What can I say about Ron Paul that has not been said before? Well, for those of you who are still reading my blog, here’s a low down on the man.
Ron Paul is a Republican Congressman from Texas, USA. He is has been a Congressman for 12 terms. He is an air force veteran, where he is served as medic. He is an obstetrician-gynecologist who has delivered more than 4000 babies. He is currently running for the President of the United States, a third time.
The thing that makes Mr. Paul stand out is that he is not a politician but rather a Statesman. He is not so much concerned about becoming the president but about putting his ideas in the middle of the discourse. And, what those ideas are!!! I will deal with those ideas in a few minutes. But, let me address the slanders that have been raised against him first.
The slander that is raised most often is that Mr. Paul is a racist, due to some articles that were published in a newsletter that he ran in the mid 80’s. The fact, as has been proven so many times is that Mr. Paul did not write those articles. In fact, Mr. Paul name though on the letterhead of the newsletter, did very little control over what was published as he was busy with his practice at that time. Yet, he has repeatedly accepted the responsibility though at no fault.
In fact, nothing is further from the fact than the statement that Mr. Paul is a racist. Mr. Paul is the only one who has talked about how the War on Drugs has largely failed and negatively affected the blacks, Hispanics more than any other communities.
Let’s look at some of Mr. Paul’s ideas now.
The first one is that USA must stop being the policeman of the world, close down the bases it has around the world, and stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. That US should stop waging wars in other countries. He’s gone on record saying that these wars are actually making US more unsafe and losing friends. That US should rather try and develop friendly relationships with all countries including Iran. He has said that if he becomes the president that he would immediately recall all troops from all combat zones.
Now, one would think that such views would be unpopular with the US armed forces. But, it is a fact that Mr. Paul gets about 50% of all donations made by active personnel in the US armed forces. All the other presidential hopeful combined together (including Obama) makes up the rest 50%. In fact, on the 20th Feb, a group of veterans took out a march in Washington D.C in support of Mr. Paul shouting “President Paul” all through the march.
Mr. Paul is again the only politician running for the presidential elections who has denounced both SOPA and PIPA publically. He has repeatedly denounced the Patriot Act and called for it to be annulled both publically and in the US Congress.
Ron Paul is a steadfast believer in the Gold Standard. The idea is that currently all the central banks of each country have the power to print as much money as they would like, without having any backing. This causes inflation. The US followed the Gold Standard till the 70’s and then abandoned it. If US would go back to the Gold Standard it would mean that central banks cannot print money as they want and would have to show backing for all currency, which would mean that fiscal responsibility would increase and things like the 2008 global economy crash will not happen as the players cannot create money out thin air through financial hocus pocus.
The most important thing that draws people to Mr. Paul is his consistency. He has not ever once flip flopped any position of his. This can be shown by the fact that he is the congressman who voted against creating a Martin Luther King Jr day, even though Martin Luther King is a hero of Mr. Ron Paul. The reason he voted against is that he believes it is not the role of the government to create holidays.
He is a strict Constitutionalist, which means that in so many cases even when all other Congressmen and women voted one way he has voted the other way just because the motion was against the constitution.
He is the one of the very few congressmen or women who have consistently returned to the Treasury department, the funds that were left over from the budget allocated to their office. In fact, Ron Paul has on an average returned almost 100,000 USD every year over the past 10 years to the Treasury.
He is also against taxes. He does not believe that the government should take people’s money. SO, much so that he has not signed to get pensions from the Congress after he retires (The pension amount is considerable, in millions.). He also voted against awarding Rosa Parks a congressional medal (Rosa Parks is another hero of Mr. Paul), because the money for the medal is form the taxes. Instead, he moved a motion to give her a medal by pooling personal contributions from the members of the Congress. The motion was defeated.
Mr. Paul also believes in the freedom of speech and has spoken out in favor of Julian Assange, saying that he should not be prosecuted but rather thanked for bring into public light the dealings that happen in the dark.
But the thing that hurts me the most is that mainstream media has largely ignored him, called him cranky, laughed at him, and discredits him. Well, I am going to place some links below. Watch them and come to your own conclusions.
US Troops Support Ron Paul March: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yewKCcFSvQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Ron Paul on Wikileaks: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM20w0jHH8A&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A
Ron Predicting the 2008 crash in 2003: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KONpt9a6HrI&feature=BFp&list=FLtkYK1qWJ4rqKzq4J5KRm_A
Ron Paul- What If Speech:
Hilary Clinton on Ron Paul:
People running on the street cheering Ron Paul:
Btw, a fact that I would like to point out is that Ron Paul at 76 years of age is the most popular among the youngsters in US. And, they are among his most enthusiastic supporters.
How I wish that we had more people like Ron Paul and not in the US but in every country of the world. Becuase, then we can truly start building the foundation of an peaceful world.
