So let me get this straight. Republicans, you are the party of life, for a small government, lower taxes and fiscal conservatism, yet you support the printing and borrowing of money for a trillion dollar interventionist foreign policy. You support giving billions of dollars in foreign welfare to Israel and even more to her enemies. You are a Christian, who values the Golden Rule, yet you support invading and occupying foreign lands against their will. You are pro-life and defend the rights of the unborn, yet you are also pro-war, consenting to the murder of innocent lives in another land. You are for individual freedom, yet you surrender your personal rights to the TSA or police checkpoints under the illusion of safety. You talk up freedom but would deny basic rights to groups of people because their lifestyle runs contrary to your religion.
Democrats, you are the party of peace, civil liberty, justice and equality for all. Yet you believe you are entitled to someone else’s property by supporting an authority that steals from one and gives to another. You are against corporate monopolies with special privileges, yet you support a large central government that has a monopoly of power, granting privileges to their select corporations. You are for strict regulations of industry, yet you are shocked and appalled when those chosen regulators are previous executives from corporations who grant exemption waivers for their cronies while targeting weaker, smaller business. You are for civil liberty, yet you are against economic liberty. You are anti-war, except when a Democrat is in office, when you support the murder of American citizens by drones without trial, the start of new wars, extension of the Patriot act, and the signing of the NDAA.
So many people have become apathetic after seeing politicians change their positions countless times in order to gain a few votes. They tell you exactly what you want to hear, only until they take the stage in front of a different audience, where their views become suddenly different. It is pathetic.
There is, however, one exception: Ron Paul. Ron Paul has been consistently saying the same thing for 30 years. He is honest. He has integrity. He predicted 9/11, the housing bubble and the economic collapse all well before they happened and was met with ridicule. Ron Paul will take the stage in front an audience of staunch neoconservatives and talk about how some U.S. policies led to 9/11, get loudly booed and continue to speak the truth anyway. That is the kind of president I want; someone who will tell me the truth, even if it isn’t popular.
Ron Paul isn’t the best speaker. He stumbles over his words from time to time. He talks too fast. He is old. He doesn’t look “presidential” (whatever that means). But he has a record of consistently voting the same way in Congress for 30 years. He is a strict constitutionalist and has never voted to raise taxes or for an unbalanced budget. He is the only Republican candidate who has a plan to cut the deficit significantly and balance the budget.
My favorite aspect of Ron Paul’s campaign is his foreign policy. He believes in non-intervention: Basically, that we should not be the policemen of the world and that we should generally mind our own business. If our defense is threatened, Ron Paul believes we should formally declare war and get it over with as quickly as possible. For this, he is called “anti-American,” “naïve,” and “anti-Semitic.” Yet our troops overwhelmingly support Ron Paul with their campaign donations. Even though Ron Paul raises much less money than the other candidates, he receives more than six times the donations from active duty military than the rest of the candidates combined.
You may disagree with some of Ron Paul’s views, and that’s fine. But what you can’t disagree with is the fact that he is a trustworthy person. We can truly believe he will do what he says he will do. Why? Because he has done so for 30 years.
Shawn Khalilian is a senior majoring in economics.
Topics: Letters to the Editor, Opinion
Tags: 2012 presidential race, Ron Paul
Short URL: http://cw.ua.edu/?p=33520
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