My Hatred Toward Ron Paul Supporters

By Tony Mazur

As Rick Morris stated in the post below, Ron Paul will withdraw from the presidential race. I know, I know, it's sad for us all, but I guess he didn't appeal to the majority of the people.

Ron Paul has been described as a Constitutionalist, libertarian, and, although I don't believe it, a conservative. Personally, I think he's a goof. There is no redeeming quality about Ron Paul.

However, I do not know what's more annoying, Ron Paul's political positions, or his idiotic supporters. When referring to the 2008 presidential race, I heard someone say that "Ron Paul is the only true conservative". As a fellow conservative, I am offended to be classified with this numskull. I support the War in Iraq. I greatly support the Patriot Act. How can you not support the Patriot Act? There are savages who want to kill us, and these dummies think our rights are being infringed upon.

Ron Paul backers are all the same, no matter what age they may be. He's quite popular among college students and ex-hippies. The typical supporter is usually a liberal or libertarian. He/she probably smokes a lot of pot, and believes in ridiculous conspiracies, like UFOs and the "bombing" of the World Trade Center on September 11th. That's kind of why there actually is a chunk of people who follow Dennis Kucinich. Chances are, they do a lot of internet blogging. Also, they are usually offended by anything remotely resembling criticism against Ron Paul. These are the people who shout to the world that they are moving to Canada if [insert Republican candidate] wins the election, but never follows through.

I'm already hearing phony conspiracies about how the government is keeping Ron Paul out of the public eye. He's not Ross Perot. Ron Paul cannot affect the outcome of this coming election, even if he ran as a third-party candidate. Unfortunately, it's going to be either McCain or Obama, two candidates I'm dreading to see in the White House. I wish a viable candidate can go up against them, but it won't be the case. And Ron Paul isn't the guy.

Ron Paul to withdraw from presidential race

By Rick Morris

UPDATE: This was published as a straight news story, devoid of any editorializing. However, in response to many of the know-nothing reactions that this story has engendered in many quarters, we have created an FAQ section so that people may at least choose to avail themselves of basic facts and not embarrass themselves with baseless assertions.

Troubled by internal polls showing insurgent challenger Chris Peden having pulled ahead shockingly in the Texas 14th congressional district, Congressman Ron Paul will be pulling out of the Republican presidential race in advance of his home state's March 4 primary, The FDH Lounge blog has learned. This news comes from a source with access to Paul's congressional campaign and it parallels a recent move on the Democratic side of the White House run as fellow party establishment irritant Dennis Kucinich was forced to abandon his efforts in order to focus on a threat to his congressional seat. The key difference? Longtime Kucinich ally North Olmsted mayor Thomas O'Grady entered the race to split the vote, while Paul's refusal to engage in such tactics has backfired on him.

Peden's lead is extremely surprising given the vast disparity in resources between the campaigns, a divide that will only grow as Paul is able to divert funds contributed by his large base of small contributors to his presidential race back into the House of Representatives campaign. Over the past year, Paul's libertarian-based platform struck the most fiscally conservative note of any of the Republican aspirants, but it also contained an isolationist streak that put him at odds with the party base -- and those foreign policy views are currently the biggest problem for Paul in an extraordinarily conservative district. The irony is that Paul positioned himself as a determined upstart out to topple the powerful national establishment, but he himself has been the Goliath of the Texas 14th until very recently -- when the district's David, Chris Peden, amazed the world by forcing an end to his crusade for the White House, dubbed by his followers The Ron Paul Revolution.

Government stealing from us again

By Rick Morris

While Texas Congressman Ron Paul attracts the lion's share of attention for his presidential campaign because of his quasi-isolationist foreign policy positions, it must be remembered that he is also tapping effectively into the public's inherent distrust of politicians of both parties who treat our hard-earned money as their own private treasury. His libertarian positions, although extreme, serve as a pure and refreshing counterpoint to the rampant corruption of both political parties in D.C.

