Ron Paul - Great Candidate, Terrible Choice for President
Ron Paul has been adopted by the internet masses. Just look at the home page of Reddit or even worse, Digg. Go ahead and look, I’ll wait. How many stories about Ron Paul did you see? Paul has even set an online fundraising record, raising $4.2 million dollars in one day.
It’s not surprising that he’s turned a lot of heads, especially considering the Republican debates so far - while Rudy Guliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson and company fought over who could bury their heads furthest in the sand, Paul showed actual knowledge of how the world works and why the U.S. was attacked.
Ron Paul is a great candidate. Without him, the most pithy statement about the war you would hear would be Guliani saying “9/11″ every 60 seconds. He’s also the only one trying to remind the conservative party that they are supposed to be financially conservative.
That said, it’s important to note that Ron Paul would make a terrible president.
Why? First off, let’s throw out some of the hot-button issues that people vehemently disagree about, but don’t really impact a person’s possible presidential performance. You may be surprised to learn that Ron Paul is pro-life, since libertarians generally want the government to keep their hands of their bodies, but that’s really here nor there.
The real problem with a Ron Paul presidency was pointed out in a blog post by Jim Geraghty for the National Review:
So a Democratic, or even Republican Congress completes the appropriations process, and sends President Paul the funding bill for, say, the Commerce Department. Ron Paul doesn’t think we should have a Commerce Department, so he vetoes it.
Now repeat this scenario for every single budget bill needed to keep the government working. Ron Paul doesn’t just believe in small government - he’s a libertarian. No department of energy, no department of education. Someone putting lead in your drinking water? Don’t look to Ron Paul’s EPA to test, monitor, or regulate. The invisible hand of capitalism will protect you.
Watch this interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show - he honestly thinks that a free market in health care is possible, and that corporations deliver services better than anyone else. Free markets are great for creating wealth and delivering many different kinds of goods and services, but browsing supermarkets for the freshest oranges is different from fighting cancer. Anyone who thinks the emergency room is filled with rational actors dispassionately pursuing their best interest by choosing among competing sellers might want to get back in touch with reality.
I understand the libertarian temptation, and I think I know why so many bloggers and other web users have fallen so head-over-heels for Ron Paul. It’s very flattering to think of yourself as a self-made man, and looking back, didn’t you really pull yourself up by your own bootstraps? You’ve never been on welfare, you’re young and you’ve never needed Medicare or Social Security. All those government programs are just pork, wasting your hard-earned dollars!But the truth is, everyone one of us has been helped along in some way by the federal government. At the very least you’ve driven on the highways, relied upon the FDA to make sure your food and drugs are reasonable safe, and if you went to college, you’ve benefited from federal grant money.
That’s not license for government waste, corruption, and violation of our civil rights, butI would much rather have a president who wants to improve the system than one who wants to strangle it.
And, as you scroll down to the comments form to tell me exactly why I’m wrong, keep in mind that the medium you’re using to rip me a new one started as a Ron Paul-antagonizing government program.
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Ummm, the internet didn’t start as a government program.
Ron Paul is not saying corporations deliver goods and services better than anyone else. He’s saying they can do it better than government can, which is already well-proven.
What he is really saying is that any entity should be allowed to provide healthcare because, without government intervention to prop one entity up (and hold others down) the best healthcare providers will succeed and the inadequate will disappear. Also, the price will go down because there will finally be a free market in health care. Right now the federal government subsidizes healthcare providers, eliminating any competition and enabling them to charge the maximum for services, drugs, etc.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:41 am
Thanks for the comment Jonathan. I have to disagree with you on the history of the Internet - it did indeed start as a government program, look up ARPAnet.
Also, I’m not sure I follow you on healthcare - which healthcare providers is the federal government subsidizing and which ones is it not? Medicare money, for example, is paid out to whatever doctor or hospital the patient goes to.
December 17th, 2007 at 12:59 am
You have some interesting comments, but I disagree with the premise of your main argument.
Ron Paul is a very reasonable person, and intelligent person (brilliant actually), and is not going to just flip a switch and shut everything down in 1 day. He has even said in interviews that it will take a lot of time (YEARS) to achieve the Constitutional alignment he talks about (stop with the paranoia already - you are starting to sound like a modern politician Jason). Just because you know where he (consistently) stands does not mean he is going to somehow start imlementing freedom like a dictator.
Having Ron Paul in office is having a significant voice representing our personal freedoms “defined by our constitution” and offering a proper check and balances our republic was intended to have rather than the socialistic equilibrium we have right now.
Recall the OATH OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A:
“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
You think there is ANYONE out of the rest of the candidates that would be better at THAT than Ron Paul?
One thing is certain. We will NOT trend in a different direction than we are already on without him (or another heavily liberterian leaning third party candidate) as president.
Oh, BTW.
If there were NO positive things that happened at the same time as the trampling of our liberties, general stealing and squandering of our money, etc. we would not even be discussing this because NOBODY would be voting for folks representing these socialistic philosophies. Just because Robyn Hood gave (some) money to the poor does not mean he was right for stealing.
December 22nd, 2007 at 1:56 am
Your argument against Paul makes little sense. First, Roads come from gas taxes. Why should we need the Federal government to regulate those? States can do it. He’s not saying NO government, he’s saying LOCAL government. Second the FDA has a horrendous track record for releasing all sorts of dangerous drugs and food supplies (GMO products for instance) without proper testing and trials and is a virtual revolving door of folks from Mosanto or leaving the FDA to work for Monstano. Conflict of interest perhaps? You should prolly do a bit more research and back up your claims before making superficial statements about how supportive our Federal Government is. Wake up, man, the Federal Government is bought and sold by corporations and dollar signs dictate their decision making, not the welfare of the American people. That’s why we need a revamp of the system. State Government is much more accountable to local communities and can continue to run everything just fine. It’s not Anarchy Ron Paul is talking about, it’s about returning to a system that is ACCOUNTABLE to it’s people and serves it’s people.
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
Jimbo, I think you may be oversimplifying. Only part of the funding for some roads comes from gas taxes. The interstate highway system has always been largely funded by the federal government. I also have to wonder - if corporations have managed to own the big, powerful central government, why wouldn’t they be able to easily influence smaller, less powerful state and local governments?
Agencies like the FDA are obviously not perfect, but your example of GMO crops is not very good - do you really think, if there was no FDA, that Monsanto would do any testing at all? My opinion is that GMO crops probably should be tested more than they are right now before they can be marketed - under Ron Paul, the FDA would whither away and you would see the exact opposite.
I totally understand the appeal of Ron Paul in comparison to the horrible infringements of civil rights we’ve seen under Bush. But I’m telling you right now, a more libertarian government would NOT weaken the power of corporations over our lives - it would instead remove the regulations and safeguards against corporate impunity we already have.
If you want a candidate with a strong understanding of the Constitution, why not pick the one who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, Barack Obama?
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:19 am
[...] for a change of pace let’s talk politics. I mean, just in case you aren’t already bored to death of the presidential campaign yet, [...]
January 10th, 2008 at 7:33 pm