Editorial:  Why I'm leaning towards Ron Paul in 2008 
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007

I usually vote Democratic.  Although I weigh all of the candidates carefully, and wish the public would support more than just the two main parties so heavily, the most likely and agreeable candidates in my mind often end up happening to be Democrats.

I think that next year, this may not be the case.

Yesterday, Ron Paul's campaign raised over $4.07 million dollars - in one day.  This is more than the campaign has raised in this entire last quarter.  The money came from a website called ThisNovember5th.com, which commemorates a thwarted bombing that occurred centuries ago.

On November 5, 1605, a Roman Catholic "rebel" attempted to assassinate King James I by blowing up the Parliament.  This is the video that is currently on the homepage of ThisNovember5th's site:

One of my favorite things that Ron Paul says in this video - although the whole thing gave me goosebumps:

"We have a lot of goodness in this country, and we should promote it.  But never through the barrel of a gun.  We should do it by setting good standards, motivating people, and have them want to emulate us.  But you can't enforce our goodness, like the NeoCons preach, with an armed force.  It doesn't work.  Woodrow Wilson was telling us about that, in promoting democracy, a long time ago.  It doesn't work, and we have to admit it."

1. He has never voted to raise taxes.

2. He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.

3. He voted against the Patriot Act.

4. He voted against the Iraq War.

5. He never votes for legislation unless the proposed measure is expressly authorized by the Constitution.

6. He is campaigning to stop federal agencies and special interests from driving property owners from their homes.

7. He believes that imposing tax on Social Security benefits is unfair and illogical.

8. He believes that it is unconstitutional to pay taxes on our income, that our forefathers never intended private citizens' income to be taxable, and seeks to completely eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

9. He has a six-point plan for border security and immigration reform, although he believes we make illegal immigrants the scapegoat through a system we've designed to be incoherent and unjust.

10. He acknowledges that "the biggest threat to our privacy is the government."

My most important issue now, however, is the Iraq War.  From his website, ronpaul2008.com, here is Ron Paul's stance:

  The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information. The area is more dangerous now than when we entered it. We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies, the jihadists, and created thousands of new recruits for them. This war has cost more than 3,000 American lives, thousands of seriously wounded, and hundreds of billions of dollars. We must have new leadership in the White House to ensure this never happens again.

Both Jefferson and Washington warned us about entangling ourselves in the affairs of other nations. Today, we have troops in 130 countries. We are spread so thin that we have too few troops defending America. And now, there are new calls for a draft of our young men and women.

We can continue to fund and fight no-win police actions around the globe, or we can refocus on securing America and bring the troops home. No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as required by the Constitution."

There are only two issues that I have with Ron Paul.  The first is that he is actively pro-life, and is the prime sponsor of HR 300 (which would negate the effect of Roe v. Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to stop abortion).

For a candidate that so actively campaigns for personal freedoms, I believe that his religious outlook on the issue outweighs the right of a woman to choose what she does with her own body.  Although polls usually reflect that the majority of Americans believe abortion should be illegal in most circumstances, so this may be another issue that is in Ron Paul's favor.

The second is that I am concerned about his plan for reforming the health care system.  A former medical doctor, Ron Paul states that he understands first-hand how "bureaucratic red tape interferes with the doctor-patient relationship and drives costs higher."

His plan, however, is for Congress to craft better legislation, to keep health care more affordable without raising taxes or increasing the deficit.

I think health care should be free for everyone.

I will likely post on article on this, but just to brief you:  this morning, a 74-year old man was arrested in our hometown of greater Cleveland, for armed bank robbery.  He robbed a Key Bank, after his health care costs became so high that he could neither afford to keep up with them, nor pay the rent for him and his wife on their Mayfield Heights apartment, and is facing eviction.

He has prostate cancer.  He is sitting in jail today.

I hope that Ron Paul focuses more on the health care issue in his upcoming campaign, as Americans are itching for relief from the ridiculous costs incurred through copays, deductibles, prescription costs, and non-employer-sponsored health care plans.

The United States is the only major industrialized nation in the world without universal health care access.  Medical bills are overwhelmingly the #1 cause for personal bankruptcy in America

I like Hillary Clinton's plan for healthcare, just as I did when she tried to enforce health care reform during the Clinton administration.  But although she claims to want an end to the Iraq war "today," she's supported blank checks being sent over to the Bush administration for just that purpose.  Why?

And then there's Barack Obama:  his national healthcare plan looks good, I like his stance on a lot of the issues, but I'm uneasy about what he wants to do in Iraq.  He tells us over and over that he's opposed the war from the beginning, and he wants to pull out U.S. troops engaged in combat operations at a pace of one to two brigades per month, to be completed by the end of next year - but that is just combat brigades.

He also wants the United Nations to intervene and develop a Constitutional Convention with Iraq, which would not adjourn until national reconciliation is reached and federalism, oil revenue sharing, and de-Ba'athification are resolved.  The Iraqi leaders have not cooperated well thus far:  what makes him think they suddenly will?  And how long will we occupy - not just whether or not there are combat brigades there, how long will we occupy?

So, I'm torn between the health care issue and the Iraq War.  So here's hoping that Ron Paul reforms his plans for the health care system, because I really do like the man - he and Dennis Kucinich are tied for giving us the whole truth and nothing but, but Paul is the most believable, seems to hold the most promise for fixing this crazy corporate-run machine that America has become.

   

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