But what is it about Paul–his brand or his substance–that pulls support from so many parts of the political continuum?
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"And [Paul would] shut down the Fed! Woo-hoo! That would be awesome: so then interest rates and the money supply could be controlled entirely by private banks, without even a theoretical modicum of public accountability! What progressive wouldn’t love that? And sure, the Fed was created by an act of Congress, but that doesn’t matter: a president with the determination of David Duke can just snap his fingers and poof! All the central bankers will be begging on the streets for change! Like I said, it’s fucking magic!" | BY TIM WISE::
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Every single one of the candidates currently running for the Republican nomination is a walking disaster. But one of them, Texas congressman Ron Paul, seems to be getting a disturbing amount of support from liberals. Mostly that's because his nut-job libertarian views happen to not sound so nutty on a handful of issues. He wants to end the War on Drugs. He is against the death penalty. He would support a constitutional ban on gay marriage. He was opposed to the War in Iraq and wants to end all American military intervention abroad. All of that sounds pretty good to us left-wing types — downright refreshing coming from a Republican. Some progressives have claimed they'd rather vote for him than for Obama. Even Occupiers have sung his praises. But if you're a liberal who supports Ron Paul, you either haven't been paying enough attention or you're out of your fucking mind. | BY LITTLE RED UMBRELLA::
- Paul criticized equal pay, AIDS patients, sexual harassment victims
Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) may be the most principled and consistent Republican candidate for president, but what exactly are those principles? | THE RAW STORY
:: - Ron Paul Thought His Newsletters Were Pretty Great in 1995
Ron Paul's position on the newsletters with racist statements that were published under his name 20 years ago has changed quite a since then -- in a 1995 interview with CSPAN, for instance, he was pretty proud of them. | THE ATLANTIC
:: - Occupy protesters interrupt Ron Paul: "Why do you hate gays?"
Protesters with the 99-Percent movement have been interrupting campaign-related events all over Iowa. | THE RAW STORY
:: - On the Environment, Ron Paul Even Crazier Than Bachmann and Perry
OK, forget that he'd like to make it a criminal offense for a woman to get an abortion. How about that he thinks there should be no environmental protections at all? | TREEHUGGER
:: - A Bigot Through and ThroughThere isn't any reason good enough to support Ron Paul | ELIZABETH SCHULTE, SOCIALIST WORKER
OF RELATED INTEREST:
- The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom?
A series by Adam Curtis exploring the concept and definition of freedom, specifically, "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom. | BBC
:: - The Austrian School of Economics is Crank Science
The Austrian School of Economics is a tiny group of libertarians at war with mainstream economics. They reject even the scientific method that mainstream economists use, preferring to use instead a pre-scientific approach that shuns real-world data and is based purely on logical assumptions. But this is the very method that thousands of religions use when they argue their opposing beliefs, and the fact that the world has thousands of religions proves the fallibility of this approach. Academia has generally ignored the Austrian School, and the only reason it continues to exist is because it is financed by wealthy business donors on the far right. The movement does not exist on its own scholarly merits.
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