so obscure a figure that the way to reach him was by his home number, which I got from Murray Sabrin, the 1997 Libertarian candidate for governor.
He now leaves office having introduced more ideas into the national debate than any other figure in either party.
Not that that was much of a challenge. Can anyone name a single idea introduced by either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
In fact the only idea I recall from recent debates is Herman Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan. It made a lot of sense, though Cain himself was a bit flawed as a candidate. But even that was derivative of Ron's ideas.
And on foreign policy, Ron Paul pretty much singlehandedly made it possible to talk about the rather obvious fact that we're going broke trying to be the policeman of the world - and that we're not very good at it. If only Romney had listened to him he might have made some headway on foreign policy.
But when your foreign policy consists of arguing you're going to get us involved in even more debacles than Obama, then you are going to give the upper hand on the issue to your opponent, which is exactly what Romney did.
Ron also offers a way out on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage - the old-time conservative way. He argues we should leave abortion to the states, a position that would let a Republican pile up pro-life votes in pro-life states and pro-choice votes in pro-choice states.
I saw Ron make that argument last January during the South Carolina primary. As I wrote here, it outraged the "pro-life" political lobbyists who were holding the debate. But that's because the lobbies that have grown up around such issues get rich by pushing the most extreme positions possible.
A candidate needs to have the nerve to stand up to this pressure and stick to principle. But again Romney ignored Ron Paul's advice and pretended to be a one-size-fits-all pro-life fanatic - even though he was a pro-choicer just the other day.
more, and video of Ron's farewell speech, at link: http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2012/11/ron_pauls_farewell_address_rig.html
Ron Paul recently gave his farewell address to Congress. I encourage you to watch it in full.
As recently as 2007, Ron was so obscure a figure that the way to reach him was by his home number, which I got from Murray Sabrin, the 1997 Libertarian candidate for governor.
He now leaves office having introduced more ideas into the national debate than any other figure in either party.
Not that that was much of a challenge. Can anyone name a single idea introduced by either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
In fact the only idea I recall from recent debates is Herman Cain's "9-9-9" tax plan. It made a lot of sense, though Cain himself was a bit flawed as a candidate. But even that was derivative of Ron's ideas.
And on foreign policy, Ron Paul pretty much singlehandedly made it possible to talk about the rather obvious fact that we're going broke trying to be the policeman of the world - and that we're not very good at it. If only Romney had listened to him he might have made some headway on foreign policy.
But when your foreign policy consists of arguing you're going to get us involved in even more debacles than Obama, then you are going to give the upper hand on the issue to your opponent, which is exactly what Romney did.
Ron also offers a way out on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage - the old-time conservative way. He argues we should leave abortion to the states, a position that would let a Republican pile up pro-life votes in pro-life states and pro-choice votes in pro-choice states.
I saw Ron make that argument last January during the South Carolina primary. As I wrote here, it outraged the "pro-life" political lobbyists who were holding the debate. But that's because the lobbies that have grown up around such issues get rich by pushing the most extreme positions possible.
A candidate needs to have the nerve to stand up to this pressure and stick to principle. But again Romney ignored Ron Paul's advice and pretended to be a one-size-fits-all pro-life fanatic - even though he was a pro-choicer just the other day.
more, and video of Ron's farewell speech, at link: http://blog.nj.com/njv_paul_mulshine/2012/11/ron_pauls_farewell_address_rig.html