Ron Paul supporters: A blessing or a curse?
Let me define this particular segment of the base to whom this is addressed.
1. First and foremost you are probably a zealot, while you may think that there is no amount of passion and fervor that can be devoted to a cause as noble as liberty and freedom - there is. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing is an adage that aptly works in all facets of life including this one. You have created and continue to create a cult of personality around Ron Paul.
2. You have and will continue to call anyone that disagrees with Paul's ultra dovish stance as "neoconservative". Unfortunately for you, you still have no idea what neoconservative means. It makes you look silly to use terms that you can't even properly define, but that is OKwith you, because everyone is doing it.
3. You are a conspiracy theorist. You believe in any of the following: 9/11 was an inside job, the Fed is owned by a secret Jewish banking cartel, new world order and the Illuminati. There are plenty of others, but those seem to surface during any debate. Anyone who disagrees with you or points out that you are a conspiracy nut you immediately label a sheep and write off as being part of the problem. Yeah yeah, flame away.
4. You are rabidly anti-Israel
Now let us talk about these issues at length and perhaps you can appreciate how your behavior is extremely off-putting to a vast majority of the country.
1. Your total admiration of a principled and dedicated man that has devoted his cause to the Constitution for the past 30 years is understandable, but it is overwhelming and tiring, even Jefferson would tell you to tone it down. OK? Cult of personalities exist in precisely the type of environment that you theoretically despise. Totalitarian regimes thrive on cult of personalities in order to promote obedience and worship of a central heroic figure while stifling dissent. Do you recall how Obama was idolized to the point of mass mania? Children sang songs that reminded us of little Hitler youth zombies in the 1930s, while gigantic crowds swooned over candidate Obama as if he was the next messiah. Same of Stalin and Mussolini. Ron Paul is a politician! Nothing more. He wants you to promote and espouse his ideas not swoon over him like a teeny bopper at an Elvis concert. You do not need to worship and spam his image and name everywhere you go.
2. Consider this as an educational moment as I define neoconservative for you. Neoconservative is a term coined by the father of William Kristol (guy who runs the Weekly Standard) as a label for former liberals who have adopted a more hawkish stance and typically joined the Republican party. It does not describe anyone who supports the military or wants to stay in Iraq or thinks Iran is a threat. Cheney and Bush for all their problems, faults and awfulness were never liberals and therefore were and are not neoconservatives. It is really quite simple, get it?
Now I happen to agree with you that Paul's views on military intervention and policy are far more Constitutional than most Republicans', but we should view his position as that of financial prudence more than anything else. We simply cannot afford the wars, we cannot afford to be spending over 950 Billion dollars on defense and we cannot afford to antagonize other countries when we are stretched so thin. However there are plenty of legitimate arguments as to why bringing every soldier back home or ignoring Iran can be dangerous. Equally important to remember that of all the major issues discussed in politics, defense is clearly outlined in the Constitution. To disagree with Ron Paul on these matters does not make one a war mongering neoconservative Nazi scum that has to be made fun of. Plenty of people are willing to spend money in order to promote security even if that means creating a national offense as opposed to a much more preferred national defense.
3. Conspiracies. By far the most upsetting and disheartening issue has to be the conspiracy theories which have probably done more damage to Ron Paul than all other issues combined.
9/11 Truth: While I understand the utter futility of attempting to convince Truthers that a building that falls very fast does not actually translate into the most complicated, extensive and sophisticated conspiracy theory in the history of mankind - it might be worthwhile to explain why you should at least not talk about it.
See, most independents and liberals already view Ron Paul supporters as anti-government. Although I think we should be called pro-small Government once a label has been placed it becomes difficult to shake. If people want to label us because we want to return to a Constitutional form of Government while respecting the rights of States then that simply makes them ignorant. However if you suggest our Federal Government was willing to murder 3000 of its own citizens than you are indeed anti-Government. To win the hearts and mind of independent voters we should not be 'anti' anything. Believe it or not even the label 'anti-war' is stigmatized even if it is utterly idiotic to be anything other than anti-war, because really, what the hell is pro-war?
