More thoughts on Ron Paul
posted by The Vidiot @ 2:06 PM PermalinkI have written here before that I don't hate Ron Paul. He usually says things I agree with. I'm not the only one. Ron Paul is gaining support, and it seems like his support is coming from some of the same types of people who supported Howard Dean: They have online savvy, they're active and they're vocal. But I don't think many of his supporters really understand who Ron Paul is, or rather, they don't understand what a libertarian is. If they did, they'd think twice.
Libertarians want to privatize everything. EVERYTHING. They're free-market freaks. So that means privatized roadways, privatized utilities, and privatized healthcare. Under a libertarian, there's absolutely no chance that we'll get national healthcare and there's a good chance things like Medicare and Medicaid would be cut drastically cut and/or handed over to private agencies. So, a lot of these so-called liberals who are looking at his anti-war stance and supporting him probably don't really get his whole package.
That being said, however, part of me feels like we might have to suck it up and deal with his libertarian ethos if that meant we'd get the constitution restored and the federal reserve abolished. We can wait four or eight years for a national healthcare program if that meant we'd get our civil liberties back and we got ourselves out of Iraq.
But the other part of me knows that anyone who believes that the free-market can solve almost any problem is certifiably insane.
{sigh} Do I have to vote for any of them? They're all ridiculous.
Labels: 2008 election, ron paul
2 Comments:
A nice, fair article. Two things though; Ron Paul wouldn't completely abolish medicare or social security on day one. Anything he does would be transitionary. Second, I'm scare of his libertarian streak too; as an environmentalist, the last thing I want to hear is "the free market will save the environment." Put I'm just going to have to put some faith in Dr. Paul. There's an inevitable part of human nature that wants to pillage the Earth, and another that wants to save the Earth. I think it's like a hammer; you can fix something, or destroy something. In this case, I think the free market would be like having a better hammer.
I know whatever he'd want to do would take time, but look at the destruction GW did in just four years! I expect that Ron Paul would be way more reasonable.
The whole discussion is moot though. MSM will NEVER let Ron Paul win. Did you hear Hannity giggling at him during the debate last night? Jeebus.
Thanks for posting.
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