The man whom I regard as the greatest American living today, Congressman Ron Paul, was on "Morning Joe" this morning. I'm not surprised that the GOP Establishment and the neocons hate his message of limited, constitutional government.
==Ron Paul, and people like him, are hated by traditional Republicans (and many conservatives). Why? Because most Americans want big government. The only real distinction between many liberals and conservatives is the form of big government. Liberals want liberal big government and many conservatives want conservative big government. People like Ron Paul, on the other hand, want a limited role for the Federal government. I applaud him. The Democrats, on the national level, have lost their collective minds. They are running as hard as they can off the left side of the mountain. The Republicans, on the other hand, seem to be very confused right now. On the one hand they oppose the big government policies of the Democrats but then they turn around and propose their own form of big government. Worse yet, they seem to gravitate towards weak candidates. In '00 it was Bush, in '08 it was McCain, now many are in love with Palin or the liberal Scott Brown. Whats up with this? Why can't the Republicans find a small government, conservative, who knows what they believe, why they believe it, and is willing to stand and fight for those beliefs? Unless or until the Republicans fix this they have lost me and my vote. As of this moment, I am going third party in '12.
Yes.
Americans, by and large, have not been interested in having limited, constititutional government.
If they were, then the federal government, as well as state and local governments, would not be a gazillion times larger than in 1789.
Ahem, maybe he hasn't gotten bills passed because there are not nearly enough people in Congress who share his limited government beliefs. Most of the rest just try to pass bills to please their constituents regardless of the harm that they do to everyone else.
I consider the "best" people in government the ones who got the least "done." The more than seems to be "done" in government, the more harm that occurs. I want the Congress to STOP ramming through bills that are hostile takeovers of our liberties!
By the way, Paul's "Audit the Fed" bill has 317 cosponsors in the House and has passed the House. We need to get more Senators on board, but too many of them have bigger ties to special interests.
Your liberal roots are showing if your think that "intentions" without accomplishments qualifies one as the "greatest living American" or greatest anything else for that matter.
I'm not sure about Ron Paul. There is a cult like following as even evidenced by Ken. Another cult like leader is the last thing we need. Heck, the current one isn't doing us much good.
Liberal roots???? The first political candidate I remember liking(and the first campaign button I had) was Barry Goldwater around my 9th birthday in 1964. My thinking was also heavily influenced by his book "Conscience of a Conservative". Also, heavily influencing my thinking from my reading in my younger days has been Frank S. Meyer's "In Defense of Freedom: A Conservative Credo" and Robert Ringer's "Restoring the American Dream".
That's why, regardless of any veering around I have done, I have always ultimately returned to my libertarian roots. And now I am tired of the veering and will just stand on my libertarian political beliefs - regardless of the Siren's call I may hear from any political party or any politician.