A colleague got this in a piece of e-fanmail last night:
Enjoyed the op-ed piece on Gov. Sanford. Ron Paul suggested he would
be a great running mate during his stop in Greenville/Spartanburg on
7-21-07.
I guess, when you don’t have a prayer of getting the nomination, you are free to fantasize about one’s ticket, and not bother with any of that "balancing" stuff that mainstream candidates worry over so.
But picture it if you can: A general election campaign that won’t spring for hotels — two guys living out of a 1993 Dodge van, each sleeping uneasily on his respective side of the futon, waking up each morning to accuse each other crabbily of spending too much on signage.
Yeah, that’s the ticket…
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A great ticket for the frustration vote.
And here’s a slogan:
Ron Paul and Mark Sanford: None of the above.
Brad –
Dr. Ron Paul and Mark Sanford would make a great ticket for those of us concerned about freedom and liberty. Other than not “having a prayer”, you offer as much insight as a teenage girl rooting for her favorite “American Idol” candidate.
Ron Paul’s presidency would abolish the IRS. The 16th amendment was never properly ratified and was struck down by the Supreme Court in Brushaber v. Union Pacific (1916), where they stated “the conclusion that the 16th Amendment provides for a hitherto unknown power of taxation” is “erroneous,” and thus the 16th Amendment did not give Congress any taxing powers it did not already have. And in Flora v. U.S. (1960), the Supreme Court announced, “Our system of taxation is based upon voluntary assessment and payment.” But I encourage you, Brad, to continue “volunteering”.
Secondly, Ron Paul would dismantle The Federal Reserve, a cartel of private bankers that was given the authority to print money with no backing when the government overspends, and then charge us interest on it. A reasonable person would ask “why doesn’t the Federal Government print the money to avoid the interest on the national debt?”. How ’bout you Brad – have any questions?
Thirdly, Ron Paul is against the National ID Card due in May of 2008. The National ID Card will contain an radio frequency ID chip (RFID) that will give the government the ability to track it’s citizens movements. I’m sure fans of the Nanny State will feel safer knowing every move they make is being watched.
Fourthly, the common sense of Ron Paul’s non-interventionist foreign policy would make us safer. The US Military is not the world’s policeman (if it was we would be in the Congo and Darfur)nor is it a corporate mercenary force to help protect “big oil’s” interests in the Middle East.
So there you go Brad – it’s your turn! Maybe you can make another joke about Ron Paul being a fiscal conservative, or maybe attack me personally like you did John Edwards when he didn’t pay homage to you properly.
Stephen, Mr. Edwards did a fine job of paying me homage — he kissed the ring and everything. I can’t fault him there. My problem was with the way he did not recognize the existence of the people who did not have it in their power to give him the endorsement of the largest newspaper in the state he had to win.
A little homage to those folks would have been nice, and would have helped bolster his populist image.
Anyway, if you were THAT much off in the impression you got from that column, I suggest you read it again.
And just about every argument you advance in favor of Ron Paul is, for me, a reason NOT to like him. For instance, I’m all for an ID card. But do you really think "Nanny State" is the right term in this case? I thought y’all reserved that to the ones like deciding what we’ll watch on TV and such. This one goes straight to police powers, and therefore I would think the much more sinister-sounding "Big Brother" would be called for. "Nanny State" sounds almost nice, like Mary Poppins. "Big Brother" gets the tones I think you’re looking for here. Much scarier.
Anyway, if he gave us a really useful ID card that would help us spot illegals, aid law enforcement, speed up the security checks at airports and maybe save a few million lives in emergency rooms and other places where proper electronic ID could give access to a uniform medical record database, then I would be quite grateful to ol’ Big Brother. I might even echo the last line of the novel.
This gets me back to the question about the libertarian impulse: It seems grounded in irrational fears. What are y’all so scared of? Do you really think it’s possible for this country, which carries freedom to the nth power (I’ll never understand you folk who live in this country and still yearn for freedom; it’s like a fish in the middle of the Pacific Ocean yearning for water), could become Orwell’s Oceania? If so, you have far more imagination than I have.
Brad –
Wouldn’t it make more sense to secure our borders and issue ID Card to everyone entering the country on student or work visas instead?
I assume from your comments that your a big fan of the Fed and the IRS, so I must agree that Ron Paul is not your candidate! But even if you don’t agree with his positions, if you check his record, you would have to admit he has been consistent in using the Constitution to make his decisions.
Actually, I’m more concerned that WE, as citizens, have ID cards. That would have multiple very pragmatic uses, such as getting us quickly through airport security without all that nonsense we have to go through now, and saving our lives by tapping into our medical records, etc. Anyone who doesn’t have such an ID is, de jure, not one of us, and therefore subject to scrutiny. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist saying "not one of us," which is bound to set off all kinds of alarm bells in easily offended folk; I don’t know what makes me do such things).
And no, I’m not a "fan" of the IRS or the Fed, any more than I’m a "fan" of the folks who run the water treatment plant or pave my roads — but I do appreciate them for doing their jobs and providing an essential service to the rest of us.
Such things are, for me, ideologically null. They hit me in a dull space. They’re not exciting, but yeah, a central bank and a revenue department are part of the fundamental infrastructure of a modern civilization. I certainly wouldn’t wish to do away with them.
What I will probably never understand is why they awaken such strong emotions in other people. It simply doesn’t seem rational to me, which is why I’m always wondering where the impulse comes from.
GO RON PAUL! GO RON PAUL! GOD BLESS RON PAUL!
RON PAUL FOR PRESIDENT 2008!
Best Ron Paul video – (Reply: WRONG!…Best Presidential Candidacy Video EVER!!!)
Am I the only one seeing serious contradictions? ID cards to help spot illegal immigrants? Illegal immigrants won’t have the cards and will be essentialy invisible to the system.
I’ll wait and see if an ID card will get anyone through the airport security faster, my current CDL certainly does not, no one has ever asked for it when I have been in a long, slow airport security line.
The fed controlling our monetary system has resulted in our current situation, the worst stock market crash since the great depression, war we cannot afford and the resultant inflation to come, the dollar weakened around the world to finance Bush’s grasping for oil that does not reside under American soil, financed by newly printed dollars, based on thin air and empty promises, the burden to fall on the low and middle class.