Ron Paul To Visit Philly, Philebrity Forced To Read Up On Something Non-Underboober-Related
OK, we’ve been a little lax lately in following the GOP race to the White House (can you blame us?) so last night we spent a full 90 minutes reading up on Internet phenom/”Republican Howard Dean” Ron Paul. And even after the Googling, the YouTube-ing, the Wikipedia-ing, we still have to plead ignorance here. So help us:
He’s anti-war, anti-government fucking-with-you, and even, God love the man, VERY anti-IRS. But yes, he is also weirdly, Santorum-ly anti-abortion, BUT he thinks it should be a state issue and not a federal one, and on that we can agree. Plus, the Zeitgeist does seem to suggest that people are so fucking tired of arguing with each other about abortion and more afraid that The Rapture is coming to America that Paul’s gambit actually could table the discussion in the best way possible.
We mention all this because there is a huge Ron Paul Rally tomorrow at Independence Mall (with, erm, Nashville’s Rockie Lynne opening) and we feel like this is Something, but God only knows what. Help us, Philadelphia. Help us understand.
Related: Salon.com: Deconstructing Ron Paul
November 9th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
I am covering it, so knock it down a few notches as warranted.
November 9th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
pro-gold standard: -1, pro-free markets: +1, anti-immigration: -1, anti-abortion: -1, anti-war: +1, anti-war-on-drugs: +1, texan: -1.
Assign coefficients however you like and calculate.
November 9th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Record. Has he _done_ anything besides stand on principle?
He’s had two stints in Congress punctuated by a return to medical practice (and c’mon small town practices are full of lackluster doctors). What’s the appeal in a straight shooter who’s never hit anything, a straight talker no one’s listened to?
His +/- principles don’t have any momentum that can be translated into a workable agenda to push through Congress. That’s the problem with isolationists, they have no one to work with. Even Kucinich probably has a more productive legislative record. And no, depsite what the _Watchmen_ and _V for Vendetta_ readers “think”, it isn’t all some corrupt pay to play system and poor Paul’s legislative impotence is not evidence of that system’s failure. Yes, there’s a money game, but there’s also and more importantly the basic human skills necessary for good governance; and I just don’t see any evidence of that in him.
As for the values themselves, how can his acolytes honestly say this guy’s got integrity in holding his pro-free market and anti-immigration stances when current immigration policies are de facto protectionist barriers against a truly free labor market? They do that because they want someone with simple answers when the political “mainstream” won’t provide them. Now within that mainstream, there is a lot of truth fear, but at least they’re aware that the answers aren’t simple because the questions aren’t either. I’m thinking the Repub’s may have fucked up in ’04 when they characterized seeing things in the big picture as “flip flopping.” It reduced their base’s political literacy to a 3rd grade level.
November 10th, 2007 at 10:27 am
Is this blog post the new the Trouble with Sweeney is playing a Howard Dean rally?
November 10th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Funny thing, according to Rockie Lynne’s MySpace, he’s in Minnesota this weekend. Maybe there’ll be a “listening party” for his “Red, White, and Blue.”