Mar/06
2012
2012
Ron Paul, The Grandpa With Good Advice
I can tell you the moment I "grew up". It was the moment I learned how to take hard advice, and internalize it. Most people actually never learn to do this, it actually took military school for me. Fortunately, now I surround myself with a lot of people much smarter and wiser than myself. This gives me the opportunity to take the bitter pill almost daily, and come out ahead in the long run.
When first looking at candidates, I was kind of a fan of Herman Cain. That came and went, and then I was left wondering who I stood for. I liked about 90% of Ron Paul's stuff, but couldn't reconcile with about 10% of it. It just seemed...crazy. America was wrong in it's military actions? We helped bring about 9/11? Pure madness, it's not our fault...its all those damned muslims fault right? WRONG.
Case study: not understanding Sunni / Shiite relationships at a cultural level. The Sunni (Saddam) leaders in Iraq are suppressing the Shiite (The people who populate the majority of extreme factions of Islam culture). What a horrible human rights issue that we need to get involved in! Free the people who want to kill us, and kill the person who is stabilizing that volatile pot. Not such a good idea.. The unfortunate reality is that we are attempting to assert ourselves into situations we often don't understand and don't have a defined end-goal. Situations like this need to stop. I know the 10% of Ron Paul's stuff is irreconcilable to most people, but I would bid you to give it a second look. It hurts and is uncomfortable, as many truths often are...but world reality's do not exist on all-sunshine-and-flowers.
This is a bitter pill to swallow. I could go on, but I will close with my point. I learned this from Ron Paul, as I have many other things...when I started listening. The things you learn from him are not sugar coated, and will often be uncomfortable...but this is part of growing up. When most young people voted for Obama several years back, I was terrified for my generation (Im 23). It is refreshing to see how many people are growing up, and learning to swallow the bitter pill and think about what is right. The truth is that democrats and republicans both have been power sharing in Washington for too long, and it is people like Ron Paul who are out there to expose the truth of the corruption and nepotism that is occuring at our expense. The response of my generation to Ron's libertarian platform truely gives me hope for America's future.
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5 comments
Comment from: Roulette [Member] 
The surface of Ron Paul is fine. But if you scrape a few layers back, you see someone who's going to completely gut every area of government, and doesn't have any clue what will happen when he does it.
It's easy to say you're going to get rid of the IRS. It's a lot harder to say how, or what will happen because of that action. What do we do with the unemployed federal employees? Or the millions of other tax people that will get laid off?
It's easy to say you're going to pull troops back from other nations. It's harder to explain how that works in the context of existing base contracts, or what we will do with the huge section of military personnel that don't have anyplace to be stationed inside the US. Or what the effect of limiting our force projection ability is with regards to areas like Korea and Taiwan?
I don't doubt his sincerity. Unlike most politicians he believes what he says, and sticks to his guns. I like a few of his positions. But not enough to risk letting the rest of his positions end up in the White House.
It's easy to say you're going to get rid of the IRS. It's a lot harder to say how, or what will happen because of that action. What do we do with the unemployed federal employees? Or the millions of other tax people that will get laid off?
It's easy to say you're going to pull troops back from other nations. It's harder to explain how that works in the context of existing base contracts, or what we will do with the huge section of military personnel that don't have anyplace to be stationed inside the US. Or what the effect of limiting our force projection ability is with regards to areas like Korea and Taiwan?
I don't doubt his sincerity. Unlike most politicians he believes what he says, and sticks to his guns. I like a few of his positions. But not enough to risk letting the rest of his positions end up in the White House.
03/06/12 @ 06:25
Comment from: zex [Member]
So there is your 10% of Ron Paul that is very uncomfortable.
03/06/12 @ 07:42
Comment from: Roulette [Member]
Not exactly. Those were just two quick examples.
If it was only 10% of his ideas that were poorly thought out or unreasonable, it would be ok. We could hope that congress would be able to rein those in. But the number is much more like 80%.
Rough estimates of course, but I would say about 20% of the stuff he talks about are actually well thought out good ideas. Another 40% are good ideas that he doesn't flesh out and explain how he'll deal with the obvious consequences. And the last 40% are bad ideas all the way through.
If it was only 10% of his ideas that were poorly thought out or unreasonable, it would be ok. We could hope that congress would be able to rein those in. But the number is much more like 80%.
Rough estimates of course, but I would say about 20% of the stuff he talks about are actually well thought out good ideas. Another 40% are good ideas that he doesn't flesh out and explain how he'll deal with the obvious consequences. And the last 40% are bad ideas all the way through.
03/06/12 @ 17:16
Comment from: slynn [Visitor]
I think it's sad that people see Ron Paul's simple strategy of less government as something too radical. You're so used to the IRS telling you that you MUST pay an income tax, and that we need more burecratic BS running our lives. The truth is, he's totally right, and if you think taxes are the only way to pay off our endless deficit than you really are brainwashed. That will never be paid off, so why keep beating a dead horse.
But what about those poor tax workers who come to collect their money from us. They'll be out of job if Ron Paul gets elected. Heaven forbid! That's like saying, the Mafia's henchmen won't have anyone to take money from.
That's why Ron Paul wants to audit the Federal Reserve which shows absolutely no monetary transparency for it's actions and it's devaluation for the dollar. When the Fed is allowed to control a nations currency by setting interest rates at whatever it desires, then recessions are simply man-made.
They should be responsible and show us exactly what they do with our money, especially when they benefit from our tax dollars. I've never gotten a receipt for what my tax dollars go towards.
The point is, people asked for change from Obama and only got broken promises. Yet when Ron Paul talks about change, people get frightened away. As if stopping endless wars and big banks is somehow going to threaten our way of life.
But what about those poor tax workers who come to collect their money from us. They'll be out of job if Ron Paul gets elected. Heaven forbid! That's like saying, the Mafia's henchmen won't have anyone to take money from.
That's why Ron Paul wants to audit the Federal Reserve which shows absolutely no monetary transparency for it's actions and it's devaluation for the dollar. When the Fed is allowed to control a nations currency by setting interest rates at whatever it desires, then recessions are simply man-made.
They should be responsible and show us exactly what they do with our money, especially when they benefit from our tax dollars. I've never gotten a receipt for what my tax dollars go towards.
The point is, people asked for change from Obama and only got broken promises. Yet when Ron Paul talks about change, people get frightened away. As if stopping endless wars and big banks is somehow going to threaten our way of life.
05/14/12 @ 03:30
Comment from: Roulette [Member]
See my previous 20%/40%/40% comment. He's got a lot of bad ideas mixed in with a small dose of good.
If you can get rid of income tax without losing ground with the debt, then I want to hear the details. You can not like IRS agents and tax accountants, but that's not the point. A plan has to account for them. Because when they're laid off, you've just added a few million people to the unemployment line. They also stop contributing to other state and federal revenue streams because they no longer have income. Step 1 is simple to describe. Step 3, 4 and 5 have lots of nagging details that are conveniently never mentioned. And step 10 is just wishful thinking. I need more than that before I support drastically reordering the financial structure of the US economy.
If you can get rid of income tax without losing ground with the debt, then I want to hear the details. You can not like IRS agents and tax accountants, but that's not the point. A plan has to account for them. Because when they're laid off, you've just added a few million people to the unemployment line. They also stop contributing to other state and federal revenue streams because they no longer have income. Step 1 is simple to describe. Step 3, 4 and 5 have lots of nagging details that are conveniently never mentioned. And step 10 is just wishful thinking. I need more than that before I support drastically reordering the financial structure of the US economy.
05/14/12 @ 19:32
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