A Hope for America

Oddly, this post will probably not be the only time I go on for a while about a 72-year-old former gynecologist. Amidst all the talk about Hillary and Obama, McCain, Huckabee and Romney (people finally woke up to realize that Rudy doesn't know anything about how to run the country), one man is forgotten. It is this man to the left. Congressman Ron Paul (R) from Texas, if you didn't know, is running for President. He has crazy ideas about things like personal freedom, constitutionalism, smaller government and ending the war in Iraq just to name a few. Of the five remaining candidates in the Republican race, Ron Paul is the only true Republican remaining. Republicans, traditionally, have stood for smaller federal government, more states' rights and more personal freedom.

Perhaps most importantly, of all the candidates both Democratic and Republican, Ron Paul is the only one who is for the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi soil. Yes folks, even the beloved Barack would not bring our boys home from Muslim lands. His logic for this is simple: we did the same thing in Vietnam and Vietnam did not fall apart as hawks claim Iraq will. It is simple really, millions of people are going to die in Iraq because of the instability that has plagued that country since the British ended colonial rule in the 1920s. The question is how many Americans do we want to be part of those millions of dead? My answer and Paul's answer is, as few as possible and the easiest way to do so would simply be to leave right now. bin Laden and other terrorists hate us because we are over on their soil. Leaving Iraq would not guarantee that we would never be attacked again, but it would certainly tilt the odds in our favor. Iraq, for the other candidates, is not even a topic of conversation at the debates (to which Paul is usually not even invited despite his rather large following and fundraising capabilities), which is frightening.

Speaking of frightening, I think fear is the reason why more people and the media do not want anything to do with this man, sometimes labelled a "radical". People in this country are too afraid of freedom or they simply don't care that they have none. We think we are all free because we can buy whatever we want or watch whatever we want on television, but this is only freedom to consume. Where is our true freedom, our freedom to live in peace? I shouldn't have to worry about my emails being read or my phone being tapped. I simply want to be left alone. I'll pay my taxes when I'm asked to, but other than that, just let me live. I don't need the government to tell me what to eat, what drugs are bad for me or that cigarettes are bad. I can figure out what is good or bad for me on my own; and even if something is bad for me, it's my choice to be an idiot and do it anyway.

I guess the whole point of this diatribe is that the thing that makes America the greatest country on earth, freedom, is the same thing for which Ron Paul stands. I may not agree with all his policies, but I agree with more of his than do I Hillary's or Huckabee's. America is supposed to be the land of the free. That statement has come into question in recent years. I truly believe that Ron Paul can make America free again.