Ron Paul 2nd in Nevada Caucus right now!

[kilmer420]

@Darkstar

building on what beat said, the thing I personally like the most about him (not that I don’t adore the rest of his platform) is his foreign policy. He wants to get rid of all of the foreign military bases. We have over 700 military bases in over 130 foreign countries. Any idea how much that costs the taxpayer? Any idea how bad that pisses off the residents of said countries? Here’s a hint. There was one guy that got REALLY pissed off about our military base in Saudi Arabia. So much so that he organized a bunch of people to fly planes into a couple of our skyscrapers and our military headquarters. The United States spends more on our national defense than all of the other countries in the world combined. Yet, the continental US has never been attacked by a foreign country (in modern times).

Yes, our national defense is our #1 profit maker for the federal government. We supply Israel (predominately) amongst other nations with tons of weapons and it’s a great revenue for the country. The military bases that you want to abolish provide a service greater then the loss of revenue. A lot of people tend to join the army/navy etc because it’s hard for them to make a living otherwise, or some other socioeconomic decisions (I know it’s not the only reason). But, these people get a chance to make a career for themselves and better their lives, why should we take this away completely? The issue at hand is that these same TERRORISTS are the ones that did attack us on our own soil in modern times, 2001 is modern times last time I checked?

:dunno:

The world hates us because we are the world’s bully. We do what we want, when we want, we tell everyone else what they can and cant do. Look at Iran… who the hell are we to tell them that they can’t have a nuclear program? It’s this crap that MAKES THE TERRORISTS WANT TO KILL US. The war on terrorism we’re pretending to do is only making them want to kill us more. And there is no way we can stop them from doing it except to make them NOT want to kill us. Which, if we just had a reasonable, non-interventionist foreign policy… would happen in a decade or so.

Although I do agree that we are the worlds bully, but our current administration made it this way. Under Clinton, we were on much better terms regarding foreign policy. (I am not pro democrat, I am just talking facts here) Also, the world can hate it as they want, but when our economy sneezes, so does the rest of the world. We effect the global economy tremendously as I am sure you agree. Iran is a whole different mess that Bush shouldn’t be trying to tackle, he doesn’t have enough time, nor does he have the correct approach. Especially, if he is trying to ally himself with Russian Gov. against Iran, that will never happen for many reasons, none of them being democratic, more capitalistic really.

I have heard Ron Paul speak a number of times on Air America, during a few debates, and in several other venues. So many people were calling in to say they supported him, that I was very curious to see what the man was about. He is definitely a Libertarian, which means basically that he wants government out of our lives almost totally. I say almost, because Libs very much believe in police forces and armies; that’s about it. They do not see our society in terms of a “social contract”, that we are all in this together and have to organize things to supply the basics necessaries to that achievement of happiness in which our Founding Fathers believed. Libertarians want to privatize the government exactly the way the Bush administration is doing. Libertarians see business/corporations as the way to achieve the dismantling of government, and it’s really interesting to hear someone like Ron Paul try to explain how this will happen without our (the middle/lower classes) being impoverished and gouged. Like so many people who call themselves Republicans, he wants to see everyone “pull themselves up by their bootstraps”—without answering the charge that the deck is pretty much stacked against the little guy when it comes to corporate business practices.

Thom Hartmann likes to say that Libs are Republicans who want to smoke pot and have free sex. I also would like to see those things, but other than that they’re fairly nuts. I can’t see how turning our country over to corporations has done us much good thus far…

I happen to find Ron Paul personable. He is, however, not our friend IMO, no matter how correct he is about Iraq or the Patriot Act. This is why there are people out there who think he the Republican answer to the Bush Admin. He isn’t, unfortunately. No Libertarian can be. Ron Paul is a Libertarian, even if he’s calling himself a Republican to try to get to the White House. Although, this is my current view on him, it may change over time, so far that’s how I see it.

You can jump my reply and call me a Dem all you want. Yeah, I have some of those views and some republican ones and I agree with what Ron Paul propagates in his campaign, but not everything. I haven’t made a decision on a candidate and just reading over many facts now to get myself prepared to vote over the next year.