Note the Conservative Political Action Conference’s straw poll giving Texas Rep Ron Paul a clear lead for the group’s presidential endorsement over Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin.
And note Mike Huckabee ripping the straw poll, and the group for being libertarian.
Huckabee has spent a lot of time in Israel. Ron Paul is one of the most assertive critics in the Congress of US policy in the Middle East, and has an isolationist streak. Is it possible the issue will finally be debated openly, inside the Republican Party, and maybe even tear the party’s presidential primary process apart?
The issue was of course generally suppressed in the ’08 campaign. Bill Kristol and the Republican Jewish Coalition thought Obama vs McCain was about realism versus neoconservatism, and so did I; and we wanted a debate on the subject, and we didn’t get it. As it turned out, Kristol had little to fear from Obama. But it would be nice for once to have an open debate on the subject.
Expect Commentary and David Brooks to start ripping Ron Paul as a dangerous populist.
And bear in mind the Gallup poll the other day saying that 80 percent of Republicans have a favorable view of Israel, only 53 percent of Democrats do. Somehow I don’t think the issue is going to come up on the Democratic side…
I don’t agree with Ron Paul’s policies, on the whole, but of any Republican who would run for President, he’s the only one I wouldn’t mind winning.
Ron Paul’s views are the intersection of the unrealistic ideological far right with the unrealistic ideological far left.
Realism is in a different political locale.
Oh that’s cute, Witty. Yeah, let’s go ahead and associate Ron Paul with liberalism.
You really are the most articulate idiot I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering.
I’m going to defend Witty on this. There is a certain strain on the far left, epitomized by sites like Firedoglake, who hate Obama and like Ron Paul a lot. Firedoglake just had a post today asking whether Ron Paul is the answer for progressives. They started aligning with Ron Paul during the FISA debates. in 2008.
Obama’s not a progressive. Hell, he’s not even left of center by any account. Tell me, how many Bush policies has Obama put an end to? Torture doesn’t count unless you can prove that the Obama government is actually treating torture as a crime and doing more than saying, “Well, we don’t torture,” because if you’ll remember, Bush and his crew said the exact same thing back before they had to openly justify torture.
Yes, there is a point where far-left liberals and far-right libertarians seem to meet by going in opposite directions. But I don’t think that point is anywhere that would bring Glenn Beck in as a keynoter.
First, FDL has about a dozen or so frontpage posters who span a spectrum of views. And even then, I wouldn’t call FDL far left — you could say that only if you consider the Republicans centrists.
The problem for other so-called liberal Democrats is that FDL bloggers dare question and dissect Obama’s record and try to hold him to his promises. And on issues of civil liberties, it is true they have found common cause with Ron Paul. But you could say the real hero in FDL land is Dennis Kucinich.
I wouldn’t vote for Ron Paul, but his views are a mixed bag. He seems to be anti-imperialist, which is where he agrees with the far left and on that set of issues he’s correct.
“Realism” is a vacuous term–it can mean anything or nothing.
The man who doesn’t believe November 4th, 2008 ever happened is talking about “realism.” That’s beyond irony and into outright delusion.
Are these unrealistic value:
Support for the United States Constitution, respect for life, less government, and more personal responsibility?
Here is what you get with Ron Paul –
FANTASY MARKET
And don’t get me wrong, I would handily take Noam Chomsky as a President over Ron Paul, were Noam Chomsky forwarding himself as a candidate and if the Israeli Lobby (among others) wouldn’t be actively swift-boating his campaign into oblivion.
“Expect Commentary and David Brooks to start ripping Ron Paul as a dangerous populist.”
Wrong move. But I sooooo want them to do it. Oh please, oh pretty please.
delicious!
