Ron Paul - Where Right Meets Left

Congressman Ron Paul, seeking the Republican Presidential nomination, is really a Libertarian, sort of.   Paul wants to cut federal spending by Trillions of dollars, almost immediately, to get our National Debt under control, which is good.   But, is it possible without causing complete chaos in the markets and our country.   Paul wants to find a lot of the money for the spending cuts by slashing our military.   It is true that the United States, as a Super Power, maintains more than 600 bases, or military missions around the world, in 100 countries.   Some of these are probably attached to US Embassies.   Some of these military installations can and should be eliminated; but Ron Paul is an isolationist who advocates pulling back to our shores and basically letting the rest of the world go to hell. 

We pretty much did that between World War I and II and that did not work out too well.   And, for better or worse, the United States is a stabilizing force in much of the world.  Our presence alone is the difference between war and peace and perhaps chaos.  Further, Ron Paul does not believe that Iran, run by radical Islamists, developing nuclear weapons, is a threat to the United States and our Allies, like Israel, despite Iranian proclamations that it is their goal to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.   Based on Paul's campaign rhetoric, it would appear that Ron Paul would like the United States to leave the Persian Gulf region, where most of the world's oil supply come from.  Ron Paul essentially wants to dismantle our military much the same as radical left wing Socialists.   Even Socialist President Obama is not calling for ending US military involvement around the world.   So in this case, Ron Paul is to the left of Obama, which is pretty hard to do. 

Ron Paul attacks the Federal Reserve and wants to abolish it.   And, while Ben Bernanke's secret bail-outs to big banks and the European Central Bank have to stop and there should be more Congressional oversight over the Federal Reserve, does it really make sense to abolish this agency of government that controls our money supply.   We need a lot more study to really understand the workings of the Federal Reserve to determine the impact of abolition before we go down that road.   More controls are needed; but abolishing the Federal Reserve may not be in the interest of country. 

Congressman Ron Paul seems like an old crack pot to this Blogger.   Paul will not be the Republican Presidential nominee when the dust settles; but he may go to the Republican Convention in Tampa with 10 - 15% of the Delegates and they will be rabble rousers.  Ron Paul is a extremist candidate, where Right meets Left.   Paul is far to the right on fiscal issues and far to the left on defense issues when compared to all other candidates from both major parties.   A minority of people seeking radical change are attracted to Ron Paul out of understandable disgust of what is happening our nation.  The fact that the things Ron Paul advocates in the extreme are both not likely to happen and could be bad for our country; but it does not seem to matter to Ron Paul supporters that are clearly disgusted with the status quo.  Who isn't digusted with the status quo; but we have to work in the real world to make good things happen potentially by Constitutional Amendments that are badly needed to save our country.   

Personally, as a Conservative Republican, who support a strong military to both secure our border and fight Terrorism, this Blogger could never vote for Ron Paul if he were to get the Republican nomination.   Since that is not going to happen, thankfully, we will not have to face the choice of  Ron Paul or Socialist President Obama.   As such, Ron Paul is just a distraction during the primaries.   Hopefully, when Paul does not win the Republican nomination, he will not run as an Independent garnering just enough votes to insure Obama's reelection as was the case with Ross Perot and Bill Clinton.  Ron Paul could be a spoiler; but that is about it.   Let us hope that Ron Paul peacefully goes off into the sunset to retirement to write books when the campaign is over so that we can get on with the serious business of the country.