printJohn H. Richardson of Esquire Magazine has a great line about the Republicans’ hollow commitment to constitutional principles: “Once Obama became president, the hymen of their small-government ideals spontaneously regenerated.” Richardson follows with a fabulous piece about Ron Paul:
“[Ron] Paul chose to use the new Congress’s ceremonial reading of the Constitution — a tribute to him — to chastise his colleagues for the hollowness of the stunt. ‘Will there be no more wars without an actual congressional declaration?’ he asked. ‘Will the Federal Reserve Act be repealed? Will only gold and silver be called legal tender? Will we end all the unconstitutional federal departments, including the Departments of Energy, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Labor? Will the Patriot Act be repealed and all the warrantless searches stopped? Will the TSA be restrained or abolished? Will the IRS’s unconstitutional collection powers end? Will executive and judicial quasilegislative powers be ended? Will we end the federal war on drugs? Would we end the federal government’s involvement in medical care? Will we end all the federal government’s illusionary insurance programs? Will we ban secret prisons, trials without due process, and assassinations? Will we end our foreign policy of invasion and occupations?'”
The feature about Ron Paul is well-worth reading. (While you’re at it, here’s a defense of Representative Paul, one of many, written during the heyday of the attacks against him launched by Beltway libertarians.)
Other good lines by Richardson: “Words that other politicians used like screeches of chimpanzee code, Paul actually meant and could explain so that everything from the economic collapse to marijuana legalization to terrorism actually connected and made sense. Like the words on everyone’s lips these days, small government. The way Ron Paul explains it, the U. S. Constitution was all about setting up a balance of powers in order to prevent a recurrence of government tyranny, a purpose emphasized by the Bill of Rights….”
A not-so-good line, because arguably incorrect (the accretion of the state has been the ruin of the USA): “He doesn’t care that it was a powerful American government, based in Washington and willing to invest in its people, that ultimately made the United States into the world-historic power that it is today, with a huge economy and a vast middle class. Nor does he care that it was that strong central government that ensured the survival of the young country” …
Finally:
The difference is that a lot of conservatives just say this stuff without meaning it. It was conservatives, after all, who said that you can have small government along with two wars and seven hundred overseas military bases. But Ron Paul goes the other way. Philosophical and systematic and pure in a way that young people may be best qualified to understand, he lays bare the contradictions. That is the reason his ideas have spread like hidden veins throughout our culture, the reason he has become such a stunning challenge to the existing order. He means the words that everyone else just uses. He’s flinty as a Founder and solid as the gold standard — not just the messenger but also the message.
When I listen to Rep. Paul talk I realize just how phony the vast majority of Republicans are. It’s sad and pathetic that the American people will never elect a person like him as President. For some reason he is considered a nut. Actually, the others are the nuts and he is the sane one. I was listening to Michael Medved for a few minutes on Friday and he said “the Libertarians have planted their retarded Libertarian flag in the Republican Party”. He was referring to former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, who announced that he is running for the presidency on the Republican ticket.
Richardson’s article is not bad for a statist but the lines about strong central government making us GREAT also made me wince. America’s greatest growth was in the 1781- 1913 period before the income tax and the federal government was miniscule compared to today’s Leviathan. The middle class was not nourished by the welfare state – it is, in fact, the other way around.
As to the world-historic power – the fact that the US can take out all these gigantic SA-5’s of Thug Khadaffi half a planet away may be impressive (and his big missiles on parade were mostly to impress the ignoramus tribesment in Libya than that they could do anything) but it does not make us great. On the contrary, it is a leech sucking us dry.
Yes, we can now have a President press buttons on his lounge chair to send drones over to drop bombs anywhere on Earth while our streets rot with potholes and our children grow stupid and our savings atrophy. Hallelujah for Predator Drones!
I’d like to see Ron Paul get the nom in 2012. it seems this man is the only viable candidate. West would be a good sec of treasure in his cabinet imho. I’m not fixated on a vp for him yet .
my post about west was meant to be- (a good sec of defense),sorry folks
[Please read the Posting Policy. Letters on this moderated forum must be legible: full words, complete sentences; as grammatical as each individual can make his letter. Thanks.—IM]
The Republican and Democrat Parties are united in a self-serving misinformation campaign to convince the American people that the debt and the deficit threaten imminent economic, political, and social collapse. The intent is to direct public attention away from the real threat: The completely unconstitutional exponential growth of Federal spending and power. The debt and the deficit resulting from that growth are merely symptoms, not the cause.
Balancing the budget and eliminating the deficit will not resolve the existential threat to peace and freedom that the monstrous central governing apparatus has become. Both wings of the Welfare/Warfare State’s Washington Party are acting as though the solution can be obtained by acceding to the policy preferences of their respective constituencies. This is insanity. It is a mathematical and demographic certainty that the Welfare/Warfare State is going away. All that is uncertain is whether its passing will occur violently or peacefully.
I have been sick of the Democrat party since I was a kid in the 1950’s. But I was a dupe who thought the Republicans were actually something. Of course we now know what a farce that thought is. Maybe some individuals can fight the Republican power structure while battling the Democrats, the media and the great unwashed sea of uninformed voters and actually do something positive for the country. Maybe.
The Republican and Democrats have approximately thirty-five percent of the electorate each. That leaves thirty percent of us to actually make a difference. Not the best of odds, but we can find the right candidates to swing half of the Democrats and half of the Republicans, we got the vote. I don’t think I need to say what the problem is, do I?