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Socialists and Neocons versus
Ron Paul
Bryan Edds
Lew Rockwell.com
Wednesday Aug 22, 2007
From my experience,
people who attack libertarians such as Ron Paul are often not
serious about ideas. I have noticed the individuals who deride
Dr. Paul do so mostly with shallow and dishonest attacks.
Take the
various socialists and welfare-statists who attack Ron Paul. I
understand they support nationalizing healthcare while generally
being against the occupation of Iraq. Because they oppose the
occupation, they should find a powerful ally in someone as principally
opposed to it as Ron Paul. Take also the neoconservatives in the
mass (minded) media such as Faux
News who attack and omit Dr. Paul. I understand they support
the occupation of the Middle East but also believe government
should be strictly limited in accordance with traditional conservative
ideas (right? right???). In Ron Paul, they have a great opportunity
to highlight these at least rhetorical parallels while simultaneously
expressing reasonable disagreements. Because of these considerations,
I believe it reasonable to expect a certain amount of give and
take among the three camps, if only for practical reasons.
(Article continues below)
What I have
experienced instead has been a surreal and dishonest two-front
attack against Ron Paul. No argument seems to be too trivial or
irrelevant for the anti-Paulians to make. They seem to be bringing
up every possible issue (real or imagined) against Ron Paul in
the hopes something – anything – will stick.
Consider:
- While
the President gets dictatorial power to spy on and indefinitely
kidnap innocent Americans, socialists and neocons speculate
wildly about Ron Paul supporters "spamming" internet polls.
- While
thousands of men, women, and children violently die in Iraq
and Afghanistan, socialists and neocons misrepresent Ron Paul's
refusal to fund stem cell research.
- While
the Bush administration plots to drop nuclear weapons on Iran,
socialists and neocons spin every single Ron Paul victory to
be meaningless or nonexistent.
- While
people suffer without healthcare because government
intervention makes it unaffordable to the poor, socialists
and neocons distort a decade-old mishap Ron Paul had with one
of his previous ghostwriters.
Where they
manage to attack Dr. Paul’s ideas directly, they do so with increasingly
ineffective arguments. Consider further:
- While
the Constitution is trashed and mocked by all three branches,
socialists and neocons talk about how Ron Paul's message of
rule of law is anachronistic.
- While
government at all levels rob the people blind, socialists and
neocons sneer at Ron Paul’s suggestion to get rid of the Federal
income tax.
- While
the American economy further implodes due to the boom and bust
cycle created by the Federal Reserve, socialists and neocons
talk about how Ron Paul's anti-Fed proposals are "irrelevant."
- While
the prices of essential goods dramatically increase via inflation,
socialists and neocons talk about how Ron Paul's hard-money
ideas are unrealistic.
- While
Ron Paul educates Americans on economics, socialists and neocons
spread discredited Keynesian and Marxist myths which undermine
liberty and prosperity.
- While
Ron Paul plans to help reintegrate America with the world through
peaceful trade and foreign policy, socialists and neocons smear
him as "isolationist."
- While
Ron Paul gains more supporters every day, socialists and neocons
criticize his lack of name recognition in land-line phone polling
– yet at the same time groan about how fanatical and pervasive
his supporters are...
Something
isn't right. There is honest disagreement, and then there is demagoguery.
There is mutual respect, and then there is mud-slinging. I cannot
name one person who Dr. Paul has disparaged as badly as most of
his critics see fit to disparage him. This says a lot about all
said parties involved.
What is it
then about Ron Paul that inspires such fevered attacks? I will
say what I believe. I believe the battle for freedom takes place
not only in the upcoming election, but also in the arena of ideas.
In this arena, I believe Ron Paul’s message is more powerful than
any political shenanigans that can be put against him. I believe
also the embittered detractors have good reason to be up in arms.
With every Ron Paul victory, they have found their intellectual
weaponry to be unexpectedly brittle and ineffective against the
message of freedom.
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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