Smasharoo wrote:
The reason no Republicans take Ron Paul seriously as a candidate is because he's not a Republican. He's a real Libertarian
Of course he isn't. He's the sort of abject political opportunist who makes crazy oversimplifications of complex issues for personal profit (yes even moreso than other candidates). He's just in it for the fame, and mostly, the money.
Why does no one take him seriously? Because he's not running for President of the United States. He's running for President of the Self Righteous Neck-beards With Too Much Money. He's a Republican, he votes like any other Republican, he gets whipped like any other Republican. He raises a lot of money (that he later, you know, pockets) from internet donors because he's struck a particularly rich vein of oversimplification that appeals to marginally successful people who are convinced of their own genius.
They're a weird and fickle lot, these idiots who think things like fractional reserve banking is a bad idea and that 10 year olds should be able to buy pharmaceutical grade Heroin from vending machines. They latch on to a fellow though, I'll give them that. It used to be harder. Lyndon Larouche had to print leaflets and publish whacko books. Ross Perot had the brilliant idea of making oversimplified charts to explain his unworkable oversimplified rhetoric. Paul has had the good fortune of having been anointed without really trying.
Let's look at the archetype he represents, and it's clearly an archetype. I'll call it the "Frustrated Wise Gnome." What are the key characteristics that let you build this persona that the soft minded so identify with? It's simple really.
1. A FWG must be ordinary looking and socially awkward. Ugly is allowed, but average will do. Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, the aforementioned Hercule Ross Pierrot (you're welcome, Sam) etc.
2. A FWG must be consistent with his whacko rhetoric. The great squishy headed minority value consistency very highly. After all the answers are simple, why would you change your mind?
3. A FWG must either seem perpetually amazed that what he proposes doesn't happen, OR have an elaborate conspiracy theory why, either attached to him post hoc, or that he propagates himself. Ideally, both, of course. And most ideally, the FWG is a blank slate softies can project their own craziness on.
4. A FWG must obviously have no real hope of victory, but must continue to campaign and spread his "message" regardless. Rarely a problem given the money involved when one catches on.
5. Oh, right, should go without saying, but white male. The vastness of the soft mildly successful class is composed of white men.
Paul ticks all the boxes. Easy, completely impossible solution for every problem, that if ever tested would lead to disaster, but that will never be tested because...well they obviously lead to disaster. Ordinary looking, socially awkward, committed to ideas (except when told to vote the opposite way), easy to project whatever you want onto, he's really the whole FWG package. He lacks the broader appeal of a Perot, which is probably good for him, long term. The FWG star burns out quickly if exposed to too much reality. It's best if it hovers at the edges.
As for his actual positions, who gives a @#%^? He's a character actor, not a leading man. It's cute that his son was elected a Senator, but that's about the end of the family dynasty. The best we can hope for future amusement from the family is that his kid has a son and names him Paul.
I'm logging in for the first time in years just to point out that you have absolutely no idea of what you're talking about.
I'll preface this by saying that while the man isn't perfect, what he says is logical and makes a lot of sense. It appears you honestly have a gross misconception of Paul's policies (which is funny, I notice you fail to site any sources aside from self-proclaimed pseudo-intellectualism).
First, let's point out the fact that you want to bash Ron Paul's voting record?
http://www.votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/296/
Because we know how Republicans
all voted against the Patriot Act, its extension, the Iraq war, and so on, right? I mean, unless you're cool with war now? You seemed pretty pissed off about the Iraq war and the eroding of our civil liberties in 2004 during Bush v Kerry, in fact I respected you because of your anti-Bush and anti-war rhetoric. It seems I was wrong, you're just the counterweight to gbaji, both loyal to your parties that stand for the same thing, making the bankers and big executives richer at the expense of the middle class. To be honest, I would accuse the two of you of being trolls, since I find it hard to believe that people could be that fanatical about their own parties.
Tell me, what's your opinion on the fact that the NDAA provision was signed into law authorizing detaining and/or assassinating US citizens on US soil with no due process or representation of an attorney? Land of the free, home of the brave indeed!
Next we have the gold standard. You seem to think that Paul wants to just shut down the federal reserve overnight, which isn't the case. His plan is to phase out the federal reserve by authorizing competing
commodity-based currency. Why are you okay with an independent bank lending us our own money with interest? They're the reason we have most of the national debt, they're the reason why the dollar is falling so hard. When in doubt, print, that's what Bernanke stands for!
I mean, unless you believe fiat currency is viable and that Keynesian economics are legitimate, I would absolutely love to hear your fact-based arguments against it?
But of course, the democrats disillusioned with Obama (you know, the ones that actually stand for something, (unlike Newt Gingrich or others...), the active military troops, college students who have been continuously ****** over by the baby boomers, college grads who are finding out that there are no jobs do support his ideas. Those are the people who are supporting him, not because he's saying stuff that's different (if you want a crazy, that's what Herman Cain was for!), it's because what he's saying is logical - the man's an economic scholar, predicted the economic collapse and housing bubble (common sense, so why wasn't it stopped?) bursting back in 2002.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGDisyWkIBM Protip: Stop getting your information from Politico, Huffington Post, Maddow, O'Reilly, Matthews, or any other blatantly opinionated information sources that subtly imply you should think one way or another (read: bias). But apparently ONLY Fox News is guilty of that, am I right? Or I guess it's MSNBC if I were asking this to gbaji. You guys aren't the same person, are you? Ha ha.
Oh and good straw-man with the kindergarteners buying heroin from vending machines. Ron Paul doesn't want to legalize drugs, he wants to do away with the redundant federal bans on issues that are explicitly stated in the constitution to be the rights of the individual states to govern on. However I notice that big government liberals like yourself, Gbaji, the other 3 GOP candidates or Obama don't seem to get that you do not need the federal government involving itself in every aspect of peoples' lives.
Your post is like the US Dollar, there's a lot of it there, but it doesn't have any weight behind it. Seriously, back up any of these accusations that you've made, I would love to see it.
Quote:
As for his actual positions, who gives a @#%^? He's a character actor, not a leading man. It's cute that his son was elected a Senator, but that's about the end of the family dynasty. The best we can hope for future amusement from the family is that his kid has a son and names him Paul.
In other words, you have no actual argument. Politics should be about the issues, not celebrity gossip! Don't you see what's wrong with your own quote?
This two party system isn't even a two party system anyhow, we have the neoconservatives which are just democrats who jumped ship. Those of you saying Ron Paul is not a republican seem to not realize that the republicans used to be the 'peace party' before the neo
con movement.
But how dare Ron Paul try to educate people, and obviously no one cares enough to hear him speak!
Go away, crazy old man. No one wants to listen to you, clearly!