Ron Paul Is A Feisty Old Man Deserving of the GOP Candidacy

It's about time I publicly confess my adoration of Congressman Ron Paul. For a 75 year old Republican from Texas, he's pretty awesome. I didn't know much about him up until about a year ago, when I discovered an interview of him from 1988 admonishing the CIA for its involvement in drug trafficking. Although I don't agree with all of his political stances, I think he is our best bet for 2012 if we want to break free from the foreboding direction we have been heading in for the last 10+ years. Unfortunately, it is unlikely Paul will win the GOP candidacy unless the mass media gives him more coverage and the general public becomes more aware of how promising this feisty old man's agenda is. For one, Paul would like to gradually dissolve the Federal Reserve. He has consistently challenged the efficiency of the Fed, pointing out that rather than containing inflation, it actually creates inflation by printing money "out of thin air." Paul views the inflation caused by the Fed as the primary reason for economic recessions and depressions, and believes inflation is a sort of underhand tax which is a substantial burden on citizens. He has even gone so far as saying the $1.3 trillion debt owed to the Federal Reserve is not real. Instead of using fiat currency, Paul wants to have a system where money is backed by a commodity, such as gold or silver, but he doesn't necessarily support a return to the gold standard. In addition to eliminating the Fed, Ron Paul wants to get rid of the IRS and the income tax. He believes the concept of the income tax suggests the federal government owns individuals' lives and labor, and proposes that the federal government be funded through excise taxes and/or tariffs. In regards to foreign policy, Mr. Paul is a firm advocate of non-intervention. He believes military action is only necessary when there is a direct threat to American soil. In an interview with The Washington Post, he said, "There's nobody in this world that could possibly attack us today...we could defend this country with a few good submarines. If anybody dared touch us we could wipe any country off of the face of the earth within hours. And here we are, so intimidated and so insecure and we're acting like such bullies that we have to attack third-world nations that have no military and have no weapons." Congressman Paul makes a fine point. It is about time we stop interfering in the senseless conflicts of other nations and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on foreign wars when no threat is posed to our borders. 9/11 might be a rare exception to that notion, and Paul was a supporter of the war in Afghanistan, but the fact remains that the cost of the War on Terror has taken a tremendous toll on our economy. I read recently that the cost of stationing one soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq for one month could feed several American families for a year. That fact is difficult to explain to a citizen who has lost their home or job to the recession, especially when we have no exit strategy for Afghanistan. How much longer are our troops going to meander around the foothills of Afghanistan looking for insurgents to kill? Now that Osama bin Laden has been declared dead, our mission over there has become even more vague. I don't think the average American citizen feels unsafe because there are jihadists hiding in the mountains 7,000 miles away. Before I digress any further, let's move on to Ron Paul's position on drugs. Mr. Paul, as could be surmised from the aforementioned interview from 1988, advocates ending the War on Drugs. He has stated simply, "Prohibition doesn't work. Prohibition causes crime." Of course, according to Mr. Paul, the majority of that crime is committed in secrecy by our own government. I agree with Paul's statement that prohibition causes crime, however, legalization will certainly not eliminate crime as illustrated by incidents in California of medical marijuana distribution centers being robbed by drug cartels. Some of these perpetrations involved the murders of the centers' employees. That being said, I still think it is logical to conclude the legalization of drugs will decrease crime, not to mention it will eliminate the exorbitant amount of money the government spends on the futile and hypocritical War on Drugs. Paul, being a Constitutionalist, points out that the Constitution does not mention or delegate to Congress the authority to ban or regulate drugs in general. He also believes drug addiction, like alcoholism, should be treated as a medical condition and not a crime. I should mention he is an M.D.. Mr. Paul sees the War on Drugs as a racist policy as it disproportionally affects African-Americans. Another political stance of Congressman Paul which is imperative to our nation's improvement is his opposition to the Patriot Act. He has said, "Everything we have done in response to the 9/11 attacks, from the Patriot Act to the war in Iraq, has reduced freedom in America." Agreed. In conclusion, Ron Paul is the man and needs to be the GOP candidate for 2012. Even if he does not win the candidacy, he will have my vote as a write-in, unless President Obama grows a pair and starts asserting himself instead of acquiescing to the powers that be and failing to fulfill a single significant promise he made during his campaign. As intelligent and charismatic as he is, Obama is a typical politician. If you made an incision down the middle of his torso, a huge pile of feces would fall out. His jump shot needs some work too. And for a biracial man, he is a terrible dancer. Of course, it wouldn't surprise me if Ron Paul became President and turned out to be an unassertive bullshitter with a flawed jump shot and sub-par dancing abilities. Such is the way of American politics. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Ron Paul on the debt and Federal Reserve: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuDIuBPXI3U
Ron Paul on CIA drug trafficking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBh_hzU-jdI