Why Ron Paul Gets My Respect, But Not My Vote

Published on November 11, 2007 By jdkeepsmiling In US Domestic

Ron Paul is the kind of guy you want to cheer for. He is the proverbial underdog who has caught a huge wave of young energetic support. He is the Howard Dean of the 2008 campaign. In fact I sincerely admire the man and the fact that he has stuck to his convictions over his 20+ years in public service.

For those of you who don't know who this Ron Paul guy is, he is running for a the Republican nomination for President. He has run in the past under the Libertarian banner. He is a strict constitutionalist, favors no income taxes, getting out of Iraq and a return to the gold standard. Now you may ask why the traditionally liberal JD has any interest in the man. The reason is simple, he is a man of honor. This is something that is seriously missing from the capital these days, no matter what side of the isle you look.

His views may not be the same as mine, but he has had the same views for 20 years and has ALWAYS voted that way. He opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, and still does. He voted against the Patriot Act, and still opposes it. He has always said that the government is too large. This is such a rare quality in and of itself it deserves note. Besides that I like him because like me, he takes seemingly opposing viewpoints on issues and explains them as common sense. This is refreshing. I still cannot support the man, but I respect him more then anyone I plan on voting for.

I encourage anyone who finds his views attractive to go to his website and support him and find out more about him.

Thanks for listening. JD

Comments

Gideon MacLeish

on Nov 11, 2007

JD,

Good article, except for one thing. I would say that Ron Paul is more analogous to George McGovern than Howard Dean. Howard was a little loopy.

I've been a Ron Paul supporter from the beginning, and on the off chance he does get the nod, it certainly won't hurt my race for state rep.

jdkeepsmiling

on Nov 11, 2007

Gideon,

I have immense respect for the Libertarian point of view, because it makes the most sense logically. The problem I always have is my stupid bleeding heart and care for the environment. I just don;t think that people in general are smart enough to live the Libertarian way. I wish you the best of luck as your posts are always incitefull, and you are not condemning of others opinions. I will keep an eye out on Dr. Paul's campaign though...ya never know.

Adventure-Dude

on Nov 12, 2007

I will keep an eye out on Dr. Paul's campaign though...ya never know.

I don't know if you use Real Clear Politics and their averages of polling or not but today they added Ron Paul as No. 5 in Rep rankings at 4%.

WWW Link

Dr Guy

on Nov 12, 2007

George MCGovern? Howard Dean? Please, you could come up with better comparisons!

I have a lot of respect for Ron Paul. And if Frick and Frack were running, he could get my vote. But as long as Hillary is the race, I have to back ABH. I hope it is someone I can support wholeheartedly. But it will be someone I support regardless as I think she is the Dean and McGovern this year. (all in one).

greywar

on Nov 19, 2007

Any respect I had for Ron Paul died off when he couldn't even summon the testicular fortitude to outright refuse donations from the Stormfront yokels. Completely spineless.

This should have been an issue that took about 5 milliseconds to conclude. Instead he f*cked around for days waiting for his staff to "come to some sort of decision". Not exactly Presidential caliber decision making.

Of course rejecting the Stormfront folks might mean they would stop spamming websites and online polls for him. I can see how this would be a problem for a campaign of this nature.

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