[Vision2020] Fw: Mr. Paul’s Discredited Campaign

Fri Dec 30 11:52:20 PST 2011

I agree that Obama is part of the establishment, and as president has been a real disappointment for many reasons.

However, electing Paul would be like trying to put out a fire by pouring gasoline on it.  Increased, ultra-destructive national divisiveness is only one of the problems he would create, let alone more selfishness, me-orientation, and simplistic thinking -- where selflessness, sacrifice, open-mindedness, and willingness to address complexity are what is needed in my opinion.

He is a false libertarian opposing reproductive rights, equal rights for several groups, etc.  Another "Give us the freedoms I think you should have, but not the ones you think you should have if they are conflict with mine ideas."

Further, his understanding of things economic and global issues/threats seem Neanderthal.

I cannot suggest an alternative, but using your metaphor, electing Paul would be galloping at a lathered pace towards destruction rather than blindly hobbling there.

w.

From: Sunil Ramalingam 
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 9:36 AM
To: vision 2020 
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fw: Mr. Paul’s Discredited Campaign

Wayne,

He's the only candidate, including Obama, who is against empire.

How much integrity can Obama have when he gives himself the power to assassinate people (including 16 year-old US citizens) around the world, in secret?

Choosing the lesser of two evils only means we're running towards hell instead of galloping there.

Sunil

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From: deco at moscow.com
To: Vision2020 at moscow.com
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2011 09:29:03 -0800
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fw: Mr. Paul’s Discredited Campaign

I agree with Rumelhart to the extent that things in this country [and globally] are broken beyond the traditional politicians' ways of repairing them.  We need bold, realistic, non-poll-driven leaders who can convince us to re-evaluate our situation, offer feasible solutions, and to convince us to make the inevitable selfless sacrifices necessary.

Though not traditional, I do not think Ron Paul is one of those leaders.

His view of the world and his positions are too simplistic for the complex, diverse, globally competitive world we live in.  The latest revelations have shown that his integrity does not rise above the minimum standard.  The simplicity of his views are his main attraction to many, but reality is the barricade to his views ever producing workable solutions -- they would be even more disastrous than the messes we now face.

In addition, some of his views are so abhorrent and/or crackpotty that he would not be likely to convince congress to implement them in the face of public opinion.

Having said that, I am unable to suggest any leader or group of leaders that seem capable of fixing things.  The best I can hope for is that we elect the lesser of the evils, at least by a little, to struggle on.

I'm glad I'm old and not likely to live too much longer.  I don't not want to see the result of where the world is heading and the foolishness of those in power resisting what needs to be done to change that direction.

w.

From: Sunil Ramalingam 
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2011 7:54 AM
Cc: vision 2020 
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fw: Mr. Paul’s Discredited Campaign

Why doesn't the NYT address Paul's stances on foreign policy? On defense spending?

Sunil

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Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 20:38:24 -0800
From: godshatter at yahoo.com
To: deco at moscow.com
CC: Vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Fw: Mr. Paul’s Discredited Campaign

I'm beginning to believe that Ron Paul is our only hope to stop the downslope this country is on.  For example, the Transportation Security Administration just got an extra $7.85 billion in funding for 2012, including several hundred million dollars of funding for whole body imagers.  This passed both the House and the Senate.  Does anyone here actually believe that terrorism is a personally actionable danger?  Do you change your behavior at all due to the threat?  Do you think all the security theater is worth the money?

Ron Paul is about the only guy out there that votes against this kind of crap.  Pretty much everybody else, (R) or (D), votes it in.  All they seem to argue about is who is getting the pork.

As I see it, your choices are 1) the same old shit, but next year having slipped even farther away from rationality or 2) this one bat-shit crazy dude that might actually try to do something about it.

One thing I've noticed this year is that Ron Paul is actually getting press.  There was a massive grassroots campaign for him the last couple of elections, but nobody in the media would take him seriously as an actual candidate.

The fact that they have started the smear campaign means that there is actually a chance of getting him in office.

My advice?  Don't vote for the person that looks like the most responsible Dad, or the guy that looks like he's someone you could have a beer with, or the one that looks like a he's a successful lawyer.  All of those guys are going to perpetuate the power grab that has been going on for the last few decades.

Vote for the dude that puts the fear of God into the others.  Vote for the one that will work to decrease their power, not the others that only want to increase it for personal gain.

Sure, he's a bag of mixed nuts sometimes.  But he's the only one with half a chance to shake things up a bit.

This should be a fun election year.

Paul

On 12/28/2011 11:35 AM, Art Deco wrote: 

  a.. Reprints 

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  December 27, 2011
  Mr. Paul’s Discredited Campaign
  Ron Paul long ago disqualified himself for the presidency by peddling claptrap proposals like abolishing the Federal Reserve, returning to the gold standard, cutting a third of the federal budget and all foreign aid and opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 
  Now, making things worse, he has failed to convincingly repudiate racist remarks that were published under his name for years — or the enthusiastic support he is getting from racist groups. 
  Mr. Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas who is doing particularly well in Iowa’s precaucus polls, published several newsletters in the ’80s and ’90s with names like the Ron Paul Survival Report and the Ron Paul Political Report. The newsletters interspersed libertarian political and investment commentary with racial bigotry, anti-Semitism and far-right paranoia. 
  Among other offensive statements, the newsletters said that 95 percent of Washington’s black males were criminals, and they described the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as “Hate Whitey Day.” One 1993 article appeared under a headline lamenting the country’s “disappearing white majority.” Other articles suggested that the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, was responsible for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, praised the Louisiana racist David Duke and accused some gay men with AIDS of deliberately spreading the disease, “perhaps out of a pathological hatred.” 
  A direct-mail ad for the newsletters from around 1993 warned of a “coming race war in our big cities” and said there was a “federal-homosexual cover-up” to suppress the impact of AIDS. 
  Mr. Paul, who, beginning in 2008, has disavowed the articles and their ideas, now says that most of them were written by others and that he was unaware of their content. Even if that were the case, it suggests a stupendous level of negligence that should force a reconsideration by anyone considering entrusting him with the White House. 
  When the newsletters first became an issue during his Congressional campaigns in the 1990s, however, he did not deny writing some of them or knowing about them. 
  Mr. Paul has never given a full and detailed accounting of who wrote the newsletters and what his role was in overseeing their publication. It’s especially important that he do so immediately. Those writings have certainly not been forgotten by white supremacist and militia groups that are promoting his candidacy in Iowa and in New Hampshire. 
  The Times reported on Sunday that dozens of members of the white nationalist Web site Stormfront are volunteering for the Paul campaign, along with far-right militias, survivalists and anti-Zionist groups. Don Black, the Stormfront director, said his members were drawn to Mr. Paul by the newsletters and his positions against immigration and the Fed (run by Jews, Mr. Black said), even if Mr. Paul were not himself a white nationalist. 
  Mr. Paul, saying he still hopes to “convert” these supporters to his views, has refused to disavow them or to chase them out of his campaign. If he does not do so, he will leave a lasting stain on his candidacy, on the libertarian movement and, very possibly, on the Iowa caucuses. 

  _____________________________________
  Wayne A. Fox
  wayne.a.fox at gmail.com

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