RON PAUL(!?)
Calling this a surprising development would be putting it mildly. The annual convention of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) held its straw pole for presidential candidates today. In a major upset the decisive winner was libertarian leaning congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) who has occasionally infuriated social conservatives and neo-cons with his unsparing criticism of George Bush's colonial adventurism in Iraq and the appalling lack of fiscal responsibility during his presidency.
Rep. Paul is an advocate of among other things...
- A mind our own business foreign policy (translation: he is an old fashioned isolationist).
- Sound money (ending the fiat paper currency and returning to the gold standard).
- Balanced budgets. Yea they all say that. But unlike most Washington pols; he really means it.
- A policy of governmental neutrality when it comes to the culture wars. He believes that it's not the government's job to legislate religious or moral beliefs.
Read the story here.
Update: More encouraging signs... the ultra rightwing birther- militia- secessionist- the Bible is the US Constitution crowd over at Free Republic are having a collective stroke over this.
Principaled people are attractive, especially in these times. Paul is a crank - especially in economics - but might even do more good than harm. A more collegial foreign policy, for one thing, would be most welcome.
ReplyDeleteJust a grammatical quibble:
ReplyDeleteAs I understand it, you don't "advocate for" something, you "advocate" it.
That being said...this is rather astonishing news, and while I also have serious disagreements with many of the stated positions of Rep. Paul, I also find his integrity admirable, and thus am rather delighted at this show of support for such a politician.