Truthers will remain Truthers until the end of time, because it has turned into a belief system. Ron Paul has made several mistakes by openly associating himself with the likes of Alex Jones and by constantly suggesting that he is uncomfortable with criticizing your beliefs. Still, Ron Paul is not a Truther and even his affiliation with Students for 9/11 Truth has been distorted (see Malkin). For example Paul believes that the 9/11 commission is flawed and perhaps a certain cover-up did occur, but it was a cover-up of the Government incompetence not a cover-up of some sinister plot. Our Federal Government's intelligence agencies failed miserably and screwed up the one legitimate function of our Federal Government - our security. Is it that unreasonable to believe that whatever report they issue will attempt to soften or hide their stupidity and the errors involved in the prevention of the biggest terrorist attack against this country? Not at all, one of the best things that our Government does is to routinely screw up basic functions. These people can barely deliver mail, piecing together random pieces of intelligence tidbits among 10 agencies is hardly a trivial task for a bloated giant bureaucracy. Oddly enough Paul's sloppy agreement was all the fuel that the Students for 9/11 Truth needed to further their damaging agenda.
The Fed: The fact that this is a conspiracy is just sad, for two reasons. Firstly it is amazingly easy to disprove and I will do that shortly, but it also fuels the anti-Semitic charges against Paul and his supporters. Ron Paul believes in freedom and liberty, he is not an anti-Semite although his comments against Israel are peculiar (more below). His crusade against the Federal Reserve is purely financial and one that makes perfect sense if anyone bothered to understand basic economics. Paul desires to repeal the Federal Reserve Act not because Bernanke and Greenspan are Jewish or "because it is funded and owned by European Jews". One of the most common and patently absurd pieces of evidence consists of listing the reserve banks and showing their ownership. Many websites/forums copy and paste this erroneous list and feel pretty good about themselves for pointing out such incriminating evidence. Too bad the sites are wrong and if you believe this list then you are clueless.
The list of so-called reserve members:
Rothschild Banks of London and Berlin
Lazard Brothers Banks of Paris
Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy
Warburg Bank of Hamburg and Amsterdam
Lehman Brothers of New York
Kuhn, Loeb Bank of New York
Chase Manhatten Bank, and
Goldman, Sachs of New York
Supposedly these banks are internationally owned by powerful Jewish financiers. So completely wrong it is a wonder that this list is even circulated.
Here are the actual eight largest members of the Federal Reserve system:
Chase Manhatten Bank
Citibank
Morgan Guaranty Trust Company
Fleet Bank
Bankers Trust
Bank of New York
Marine Midland Bank, and
Summit Bank
If you are confused as to why this list is completely different, do not be. Accusing the Rothschild family of manipulating the world for financial gain is as old as time itself. In the 1800s Nathan Mayer Rothschild was accused of manipulating the stock markets by having inside knowledge over the Battle of Waterloo. This information was spread through pamphlets that were originated by an anti-Semitic French writer. As you may know, France was no stranger to high profile cases of discrimination and anti-semitism (Dreyfus affair). In fact accusing Jews of being filthy money grubbers that held countries hostage went back to 11th century England!
Christians outlawed usury and the job fell to the Jews who picked up this work because it made practical sense. Not only was it profitable, but after being bounced from country to country they figured that being in the highly liquid and portable banking industry made more sense than hauling paintings and furniture around. This did not stop the conspiracies and it in fact was a major Nazi platform used as an explanation behind Germany's economic woes. Believe it or not even the "genius" Adolf Hitler (and Henry Ford) drank the Jewish banker kool-aid when in reality it was nothing more than a failure of progressives attempting to centrally control inflation!! (See Rothbard's America's Great Depression)
By continuing to assert Jewish involvement in the Federal Reserve you are suggesting two possibilities. A serious lack of historical knowledge of the Fed's history (read Ron Paul's End the Fed) and anti-Semitism. This is not an attempt to bludgeon or silence opposition by invoking the all too common charge, but because the 8 major holders of the Fed are actually American owned companies and not in fact international Jewish banks. It seriously undermines your credibility.
As an amusing piece of evidence your hate of Jews is entirely self defeating considering that Ron Paul's economic beliefs were developed and popularized by people like Karl Popper, Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard and to a lesser extent Milton Friedman. Paul's primary economic adviser is Peter Schiff. All Jews.
