I'd like to clarify Ron Paul's positions on various issues, and consider them from the perspective of a progressive voter. I think there are many who only know a little about Ron Paul and are not yet aware of many of his positions; if informed about them, they may readily support Sen. Obama instead. Feel free to point any folks that are interested in Ron Paul vs. Barack Obama to this post.
While Ron Paul is anti-war and pro-openness, two issues he and Sen. Obama are in agreement on, he also abides by libertarian fiscal principles and conservative social principles. The sampling of his views presented below can be verified by reading his website and interviews he's conducted.
Ron Paul:
The biggest general question about Ron Paul's views is that he always talks about eliminating much of the federal government in favor of letting the market or states handle things. What he ignores is that in reality, if the federal government were cut down in the way he's talking about, the state governments would simply recreate the bureaucracy at the state level, simply moving problems around rather than solving them.
He talks about how "the market" will provide for the people better than government does, but doesn't mention that the market is really just comprised of big corporations and businesses. Do we expect Big Oil to deal with climate change and protect the environment for us? Do we expect Big Pharma and insurance companies to make sure that no American is left without affordable health care?
This is just Ron Paul on the issues. There are then more questionable ties to racist organizations and racist articles in the "Ron Paul Political Report" that he used to put out during the 90s. (The Ron Paul campaign claims that his staff, and not Ron Paul himself, wrote the racist articles in the periodical that bears his name, that said such things as "only 5% of blacks has sensible political views" or "95% of black males in Washington DC are criminals". Nevertheless, he over the years has seemed to associate with such folks.)
Other folks have documented Ron Paul as well. Check out Ron Paul on religion in government, and another.
And read about his views in general and some of his writings.
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