Ron Paul is israel’s worst nightmare … they will wait nervously with every speech as Paul gains in popularity to see if he’s going to openly broach the israel issue or not (probably not so he doesn’t tank his son Rand’s budding political career) … because if he does he’s going to state clearly that we get no benefit from our relationship with israel and plenty of detriment
Witty is squirming already, tee-hee
Ron Paul will go nowhere. He’s got a good heart and he’s right on the issues but he has negative gravitas. He’s the worst speaker I ever heard and he looks like he’s 74 years old (which he is).
That only speaks to the shallowness of the average American voter, that they will consistently vote for young, glib, handsome politicians who prove to be rotten to the core.
Nothing will matter much more economically anyhow after a short while, especially when the second economic dip comes. Everyone who is in power thinks they can have a recovery without the people, you can watch the Dow trying to take off while the employment situation worsens exponentially. It really does not matter who is in the oval office, it can be even an Obama or a Bush, because whether you are talking about either of them they serve the same moneyed elite (as represented in the multi-national corporations for the most part). Either way they are going to try to eventually reduce your children to fighting over road kill –
ROAD KILL FOR YOU
I’m somewhat worried about what will happen in the United States when we have our equivalent of the French Revolution. Albeit, I’m only worried insofar as how I can protect my own community and the innocent people within it who could become victims of violence. I’d like to see the United States saved on a federal level if only it didn’t mean that I’d be perpetuating torture camps for Muslims and predator drone massacres against Middle Eastern villages by doing so, but I no longer see a way to divorce the federal government from the haven for war criminals that it has become.
So I am content to stand back and let it collapse under the weight of its own self-destruction, likewise am I disinclined to defend it against threats from within. Because I can assure you that plane that struck an IRS building in Texas is only the tip of a very nasty iceberg, and I’ve decided to wait it out in a lifeboat.
VR and Chaos,
As long as they keep the internet up so we can watch porn and sports and post rants on blogs, and our televisions spewing out entertainment, and our movies comin’ out, and videogames for the soldier-trainees (er, I mean kids), and the $1 menu at every fast-food joint and enough of us in McJobs and unemployment benefits extensions, I’m afraid there won’t be any revolution anytime soon … that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon some years back summed it up best: A voice is saying “religion is the opiate of the masses” and the TV in the room has a thought-balloon that says, “they haven’t seen anything yet.”
Ron Paul will follow what his constituents want:
link to haaretz.com
“Ron Paul will follow what his constituents want:”
False. Paul has never followed anyone.
yonira, the url you gave us goes to an article claiming Israel is America’s 5th favorite place–very misleading article. The poll merely asked phone participants to rate on a line from favorable to least favorable–only 20 countries–the poll claims they are the countries most mentioned in US news. If all countries were listed to rate, for example, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia would all place well above Israel.
Polls are one of the pariah country Israel favorite devices, but most countries have fallen into line in regard to pointing to the PR device. This is what I have called the elite use of polls. The polls are only taken after long periods of propaganda have been foisted on the American public. It has been non-stop shit about Iran for years, as an example – they just want to see if they are doing a good job of poisoning the well –
HOW THE RULING ELITE USE POLLS
There are few methodologies that get used with such cynicism as polling. The majority of the population, particularly in the United States has no idea how and why polls are used by those who think they “know whats best for us,” or should I say for themselves.
Polling was introduced by the PR industry as a tool for the control of the people, it is a “science” for measuring the direction or intent, the will of the people. What many do not understand is that he (or those) that controls the environment, what people see and hear, control the will of the people.
I am going to tell you EXACTLY what the purpose of polls are in the United States – in the sense of how the dominant media uses them. Granted, there are polls which are what you might call contrary polls, in the sense that they ask full questions, to a major and fair portion of the population, for the purpose of enlightening the people – but they are few. I am not saying if polls are good or not, I am just asking what are polls good for?
Always before a major poll is launched by the corporate media, there is a major campaign of concentrated propaganda repeatedly voiced through the major (major in the sense of the monopoly) media sources – national, such as NBC CBS CNN FOX, etc. Why? Because they wish to set a precedent of opinion, that is they try to garner authority through the majority, which has been influenced by the said propaganda blitz. This is layered, and can go on for a long period of time, to make sure that the right message is embedded in the psyche of the population.