4. The issue of Israel is a bit tricky. Lets be super clear though, this is not an issue of foreign aid because Ron Paul's position on ending all foreign aid is not only financially prudent, but fair. Yet it does not make sense for you to run around and point out how much money Israel gets when Egypt, Pakistan and virtually everyone else gets billions as well. Although Israel receives the most surely there is a difference between a democratic country that provides the best life for Arabs in the middle east and all the other Arab dictatorships. It only makes sense to speak about ending aid from the perspective that we do not have the money and that virtually all subsidies yield poor consequences in the long run. Prime example being Egypt that has funneled money to their military to create an oppressive police state that ultimately turned into a revolution for Islamists and anti-American youth.
However this is the one place when Ron Paul's hypocrisy is blatant and frustrating. One admirable position of Ron Paul that I support is his insistence that we should mind our own business. Yet he turns around and accuses Israel of creating a concentration camp out of Gaza. Earlier he got on the House floor and suggested that Hamas was an Israeli creation, a topic I covered earlier. Despite that those two accusations are false and historically inaccurate, how exactly does that fit into the mantra of minding one's own business? Shouldn't Ron Paul mind his own business on issues as complicated as Gaza? Oddly enough there is plenty of information that proves Gaza and West Bank ghettos were created by Arabs. Arabs originally promised the inhabitants of Gaza their plight would be solved, but quickly discovered that turning Gaza into ghettos created an ever lasting international sore in the side of Israel - they were right. Arabs could care less about the Palestinians; Jordanians expelling them while Egyptians shooting them is proof positive.
Yet what do you as his supporters do? You get dragged into one of the most complicated international issues of our time without even fully appreciating the delicate history of the region. You then somehow make the Evangelical religious right of the Republican party become the sole defenders of Israel? Think about how sad that is. This is the same religious right who have accused Jews of being Christ killers! They only care about Israel for their own purposes and are willing to do what it takes to fulfill their religious destiny. Instead of choosing the objectively rational path, Israel is now being defended by people who get their instructions to do so from the Bible. Oy vey.
We are the only natural defenders of Israel because we are truly interested in helping the country succeed. By depriving Arabs of American foreign aid we level the playing field tremendously while empowering our own financial situation. By minding our own business we allow the Israelis to handle their security in a manner they see fit, instead of dictating to them which borders they must observe or where to build their settlements. By maintaining this position we do not get dragged into religious and philosophical debates that have no sensible resolution. This is where a cult-like following of Paul becomes detrimental, because it deprives you of the ability to approach the Israel issue from a pragmatic standpoint. Ron Paul is wrong about his accusations and he is dead wrong for the hypocrisy he exhibits. You could attempt to defend him by justifying his involvement as a result of us giving foreign aid to Israel, but then why does he not speak out against atrocities in place like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Jordan. Instead he is entirely mum on their wrongdoings in the spirit of minding his own business, but fails to extend the same courtesy to Israel. Why?
Conclusion: We are fighting for the same cause. We believe a smaller Federal Government is better. We believe in State rights. We encourage personal choice and freedom by scrapping oppressive drug laws. We believe an economy that is sound must run on sound money. We believe that centrally planned interest rates are flawed and are the anti-thesis of a free market. We believe that corporate subsidies are just as bad as personal subsidies and are just as eager to end handouts to Big Oil companies as we are to end welfare. We believe in worker rights by allowing them to negotiate their terms, salaries and benefits without the oppression of monopolizing unions and Federally mandated work laws.
Those beautiful ideas and concepts are difficult enough to explain and sell to an America that is growing more and more dependent on Government handouts, entitlements, special interests. To go down a rat-hole of factually incorrect conspiracy theories while demonizing anyone that does not immediately agree with you simply makes the advancement of liberty that much harder. While Ron Paul's finish in Ames and his undeniable growth in popularity can be attributed to the very rabid base I admonish it will paradoxically insure that Ron Paul will never ever get the nomination either. You will simply reach a critical mass of followers that will either be sympathetic to your rabid viewpoints or choose to ignore you like I and many others do, but it will never be enough to win over the crucial independents that ultimately determine the outcome of every presidential race. If you truly cherish freedom, liberty and the many causes that Ron Paul advances then pass this article along and spend more time listening/learning and less time making yourself look crazy.
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