Comments | mizunol: Too long, you might not want to read.

mizunol

Too long, you might not want to read.

Dec 26, 2007 22:00

So after the disappointing revelation that my sister and her dude-to-be are Ron Paul supporters, I thought I would write up a post about why Ron Paul is crazy. A bit of Googling showed me that someone's already done a fine job of that for me. This four part post from phenry does a very good job of detailing (most) of what I mean when I say Ron ( Read more... )

politics, ron paul

Comments 16

balladsofmirth December 27 2007, 03:20:47 UTC

Why does your sister like him? What is pulling her in?
Mitt Romney disturbs me even more, and I think he's been terrible about slinging mud at people. Baby.

Why my sister? I'm not sure... mizunol December 27 2007, 05:06:53 UTC

And in all honesty, I don't feel safe talking politics around her with my family around. Maybe I will ask her later.

Guesses? I'm not sure... her guy seems more excited about Paul than she is, but I'm not even sure why that is with him. He's against the war? He wants to stop taxing waiters on tips?

Romney is no good, but Huckabee's the real slimeball to me.

Re: Why my sister? I'm not sure... balladsofmirth December 27 2007, 13:54:51 UTC

But see, at least with Huckabee, I feel as if he's crazy as a horse on social issues, but that he's okay when it comes to his fiscal ideas (i.e. wanting to close the gap between the rich and poor). With Mitt, he changes his opinions constantly, and the health care program in MA is doing a lot of harm because people can't afford it and don't understand it. I don't know how someone can go from basically acting like a socialist and move into ultra-conservative territory. I prefer the craziness to spin at my face not at my back ( ... )

synapse December 27 2007, 21:39:15 UTC

I am wondering if you would be interested in Jared Ball. Maybe. And not necessarily voting interested, since he's a Green, but maybe.

http://hiphoplinguistics.com/politics/2007/12/not-your-ordinary-candidate-jared-ball

http://www.jaredball.com/

[Is off to learn about other Green candidates, because no one else is impressing her.]

yuenmei December 27 2007, 03:27:29 UTC

I think you're smart. Who DO you like?

This is a complicated question. mizunol December 27 2007, 05:16:51 UTC

I will probably devote an entire entry to it!

synapse December 27 2007, 03:36:34 UTC

I assume you got my voicemail messages about the Ron Paul balloon/moon impostor. I'm upset that someone could be such a psycho supporter of this guy that they put up a GIANT, INFLATABLE, ILLUMINATED campaign sign that was so huge and bright as to lead me to be concerned about impending astronomical disasters.

Also, Googling such things to see if they are standard Paul-ite fare led me to the revelation that thanks to the psycho supporters of Ron Paul, there is an actual, full-on blimp that's sailing around telling people to Google Ron Paul. For serious. A motherfucking blimp.

... mizunol December 27 2007, 05:10:22 UTC

I am actually so afraid for Charlottesville right now, because if there is going to be a place where moonmen Ron Paul supporters are, it will be there.

Also, I totally used Panopticon in hope of luring you into commenting. HAW HAW HAW.

synapse December 27 2007, 21:16:24 UTC

Well, it was really more the deadly combination of Panopticon and OMG.

tsuki_no_suzu December 27 2007, 04:18:07 UTC

You will either be proud or abhorred by my saying this, but: Who is Ron Paul?

I gather he's involved in politics.

:: sips soda ::

Well, as you have probably gathered from my post mizunol December 27 2007, 05:16:09 UTC

Ron Paul is a crazy man.

Of course, there are many crazy people out there. What makes Ron Paul special crazy is the fact that he is running for president and, for reasons unknown to me, has a huge amount of grassroots support. The guy will never get elected -- he's too crazy for that. But do you remember Ross Perot? He's a candidate who's kind of like that: (I think) people like him because he presents himself as someone who's honestly different and not afraid to say what he thinks, but when you start scratching his surface you see he's really more of the same.

Oh, Ron Paul is also the only Republican presidential hopeful to oppose the war, which actually goes to show how incredibly unpopular this war is. Republicans who are fed up with the war (and there's quite a few of them) like him for being anti-war, and an inexplicable (to me) number of Democrats just think he's the bee's knees for seemingly going against the party line on the issue.

Re: Well, as you have probably gathered from my post balladsofmirth December 27 2007, 13:56:00 UTC

I think it's similar to John McCain in the last election: people like him because at least he isn't spinning his words and playing the political game, and I think, after all of the business of the last decade or so, people want some brand of honesty more than anything else.

mcmartin December 27 2007, 08:45:36 UTC

Additional Fun Ron Paul Facts.

Until recently, when he was joined by the theocratic, evolution-denying Huckabee, Ron Paul was the only person running for the Republican nomination for President that thought that torturing people was bad. Every. Single. Other. Candidate. was not only cool with torturing people in general, but they specifically thought it was awesome to torture people who were merely suspected of things. That fact alone is sufficient to make him the best of the bad lot that is the GOP field this year.

Regarding the Panopticon, he also apparently believes that Interstate 35 is a UN/NAFTA/etc plot to destroy American Sovereignty.

OH MY GOD

WE HAVE AN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SYSTEM

EVERYBODY PANIC!!!! One of the many advantages of being a Democrat in California is that I don't have to care about any of the Republican candidates, because there is no chance at all that my state's electoral votes will go to any of them.

mcmartin December 27 2007, 08:46:22 UTC

Argh, two tries and I still can't get the formatting to work right. So it goes.

Perfect icon! mizunol December 27 2007, 15:22:01 UTC

The information about torture is appreciated, but I can't even process it right now. I did have the unique opportunity to catch part of the Mike Savage radio show where he argued that Waterboarding and feeling like you are going to drown just really isn't that bad and isn't permanent like those Mos-lems do because you know they cut off people's hands and stuff.

The stuff about I-35 is priceless. I'm Googling it right away.

Re: Perfect icon! mcmartin December 28 2007, 07:30:36 UTC

Important keywords: NASCO (this is a real organization of lobbyists who try to steer DoT funding to keeping I-35 well maintained -- they figure heavily in the OH NOES THEY WANT TO BUILD A ROAD THAT CONNECTS MEXICO TO CANADA crowd -- please don't tell them about I-5 or I-15)

Regarding the main thrust of the post, I think the left-leaning Paul supporters fall into three camps:

(1) People who don't see anything other than opposition to the Iraq War. When I'm being uncharitable I think of this group as the group that only opposes Bush and Cheney because the voices in their heads tell them to.

(2) "The white supremacist is running to Giuliani's left." People who are informed about this but conclude, even taking everything into account, that he's still the best option they're giving. Tends to involve heavy denial about the actual apparent state of the populace. I haven't done enough research on the others to be firmly in this camp, but from what I know I'm at least sympathetic to it. As I noted before, as I will never vote in an ( ... )