Seems the Ron Paul Contingent Did Well Last Night

Nimnim

The Nim
Had Romney picked Ron Paul and not that nut job Ryan, and stayed moderate, he'd be President today.

I'm pretty sure that "picked Ron Paul" and "stayed moderate" are mutually exclusive. jmho

Yeah, there's no way anyone seriously paying attention to things would call Ron Paul moderate. They wouldn't call him "right wing" but there's no way they'd say moderate. Maybe "fringe."

Ron Paul did have some good points, but as far as the mainstream he's not really in the moderate field.
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
Paul believes the size of the federal government must be decreased substantially. In order to restrict the federal government to what he believes are its Constitutionally authorized functions, he regularly votes against almost all proposals for new government spending, initiatives, or taxes,[SUP][15][/SUP] in many cases making him in a minority of members of the house by doing so. For example, on January 22, 2007, Paul was the lone member out of 415[SUP][16][/SUP] voting to oppose a House measure to create a National Archives exhibit on slavery and Reconstruction, seeing this as an unauthorized use of taxpayer money.

Paul advocates substantially reducing the government's role in individual lives and in the functions of foreign and domestic states; he says Republicans have lost their commitment to limited government and have become the party of big government.[SUP][17][/SUP] His 2012 "Plan to Restore America"[SUP][18][/SUP] would eliminate five Cabinet-level departments: Energy, HUD, Commerce, Interior, and Education. He has called for elimination of other federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,[SUP][19][/SUP] and the Internal Revenue Service,[SUP][20][/SUP] calling them "unnecessary bureaucracies". Paul would severely reduce the role of the Central Intelligence Agency; reducing its functions to intelligence-gathering. He would eliminate operations like overthrowing foreign governments and assassinations. He says this activity is kept secret even from Congress and "leads to trouble".[SUP][21][/SUP] He also commented, "We have every right in the world to know something about intelligence gathering, but we have to have intelligent people interpreting this information."

I think these are admirable. I know many teachers in NY that hate the DOE.
 

Nimnim

The Nim
Yep, he has some good points, but he's not really in the moderate field.

Actually what you just posted paints him more to the right.
 

Nimnim

The Nim
I lean Libertarian, myself.

I'm conservative with libertarian leanings, but I know neither of those positions are "moderate" or "middle."

I'm not faulting him, but I just understand there's no way he'd have won either. He'd have picked up some votes, but lost others on his positions. As a VP candidate he'd only have shifted the reason people voted, but it'd still of been right of center. Maybe picked up some, but not enough to have made a difference.

Edit: Then again we'd never know unless it happened. My sister might have voted for a Romney/Ron ticket vs Obama since she likes Ron Paul more. Not quite sure how that works though. . .
 

menotyou

bella amicizia
I'm conservative with libertarian leanings, but I know neither of those positions are "moderate" or "middle."

I'm not faulting him, but I just understand there's no way he'd have won either. He'd have picked up some votes, but lost others on his positions. As a VP candidate he'd only have shifted the reason people voted, but it'd still of been right of center. Maybe picked up some, but not enough to have made a difference.

Edit: Then again we'd never know unless it happened. My sister might have voted for a Romney/Ron ticket vs Obama since she likes Ron Paul more. Not quite sure how that works though. . .
I'm all over the board. Lean libertarian, yet, have democratic tendencies.
 

brett636

Well-Known Member
Same number of Presidential elections that Romney has won.

Next question!

Thanks for proving my point that Ron Paul is the Republican's version of Walter Mondale only the Republicans are smart enough to not let him get past the primary process.
 

BrownArmy

Well-Known Member
Thanks for proving my point that Ron Paul is the Republican's version of Walter Mondale only the Republicans are smart enough to not let him get past the primary process.

How, pray tell, is Ron Paul "the Republican's version of Walter Mondale" ?

That statement makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm having a hard time triangulating Ron Paul with Republicans with Mondale.

