This is an email I sent to yourcomments@foxnews.com, on December 26, 2011. [Revised]
You people are foolish for trashing Ron Paul. Not even the left has amassed upon him so viciously, like flies on fresh meat. I’m a Colorado independent, though a registered Republican in order to participate in caucuses, who has voted to the right all but once since I was eighteen. I’ll be 57 next month. My wife and I both participated last year in our precinct caucuses. We received the highest precinct votes towards attending our county caucus as delegates, and I served as our precinct leader at the county level. My wife and I helped place those “nasty tea-partiers” in Congress, many of whom refuse to compromise our integrity through the cutting of partisan deals. More of them will be forthcoming.
I’ll generalize for a moment because I’m a simple man: the left desires power to the government; the center-right desires power to the capitalist machine; and the liberty groups (of which my wife and I count ourselves) and libertarians overwhelmingly desire power to the people with a constitutionally-based capitalism. The government, the capitalist machine or the people. These three groups are the only groups who matter in the election of our next president, leaving out the fringe socialists and anarchists.
Setting Ron Paul aside, fewer than you think of the other Republican candidates appeal to independents. Fewer still, if any, appeal to Democrats. I believe wholeheartedly that Ron Paul takes more of the independents’ “pie” and more than you would care to believe of the democratic vote. Case-in-point: My 19-year-old niece canvassed the streets of metropolitan Denver last year in support of the Democrats. She worked for the League of Conservation Voters, as well as for Planned Parenthood in cahoots with the extremely well-organized Colorado Democratic Party. [As a note, I supported her fully in becoming involved in grassroots politics straight out of high school (how many other HS graduates participate that early?), although I did not support any of the Colorado democratic nominees, most of whom won * .] She is home now on break from her sophomore year at an American university where she is leaning toward a degree in Political Science. She mentioned to me over our family Christmas that she would consider voting for Ron Paul.
* [See: Schrager, Adam and Rob Witwer. The Blueprint: How the Democrats Won Colorado (and Why Republicans Everywhere Should Care). Speaker’s Corner, 2010.]
Faith in Obama among Democrats has waned, and Ron Paul is the only other candidate who is reasonably non-hawkish and desires power with the people. I say “reasonably” non-hawkish because in the months following 9-11, the Democrats greatly supported an American military defensive against Al Qaeda. Younger Democrats, in opposition to the actions of Obama, and there are a lot of them (children/grandchildren of boomers), think similarly to the late John Lennon: Power to the People–Right On! and Give Peace a Chance. Lennon took four hollow-point bullets, by the way, before dying for those words. Ron Paul seems to fit into certain of Lennon’s ideals for many young Democrats as well as for many of the liberty groups (admittedly harboring their share of “John Wayne” hawks) and libertarians.
He appeals to the center-right the least of all–which includes FOX News, Rupert Murdoch and the capitalist machine. He’s simply more of a threat to the center-right than are the other “deal-cutting ready” candidates. I support capitalism. Socialism has never worked countrywide and never will in my view. You’re fools for restricting yourselves to a capitalistic tunnel-vision while tuning out a more reasonable-for-all, constitutionally-based capitalism.
Forget the polls. Remember the exit polls which gave Al Gore the presidency before all the votes were in? How many polls predicted that Obama would take almost every state in the country last election day? Polls are there to strengthen or marginalize candidates. They may not be when they’re taken, but they are by the time they’re selected by news commentators to bolster their biases. Polls are not reliable either. I can’t tell you how many phone calls have come in to my wife and I with “Newt 2012” on the caller ID. We haven’t picked up for any of the calls. How many others don’t pick up for political calls? So much for polls. Support for Ron Paul or Newt, at this point, is not entirely known.
Aside from whether support for Ron Paul is great enough to lift him to the presidency, and I believe that it is, there’s the issue of his foreign policy. FNC, the other Republican candidates and most of the center-right regularly fuel fear and dread among voters that Ron Paul’s policy is “dangerous.” As should be obvious by Ron Paul’s libertarian beliefs, which fully support the Constitution, if Congress declares war on Iran, Syria, or whoever, with the majority support of the American people, which is entirely conceivable, then he would support an offense or defense against the threat. No one in the center-right brings up that point, and too few among those who would vote for Ron Paul, including John Stossel, bring it up.
Paul’s foreign policy, simply put, is to follow the constitutional guidelines for taking aggressive measures against other countries. What’s radical, fearful, dreadful or dangerous about that? It’s one of the most respected elements of what’s made our country a survivor for so long–in the eyes of non-Americans as well. We don’t have to flaunt ourselves as the “big dog on the block” or the “world police” to still maintain the best and strongest offense and defense, nor do we have to allow genocides and nuclear threats to flourish, as long as intervention is supported by Congress and by the wisdom of the majority of the American people. I don’t believe that Ron Paul would compromise our military might. He would simply use it judiciously and constitutionally on behalf of Americans like me. For the record, I would support intervention in both Iran and Syria.
Dr. Ron Paul can win the presidency, contrary to the barks of Huckabee, O’ Really?, Hannity and others on FOX who regularly and with a capitalistic and center-right, partisan bias trash Paul.
Sure, this letter is based on both primary-source examples along with a good dose of empirical opining. It echoes my natural voice along with the voices of many voters I know the best—those of like-minded family, friends and acquaintances throughout our country. I’m a simple man, as I said. –SB
