Who is Ron Paul?

Search WWW Search pww.org Archive Sections Analysis
Author: Jim Lane
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 11/29/07 14:55

It is relatively easy to see why far-right presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas is driving some of the other Republicans crazy. He clearly won the straw poll after their first debate. On Nov. 5, he set a one-day fund-raising record through the Internet.

Polls show that, although he is still far behind the big-money candidates, he is beating TV star Fred Thompson and is in a dead heat with war hero John McCain. So-called conservative candidates customarily lure voters with nostalgia for earlier times. They play into a natural disdain for today’s values and events when compared to those of our own youth. “Why, when I was coming up ...” begins many a complaint in ordinary political conversation.

Successful Republicans, especially the current occupant of the White House, imply that, if elected, they can and will physically turn our clocks and calendars backward. Ron Paul bedevils the other hopefuls because he goes much further with that fantastic promise than they do. Instead of asking, “Who is Ron Paul,” it is much more appropriate to ask, “When is Ron Paul?” There is absolutely no argument that Dr. Paul would make the best president of the United States that the 16th century could offer. A quick glance at Paul’s campaign positions as listed on www.ronpaul2008.com, his campaign web site, shows they have a certain simpleminded appeal. Alone among the Republicans, he opposes Bush’s wars and occupations abroad.

He absolutely despises “so called free trade deals and world governmental organizations like the International Criminal Court (ICC), NAFTA, GATT, WTO and CAFTA.” He wants to stop the NAFTA highway. He condemns government spying on the citizenry, and would like to overturn the Patriot Act. He seems to support Social Security, even though he oversimplifies the issue of taxing benefits and is completely mistaken about undocumented workers receiving Social Security payments. Many of Ron Paul’s other stated positions may raise antennae. As one might expect, he is strongly pro-gun and anti-abortion. He condemns the United Nations. He opposes eminent domain, not because it is misused for corporate interests but because he believes “property is sacred.” He wants to return to the gold standard. His proposed legislation for a federal voucher system would completely undermine public education. He says, “I support giving educational control back to parents.” Ron Paul is thoroughly anti-immigrant. He sees no reason why government should play any role whatsoever in stopping racism. What Rep. Ron Paul advocates, in short, is the idea that raw capitalism, its “invisible hand” unchecked by centuries of democratic workers’ struggles, would solve all ills in 2008. It would be true, if our ills were those of serfdom or outright slavery. Capitalism did, indeed, put an end to barbarism and bring in an economic system with incredibly higher standards of production and fewer horrors from the caprices of royal aristocrats. But that was 400 years ago, and this is now. Jim Lane (flittle7 @yahoo.com) is a labor activist in Dallas.

USA Ron Paul 4 President, International Support Sites Increase

Panama 4 Ron Paul 2008



Paul's Int. Support Keeps GrowingThursday, September 20, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
Posted September 20th, 2007 by manystromThanks to Grant Johnston who emailed me with a slew of international Ron Paul blogs. The list of sites on the blogroll on the front page now contains fifteen (15!) international blogs! What other candidate - Republican or Democrat can boast this kind of support?International Blogs:
Asia for Ron Paul,
Bavaria for Ron Paul,
Belgians for Ron Paul,
Brits for Ron Paul,
Brazilians for Ron Paul,
Canadians for Ron Paul,
Chile for Ron Paul,
French for Ron Paul,
Europe 4 Ron Paul,
Holland 4 Ron Paul,
Hungary for Ron Paul,
Indian & Pakistani Friends of Ron Paul,
Poland for Ron Paul,
Panama 4 Ron Paul 2008,
Romania for Ron Paul,
Venezuela for Ron Paul.
Grant also notes: "I discovered, by observation in meetup.com (http://ronpaul.meetup.com/about/), that a city gets a white pin, when 3 or more people are waiting for a meetup group. When the pin is white, no one has to pay. You only have to pay if a meetup group is started (it is not mandatory to start a group if interest is expressed). The pin then changes to red.It would be nice to at least have a white pin for each of the countries that have Ron Paul supporters (Brazil, Romania, etc.). Unfortunately, I cannot find contact information for them on their websites, to tell them how to get it. http://www.dailypaul.com/node/2236