USAToday.com: The buzz about a Kucinich-Paul ticket? Here’s where that came from
An interesting scenario….
What I like about it is that Dennis and Ron are both men of principal. You know where they stand and that is pretty cool. I also like the fact that both men are committed to ending the war in Iraq. They are at this moment the only major party candidates making that pledge.
However, what troubles me about this is that likely Ron Paul would be at the top of the ticket, and Ron Paul’s beliefs are troubling on many points. From my perspective (and I think Kucinich’s too), they radically part ways when it comes to economics and immigration, and those are not small things.
Ron Paul supports extreme laise fare (not sure how to spell that) economics, with no limits on the accumulation of wealth and the privatization of all of the commons. And he takes his economic principles into other areas, such as his views that race relations are not solved by proactive action.
And Ron Paul buys into the racist paranoia about Mexican undocumented migrants (see RonPaul2008.com: Border Security and Immigration Reform). And more troubling is the fact that Ron Paul backs the unconstitutional idea to ban so-called “birthright citizenship” (which is impossible unless you want to repeal the 14th Amendment).
To me these issues are basic principles of social justice that are necessary for the existence of true peace. I’m glad that Ron Paul supports ending the war on the people of Iraq, but his policies will still further the kind of world that will make future wars like the Iraq war necessary. This is why I don’t support Ron Paul.
That said, compared to the Democrats (besides Kucinich), he’s not much worse. I would probably pick him over Hillary Clinton any day of the week, because at least with Ron Paul you know the war will end.
Here’s another take on what is so troubling about a Ron Paul from a leftist perspective…
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/5/193414/2787
Well I’ll give Ron Paul this. He does understand that taking away birthright citizenship will require amending the 14th Amendment (see the Dailykos ar — still, it doesn’t change the fact that his stance is RACIST.
I do not think Ron Paul is racist. In listening to his views, I have found a surprising amount of consistency, which is completely unlike any of the other candidates.
His one guiding principle seems to be that if the supreme law of the land, our Constitution, permits the Federal government to pass a law, he will consider it. If not, he will vote against it, popular or not.
The Federal government has laws currently to deal with immigration, and rather than endeavor to follow those laws, or change those laws, a LOT of people just ignore those laws. The current President of the United States feels he can ignore many of our laws as well, with presidential ‘signing statements’ or simply lying long enough to get something else done.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions, and our current leadership seem to be going there as quickly as possible. Whether it is government spending our money, or government controlling our lives, both major parties seem bent on controlling us.
Yet, I am amazed at the integrity of people like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich, that year after year, they don’t follow the crowd or the noise or the polls, but vote with honesty and integrity.
I would rather wait another year for the laws to be changed, and have a nation where our laws and our words mean something, than a nation where it is becoming more and more opposed to truth and honesty. Ron Paul supports guest workers, he supports immigration, but he supports these things in the manner befitting a Federal representative, who is charged with upholding the laws, not a person who is simply lying to get elected again.
The most common and widely accepted definition of racism is the belief that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. A racist idea is one that is discriminatory based on race. Citizenship isn’t about race; not in the united states.
I don’t think we should end birthright citizenship but that is FAR from racist.
The idea of removing automatic citizenship for a child born of parents who are citizens of another country, and not US citizens, has nothing to do with one race being superior or inferior to another. It’s simply a matter of citizenship and has NO racial consideration in it at all. Your implication is unwarranted in my opinion.
Being a citizen of the US has nothing to do with your race. I don’t advocate removing birthright citizenship; I just hate to see the word racism thrown around so carelessly and especially when it doesn’t apply.
Mathew, I just read through all 4 articles of the DailyKos ‘RON PAUL EXPERIENCE’ diaries.
I checked the links they included as ‘proof’ and I was very surprised to find that it was so much overhype and slant that I didn’t know where to begin to disagree. Those 4 DailyKos articles are paragraph after paragraph of plain and simple hate directed at Ron Paul.
In one section, DailyKos lays out person after person that is racist, and then says Ron Paul isn’t making efforts to distance himself from them. Then DailyKos quotes a Ron Paul staffer, who emphatically denies that Ron Paul is racist, and says that someone will eventually try to smear Paul over not repudiating those groups.
Its baffling to see the DailyKos include a quote showing how opportunists (like them) might smear him in their own diary article.
But to say that Ron Paul is this hateful and awful person because he doesn’t attack someone else, really seems to be stretching things. I really could go on, and I would be happy to explain at length, but I don’t want to fill up your comments with all this.
I don’t agree with Ron Paul on all things, but in listening to how he speaks, I get a sense he tries very hard not to attack anyone directly. He tends to come off very diplomatically as he talks, preferring to address ideas, rather than simply talk down other people.
You raise a good point, AJY. It probably isn’t fair to say that Paul’s policies have a racist intent.
I do think though that the policies (if enacted) would serve racist purposes, if that is an unintended consequence of those policies.
Scott, I agree with you on the Dailykos piece. It was way over the top. I don’t think it is fair at all to say that their points prove that Ron Paul “hates” progressives.
I do think it is fair to say though that Ron Paul’s views on some issues are pretty different than folks on the left (or the right for that matter either). Those differences are big enough to me to make it difficult to be able to vote for him. I might choose him as the better choice (i.e. if it was Paul vs. Clinton, I would likely vote for Paul) if the choices were crummy, but I’m not that enthused about him at this point either.
Sorry, I left out a key word in the comment I made to Aaron. The second paragraph should have read… “do think though that the policies (if enacted) would serve racist purposes, even if that is an unintended consequence of those policies.