You saying something important, VR. No one really bothers to check out the poll parameters, nor the outliers. I remember doing it during the election and could tell when the polling was trying to present a view that didn’t express reality. (Think of all the polls that said Clinton was going to win.) But then, for political polling, you have to understand how precincts and legislative districts work…which I kinda’ learned on the run.
Dr. Paul’s platform has consistently focused on the following: - Adherence to the United States Constitution - Sound Monetary Policy and Fiscal Responsibility - Personal Liberty and Self-Reliance - Non-interventionist Foreign policy (No Nation Building)
“Ron Paul has always believed that foreign and domestic policy should be conducted according to the same principles. Government should be restrained from intervening at home or abroad because its actions fail to achieve their stated aims, create more harm than good, shrink the liberty of the people, and violate rights.”
link to lewrockwell.com
PRINCIPLES
• Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
• Property should be owned by people, not government.
• All voluntary associations should be permissible — economic and social.
• The government’s monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary
• unit, not participate in fraud.
• Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.
• The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government’s.
You can pull up an old youtube video of Ron Paul stating his intense (and very lonely) objection to Shrub’s attack on Iraq on the floor of Congress–before Shrub’s attack. You can be sure he will be against the next (third) war–on Iran.
He introduced a bill to make the (never audited since 1913) Federal Reserve transparent–Obama is doing the contrary.
Here RP talks about the annual foreign aid rip-off:
link to house.gov
And here a Jewish Ron Paul supporter speculates on the impact of cutting off all US foreign aid, including aid to Israel:
link to lewrockwell.com
Of course corporations are constructs not individuals. Wonder what is Ron Paul’s position on that. I was enthralled by Ron Paul’s campaign for Presidency. It caught the imagination of young and idealistic conservatives. The campaign to deny him platform was coordinated, ruthless and very effective.
He says corporations are owned by individuals and it’s not right to bar US corporations from, for example putting on TV ads for any politician two months before his or her campaign ends. He adds, Newpapers and TV News shows are corporations too, meaning corporate owned and some of those are obviously in one political camp or the other, etc. He views lobbying as constitutional, says special interest lobbying would be ineffectual if congressmen just refused to be bought, and that reduction in taxing and spending (less government) would also reduce special interest lobbying as there’d be less public money available in the first place.
link to dailypaul.com
Here’s a timeline showing when and how the MSM (and Youtube) smothered Ron Paul and his campaign message to the American people:
link to ronpaultimeline.com
links from antiwar.com
Justin Raimondo on Ron Paul!
***
“A SAUDI student blasted US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for skirting her question on Israel’s nuclear arsenal during a “town hall” meeting at a Jeddah college.”
from Clinton avoided nuke question – student
How’s that ‘diplomacy’ thing going, Hil? Are you any good at it?
OT links from antiwar.com
“Dozens of Israeli settlers broke through the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) checkpoint in the West Bank city of Jericho where they entered a synagogue and raised the Israeli flag, Palestinian and Israeli media reported Sunday.”
from Dozens of Israelis enter synagogue, raise Israeli flag in Jericho
This is apartheid in action: one set of rules of engagement for Palestinians (gunfire and teargas) and another for Israeli Jewish extremists (Stop! Stop! This is a closed military zone! [colonists crash through gate] Oh well, I didn’t see or hear anything. Let’s get some coffee.).
***
Israel on Sunday rejected the idea of foreign countries recognising a Palestinian state without a negotiated peace agreement, after France’s foreign minister hinted at such a scenario. “Imposing this kind of semblance of a partial solution from outside goes against the very idea of peace,” a senior Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
from Israel against foreign recognition of Palestinian state
Wow, self-governance goes against the very idea of peace. Who could have guessed?
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