Heather in WI
12-11-2007, 09:34 PM
This is my argument for Dr. Paul that I've been using with my my conservative friends ... so far I've made a few converts in my small circle of influence .... hopefully this will help someone else!
I like Ron Paul because he believes that actions of the branches of federal government should be defined by the Constitution.
"To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the law making majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the system must depend. Unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by the influence of his patronage, will supersede the laws."
~John Calhoun, 1833
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."
~Patrick Henry
If it is a power granted to whichever branch, then he supports it if he agrees with the legislation. If the power is not granted to that branch, he believes that it is a right retained by the states or the people and he votes it down. Amazingly, this is what the 10th amendment says!
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
I believe that he tries to make all of his votes and decisions starting at that point ... not whatever the current party line is ... not whatever benefits those who gave him campaign money... not whatever benefits those who will support his program because he will support their program. I think that is such a problem in modern politics -- that most of the people involved are trying to pat each other on the back, stay in power, and keep "the other guys" out of power.
I am pro-life. That is how I vote, first and foremost. Ron Paul authored H.R. 1094 which defined life as beginning at conception. He also was the prime sponsor of H.R. 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v. Wade. He also authored H.R. 1095, which prevents federal funds to be used for population control.
Privacy rights and property rights are in my second tier of concerns and reasons that I support Dr. Paul. I have serious problems with many actions that President Bush has taken that I believe undermine our civil rights as citizens of the United States. I could provide quote after quote of the founding founders on this issue, but here are a few:
"There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire."
~John Witherspoon
"Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings — give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
~Patrick Henry
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."
~President James Madison
Taxes and smaller government are my third tier of concerns. Those two things are tied in my mind. I think government is way too big and way too involved in our lives. There is a quote I really like by Thomas Jefferson, "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. …The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
I also love his opposition to the UN, NATO, NAFTA, and WHO and all of the other globalistic-initialed entities that undermine American Sovereignty.
Ron Paul is mostly known for his position on the Iraq war. I was not drawn to Ron Paul because of this, but have slowly changed my position on Iraq. (Not Afghanistan though ... I think we were justified going into there after Bin Laden.) It was a long process, not something that clicked overnight. For awhile, I had Reagan ringing in my ears, "The role of the United States military is not for nation building or policing the world." And, finally, it came down to this for me: If you are standing on a playground, and you think the crazy bully is going to hurt you, you aren't justified if you go up to him and deck him first. Simplistic, yes. But, really, it is what we did, right?
Since then, I have read Ron Paul's position on Iraq and foreign policy, and am slowly moving toward his understanding. I recently bought his book, "A Foreign Policy of Freedom" and am reading it to learn more about his thinking there. Interestingly enough, Ron Paul received the highest amount ($62,000) of donations from the military of ALL the presidential candidates. Interesting, to me, to ponder what it means when pro-war in Iraq people say they are supporting our troops. Aren't the Ron Paul people, the guy most of the military is donating to, really supporting the troops by trying to get him elected?
Finally, I support Dr. Paul's monetary policy position. Why is no other candidate talking about this?!?!
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
President Thomas Jefferson
"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all commerce and industry."
President James A. Garfield
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
President John Adams
"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. ... This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
Alan Greenspan
"It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford
I like Ron Paul because he believes that actions of the branches of federal government should be defined by the Constitution.
"To maintain the ascendancy of the Constitution over the law making majority is the great and essential point on which the success of the system must depend. Unless that ascendancy can be preserved, the necessary consequence must be that the laws will supersede the Constitution; and, finally, the will of the Executive, by the influence of his patronage, will supersede the laws."
~John Calhoun, 1833
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."
~Patrick Henry
If it is a power granted to whichever branch, then he supports it if he agrees with the legislation. If the power is not granted to that branch, he believes that it is a right retained by the states or the people and he votes it down. Amazingly, this is what the 10th amendment says!
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
I believe that he tries to make all of his votes and decisions starting at that point ... not whatever the current party line is ... not whatever benefits those who gave him campaign money... not whatever benefits those who will support his program because he will support their program. I think that is such a problem in modern politics -- that most of the people involved are trying to pat each other on the back, stay in power, and keep "the other guys" out of power.
I am pro-life. That is how I vote, first and foremost. Ron Paul authored H.R. 1094 which defined life as beginning at conception. He also was the prime sponsor of H.R. 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v. Wade. He also authored H.R. 1095, which prevents federal funds to be used for population control.
Privacy rights and property rights are in my second tier of concerns and reasons that I support Dr. Paul. I have serious problems with many actions that President Bush has taken that I believe undermine our civil rights as citizens of the United States. I could provide quote after quote of the founding founders on this issue, but here are a few:
"There is not a single instance in history in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire."
~John Witherspoon
"Liberty, the greatest of all earthly blessings — give us that precious jewel, and you may take every things else! Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined."
~Patrick Henry
"If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is perhaps the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other."
~President James Madison
Taxes and smaller government are my third tier of concerns. Those two things are tied in my mind. I think government is way too big and way too involved in our lives. There is a quote I really like by Thomas Jefferson, "Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have. …The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."
I also love his opposition to the UN, NATO, NAFTA, and WHO and all of the other globalistic-initialed entities that undermine American Sovereignty.
Ron Paul is mostly known for his position on the Iraq war. I was not drawn to Ron Paul because of this, but have slowly changed my position on Iraq. (Not Afghanistan though ... I think we were justified going into there after Bin Laden.) It was a long process, not something that clicked overnight. For awhile, I had Reagan ringing in my ears, "The role of the United States military is not for nation building or policing the world." And, finally, it came down to this for me: If you are standing on a playground, and you think the crazy bully is going to hurt you, you aren't justified if you go up to him and deck him first. Simplistic, yes. But, really, it is what we did, right?
Since then, I have read Ron Paul's position on Iraq and foreign policy, and am slowly moving toward his understanding. I recently bought his book, "A Foreign Policy of Freedom" and am reading it to learn more about his thinking there. Interestingly enough, Ron Paul received the highest amount ($62,000) of donations from the military of ALL the presidential candidates. Interesting, to me, to ponder what it means when pro-war in Iraq people say they are supporting our troops. Aren't the Ron Paul people, the guy most of the military is donating to, really supporting the troops by trying to get him elected?
Finally, I support Dr. Paul's monetary policy position. Why is no other candidate talking about this?!?!
"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."
President Thomas Jefferson
"Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all commerce and industry."
President James A. Garfield
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation."
President John Adams
"In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. ... This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard."
Alan Greenspan
"It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Henry Ford