Witness the latest outrages chronicled at EarmarkWatch.org, a new and outstanding website dedicated to shining the light of truth on blatant wastes of federal cash coming out of the swamp on the Potomac. The latest porky delight to be exposed? A handout to a Washington-state glove company inserted into the federal budget by congressmen of both parties from, you guessed it, Washington state! Interestingly, one of the offenders was Jim McDermott, a far-left nutcase who probably doesn't think that anyone in the military deserves a warm pair of gloves or anything else decent in life -- but hey, if there's a chance to placate a potential contributor back home ...

This great new site will have a ton of user-generated content, meaning that it is dependent on citizens to utilize their tools to unearth corrupt earmarks in federal legislation. May I suggest right now that the website owners reserve copious server solely for the excreble Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia? This braying jackass, who is probably the biggest pork abuser in the history of the federal government, proudly waves around a copy of the Constitution wherever he goes while somehow remaining ignorant of the Tenth Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. Apparently Bobby Byrd bought his copy of the Constitution at the same place he got his white sheets.

(Qualified) sympathy for Ron Paul

By Rick Morris

Every presidential election cycle features an unlikely breakthrough candidate who captivates the mainstream with eccentricities that set him apart from the pack. Unlike Howard Dean in 2004 or John McCain in 2000, however, this year’s refugee from obscurity has no chance of even coming close to the nomination. But Texas Congressman Ron Paul has separated himself from the rest of the Republican candidates by taking positions radically different from the rest – and in so doing, he has angered members of this royalist political party whose idea of responsibility is to sit down, shut up, and swallow the pabulum being pushed by the leadership.

Make no mistake – I am not a Paul supporter. Like other members of The FDH Lounge program, I am backing Fred Thompson and see him as the only viable candidate to save our country from further doom. But I harbor some sympathies for some of the Paul positions and certainly for the spirit that animates his candidacy.

Recently the RedState.com website made headlines by taking the extraordinary approach of prohibiting any new Ron Paul supporters from establishing a presence in the community. They are well within their legal rights to do so. Moreover, in light of the annoying tendencies of Paul supporters to spam and perform various Internet acts of harassment on behalf of their candidate, I understand the unwillingness that RedState may have to deal with the antics of a candidate almost universally regarded as “fringe.”

But the RedState folks were incredibly ill-advised in defending their decision by labeling the Ron Paul movement as “liberal.” Ron Paul is a self-described libertarian who takes paleoconservative positions on many foreign policy matters. Now, I must admit, as a self-identified paleoconservative, that Paul seems to go beyond where I and other paleos are at and does seem to advocate liberal foreign policy positions (such as the nature of the disengagement he seeks from the Middle East). My disagreements with him about this are such that they would preclude my support of him for the Republican nomination for president.

However, even if you grant some matters of foreign policy to those questioning Paul, he’s one of the least liberal candidates ever to run for public office. The man is a radical libertarian. Name any aspect of the modern welfare state and he’s against it. He speaks fondly of the gold standard and the reintroduction of principles from the Austrian economic school of thought. The aspects of complete individualism he preaches run so counter to liberal philosophies that the RedState justification stands as one of the more asinine explanations of any decision in this election cycle.

For a Republican Party that sold its soul this decade to try to buy more votes by embracing a boondoggle Medicare prescription drug program, the heinous, dollar-sucking No Child Left Behind, amnesty for illegal immigrants and all forms of corrupt pork barreling, a moral watchdog like Ron Paul serves a vital purpose – even if he does offend the Powers That Be in the GOP who want everyone to sit down and shut up as our Old American Republic yields to the New World Order, piece by piece. When the guardians of conservative purity have more sympathy for the blow-dried power brokers at the RNC than they do the pursuit of sound domestic public policy, they have nobody to blame but themselves for a world ready to embrace Hillary Clinton and empower the wackos at DailyKos.