Rep. Ron Paul is back as his supporters flood conferences where straw polls are to be taken to boost his showing within the Republican Party. Now, before I get the typical ignorant emails from Paulbots I have to make sure that everyone remembers that as far as his fiscal ideas I think Ron Paul is right on the money. Even most of his social ideas are spot on. Government spends too much on too many things that it simply should not. He is a great proponent for individual liberty and Ron Paul is the guy you want in charged based on what you hear what he and others say about him on those issues.
Ron Paul’s problems however are that he talks too much and I am convinced that he thinks he is smart enough to make things that simply aren’t true true by just talking about them and proclaiming them as so. Ron Paul claims to be a libertarian. But the more I talk to libertarians, the more I am convinced that they are very much in disagreement with Mr. Paul and his ardent, and quite frankly virulent, supporters on key issues. Ron Paul is a political isolationist at best on foreign policy for example. He wants America to withdraw from the world stage militarily. And while libertarians certainly do not like empires and wars for the sake of wars, Mr. Paul is a particular minority breed of libertarian who blames everything that happens bad to America as a result of things such as blowback from our foreign policies and seems convinced that if America would just leave the world alone everything would be peaches and cream.
But again, the more I talk to libertarians the more I realize that the vast majority of them are more in line with my opinions expressed in the article Blowback Happens Regardless and that choosing not to act in a certain way is simply choosing to act in another and those acts also have consequences. Mr. Paul however often pontificates on the subject as if this is not the case and that America suffers blowback only because it is doing things he would not do if in charge.
Us more mainstream libertarians agree with Mr. Paul that America has too many bases over seas and gets involved in things that the country should not. But, and again this comes from talking with a lot of libertarians, these libertarians also think that by enlarge Mr. Paul’s rhetoric goes too far into an isolationist stance and ignores that at times there are right and proper actions to be taken when good people elsewhere are under assault, when allies are threatened (and that America does need allies) and when America’s national security is being challenged.
Basically the world is filled with not nice people doing not nice things and someone has to at times do something to stop them.
Now, hot off the heals of his barely second place finish (he was one vote shy of being tied with Mitt Romney, don’t get me started on this man either, for first) in the straw poll taken at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Mr. Paul is once again opening his mouth and spouting nonsense. And it isn’t meaningless, hey we can overlook that and disagree kind of nonsense either. No, this is the kind of nonsense he is famous for that makes people stand up and take pause before voting for him in real life because it is so insanely stupid.
Straw polls are one thing. Real life is another entirely.
Here is an excerpt of a report on the comments:
“In the technical sense, in the economic definition, he is not a socialist,” the Texas Republican said to a smattering of applause at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
“He’s a corporatist,” Paul quickly added, meaning the president takes “care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.”
This is the kind of I’m smarter than you rhetoric that causes libertarians to cringe at the thought of voting for Mr. Paul because it is just so stupid and condesending the way he tries to correct people to believe what he thinks is right.
But Mr. Paul really should invest in a dictionary. For example, Webster’s Dictionary provides a pretty clear definition of what a socialist is. A socialist is one that believes in socialism. What is socialism? Socialism is:
1 : any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state
3 : a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done
While corporatism is indeed a form of socialism however President Obama is not a corporatist which Mr. Paul defines as, someone that takes care of corporations and lets them run the country. Mr. Obama may be a unionist which many socialists are but he is certainly not a corporatist. Barack Obama spends much of his time bashing corporations. And when he is not doing that verbally he is working on getting policies and laws enacted that tear down corporations and bring them under government control.
Exhibit 1 is TARP which President Obama supported as a Senator and made corporations kneel at the alter of government.
Exhibit 2 is the automobile bailout which made two major manufactures partial government entities.
Exhibit 3 is Obamacare where he nationalized so much of the economy that it isn’t even funny. Meanwhile you have “corporations” declining to see new Medicaid and Medicare patients under similar programs which is hardly taking care of these entities.
Exhibit 4 is his persistence on Cap and Trade legislation which certainly does not favor corporations in heavy industry as they will incur huge expenses.
Exhibit 5 is his constant sops to the unions (like teacher’s unions) which are very anti-corporation in general and constantly working against the intrests of the industries they are in more often than not.
The list is longer than this but you get the picture. Mr. Paul should stop trying to sound smarter than everyone else. That’s why people tune out liberals after about four words. And it is why the same thing will happen to Representative Paul if he doesn’t get over what I see as his constant smugness that he knows something no one else does.
Mr. Obama is a socialist. Plain and simple Mr. Paul and you would be a great candidate and a great President if ever you could get over yourself and your delusions.
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