[Vision2020] Ron Paul

[Paul Rumelhart]

You're probably very right that Ron Paul would never win.

I, also, wish that we had more than the two too-similar parties that had 
any impact in politics in this country.  I think that has to start from 
the bottom and then filter to the top.  The Presidential race is too 
corporate, it will take a large number of non-democrat non-republican 
members of the Senate and House for that to happen.  That would take a 
large number of the same at the State level, and so on down to the city 
level.

What I was trying to avoid by choosing a candidate that can be reached 
out to is the following:

Republicans vote in the democratic primaries to swing the vote to Hilary 
Clinton, which many people hate with an irrational passion.  The same 
thing happens in reverse, giving the republican party their worse 
candidate (I'm not sure who that is right at the moment).  Then we have 
a split country again that is severely polarized.  If the other party 
takes the House and/or Senate, then nothing goes through.  If they get a 
majority in both, then they can ram whatever they want down our throats.

So, my idea is this.  If the democrats can propose a candidate that can 
get a significant portion of the republican vote, or if the republicans 
can propose a candidate that can get a significant portion of the 
democratic vote, then we've in effect bridged that divide.  I'd rather 
go with a candidate that I'm opposed to on some issues than get this 
country back into a situation where one party can rule everything, and 
Americans are at each other's throats all the time.  Also, the people 
that jumped the aisle when they voted might be more inclined not to vote 
the party ticket next time and might actually give third-party 
candidates more than a disdainful glance.

Paul

Ted Moffett wrote:
>  
> Paul et. al.
>  
> Ron Paul will never get the Republican nomination.  If he wants to 
> offer voters an option, he should run in another party.  Otherwise he 
> will just be a Republican version of Kucinich, someone who gets media 
> time and has a large following, who speaks his mind a bit more bluntly 
> than the other candidates in part because he has no chance anyway and 
> can thus offend without worry of alienating critical voting blocks.
>  
> If Ron Paul ran in another political party, he could split the more 
> "conservative" vote, giving the democratic candidate a huge advantage, 
> like Perot in 1996.  He would not win the presidency.  Various "powers 
> that be" with the deepest pockets, which after all is what wins 
> presidential elections in the current system, would go after Ron Paul 
> with a vengeance.
>  
> As far as a candidate that "both sides" can reach out to, this very 
> way of thinking is part of the reason democracy is the USA is sadly 
> limited.  Look at some of the other democratic governments today and 
> witness the diversity of political parties in their nations. I want 
> far more diversity that an almost entirely republican/democrat 
> controlled US Congress and executive.  I'd love to see the US Congress 
> be 10 percent Libertarian/Free Market, 10 percent Green Party, 10 
> percent Christian Fundamentalist (let them call themselves what they 
> are when they control our nation in the name of their religion), 10 
> percent Socialist, 10 percent Atheist, 10 percent Gaiaist (more 
> spiritual version of the Green Party), 10 percent Agaiaist (my new 
> word, similar to "Atheist," for those heretical deniers of the true 
> faith of Goddess Earth Worship that is the only path to humanity's 
> salvation!), then maybe those arrogant democrats and republicans that 
> have a stranglehold over politics in the USA can fight over what is left.
>  
> Both sides?  Why not 9 sides as I listed above? 
>  
> Ted Moffett, trying to think "outside the box," which seems to enclose 
> thought no matter how I think.
>
>  
> On 6/18/07, *Paul Rumelhart* <godshatter at yahoo.com 
> <mailto:godshatter at yahoo.com>> wrote:
>
>     In an effort to switch topics, I'd like to pose the following
>     question:
>
>     What are people's thoughts on Ron Paul (Republican candidate for
>     President)?
>
>     I'll start it off by saying that I'm on the lookout for candidates
>     that
>     might be somewhat palatable to both sides who don't care to establish
>     more Presidential power or remove any more of my civil liberties, or
>     force us to go to war with any other countries unjustifiably.  I fear
>     that Hilary Clinton will prove to be a rallying point for
>     Republicans to
>     react against.  I'd be willing to switch my vote from my usual
>     vote for
>     Democrats or Independents if it means stopping the kind of trouble
>     we're
>     in the midst of now.
>
>     As for Ron Paul himself, I really like his stance on civil
>     liberties.  I
>     also like many of his Libertarian positions, but not all of them.  I
>     like that he voted against the Patriot Act, and that he voted against
>     the war in Iraq.  I don't like his isolationist tendencies, or his
>     willingness to fence off Mexico.  I like that he wants to place more
>     decisions in the hands of the individual states, even though I'm
>     in the
>     minority in Idaho.  He seems to be very principled, and doesn't
>     seem to
>     be in any corporations pocket.  I especially like that he sponsored a
>     bill to have Congress declare an actual war in Iraq, although he
>     stated
>     he wouldn't vote for it.  He wanted a real declaration of war if
>     we were
>     going to war, not some Presidential power play.
>
>     As for his most famous recent stance, I think he is right that our
>     actions in the past have caused a situation where we have made
>     ourselves
>     a target.  The concept of "blowback" is very real.  Our removal of a
>     democratically-elected leader in Iran to be replaced by the Shah
>     and the
>     Iran-Contra affair haven't helped.  Training Osama Bin-Laden how to
>     fight was probably not such a bright idea, either.  I'm not saying
>     that
>     we're to blame for 9/11, just that we may share in the blame in a
>     small
>     way through bad diplomatic or political decisions - and that we should
>     take that into account when making more such decisions.
>
>     Anyway, enough of my opinions.  What does everyone else think?  Is
>     this
>     a candidate that can be reached out to by both sides?  If not,
>     then who?
>
>     Paul
>
>
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