Illuminate me.
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
How, pray tell, is Ron Paul "the Republican's version of Walter Mondale" ?

That statement makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm having a hard time triangulating Ron Paul with Republicans with Mondale.

Illuminate me.

I think he is implying that Paul is like Mondale in that he also lost an election and in that sense Brett has a point. Paul lost the election, you know, just like Romney!

What will be interesting in the years ahead is the legacy of both men. Romney will always be linked to ObamaCare because of RomneyCare and Ron Paul will always be linked to principled stands for real limited gov't and free markets. I think both legacies would be fair. It's also funny how so many of the so-called left who disliked Romney and his "Finance Capitalism" at the same time respected and admired Paul for his stands even though they didn't agree with him either. Paul understood that welfare flowed in both directions and more often towards the top and this economic intervention more often than not caused market malinvestments that rippled the hardest through those with the least in life to begin with. Paul understood it was the likes of the JP Morgan bank who not only profitted from food stamps but such profitting assured good reasons to grow this line of profitability to maintain share price.

And who was one of Romney's top contributors?

Brett and his "friends" love being slaves so much that they will work their :censored2: off to give the master the whip in which to beat them with.
 

Bad Gas!

Well-Known Member
It's hard to beat the party of Santa Claus..The dem's free giveaways to the poor. All the government unfireable jobs vote left...I pray Obama can lead this country in the right direction and reduce the deficit, increase jobs and turn the economy around..I don't have much faith in the man after 4 disasterios year of failed economic policy. It's gonna take some hard work and actually trying to do some bipartison policies. The American people deserve a strong leader who can get these parties to work together and get something done in Washington for a change....I wouldn't want the job.. I think Romney got off easy by losing the election..
 

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I'd like to hear mac's opinion of "leaning Libertarian" :D

Ah, the million dollar question. The problem however is those who say they are "libertarian leaning" how do they themselves define libertarian. My "leaning libertarian" could be different, even radically so from what others would describe as "libertarian leaning." And is it "L"ibertarian or "l"ibertarian? Are we talking in the colloquial use of the word or are we talking in the historical and etymological use of the word? Are we talking the Americanized version or the older European version with it's solidly french roots? Are we right libertarians, Libertarian partiarchs, left libertarians, libertarian socialists, libertarian communists, green libertarians, market libertarians, minarchist libertarians.....the list is so long you just forget where you were going and give up.

Once you set the terms and the definitions, then you can get down to brass tacks and what exactly "leaning libertarian" might actually mean. I pretty much ignore the colloquial use and stick to the historical and etymological use of the word. In this most general sense, everyone to some degree is libertarian. The problem is as pointed out, the word libertarian was transformed into a political ideology which in it's colloquial sense has all but destroyed it's effectiveness.
 

UnconTROLLed

perfection
Ah, the million dollar question. The problem however is those who say they are "libertarian leaning" how do they themselves define libertarian. My "leaning libertarian" could be different, even radically so from what others would describe as "libertarian leaning." And is it "L"ibertarian or "l"ibertarian? Are we talking in the colloquial use of the word or are we talking in the historical and etymological use of the word? Are we talking the Americanized version or the older European version with it's solidly french roots? Are we right libertarians, Libertarian partiarchs, left libertarians, libertarian socialists, libertarian communists, green libertarians, market libertarians, minarchist libertarians.....the list is so long you just forget where you were going and give up.

Once you set the terms and the definitions, then you can get down to brass tacks and what exactly "leaning libertarian" might actually mean. I pretty much ignore the colloquial use and stick to the historical and etymological use of the word. In this most general sense, everyone to some degree is libertarian. The problem is as pointed out, the word libertarian was transformed into a political ideology which in it's colloquial sense has all but destroyed it's effectiveness.
True, and in a general sense, these are reasons the party's platform is not so viable in the U.S. Technically, Obama leans libertarian on some issues. if that isn't reason enough for someone to jump ship...
 
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