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If “Has A Chance” Never Was, Ron Paul Would Be The Nominee
libertymaven.com — “Has a chance to win ” is the unmentionable issue yet it is the response many give as to the reason they chose not to vote for Ron Paul. “I’d vote for him, but he doesn’t have a chance,” goes the mantra. It trumps, “He’s crazy”, or “His views are too extreme.” Indeed, if “has a chance” never was, then Ron Paul would be the Republican nominee.
StingingNettle- 31 diggs
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- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -10/+12Even if you add in the people who would vote for him if they believe he had a chance, that would only maybe give him the support of 10% of the country. Most people are against Ron Paul because of his policies, not because they don't believe he has a chance.
- caferrell, on 05/13/2008, -5/+15Midoc, do you realize that the policies of Federal largesse are leading us to an inevitable collision with a national debt of 50 Trillion dollars sometime in the next fifteen or twenty years. You see most people are led to believe that their little bit of the gravy train should go on forever, and they will vote to keep their little bit of government graft.
But for educated adults to continue to offer policies that cannot be paid for is completely irresponsible. I will vote for Ron Paul because he is honest. I know that most people will vote for their personal betterment and not for what is right on principle, and I know that implies the collapse of our system.
It doesn't matter, I'm going to do the right thing anyway. How about you?- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -9/+2I am voting for Barack Obama because I know that he cares about all Americans, not just the ones he thinks matter. Ron Paul doesn't believe that the homeless have any value because they "made a bad decision" at some point in their life. Ron Paul advocates getting rid of our current welfare state, something that will put millions of Americans out in the cold. He advocates pulling away from the rest of the world, and while I don't mind stopping the wars, we have many wonderful opportunities for humanitarian work. I believe in taking care of every citizen who needs assistance and I believe that those who are too greedy to help to their abilities have forsaken their humanity and should be mistreated as such. I am voting for Obama because I believe that he will help us get to a place where everyone has a roof of their head, food in their bellies, and clothes on their bodies. When the comfort and well being of Americans is assured, then we can move on to something new. The rich got their money by being crafty in some instances, but they also got it by working the poor into the grave, if they are not willing to give back then we will make them. Fight injustice where it exists, not just where you want to.
- caferrell, on 05/13/2008, -2/+11I agree completely with your sentiment and for years was a socialist, however I spent yars travelling around the world and reading history and have come to the conclusion that government largesse will always be co-opted by the power elites to their avantage. You cannot have a system of coercive socialism that will actually help those who most need help. You may rearrange the hierarchical structure, but the redistribution will not be equitable or even sensible.
Our Federal government has slowly come under the all-pervasive influence of Corporate America. A partnership between the large corporrations and the politicians and buraucrats has taken place. They are all feeding at the trough and unfortunately their primary concern is making sure that their trough stays full. Some of them may have good, I also believe that Obama has good intentions, but the system will gring their god intentions into dust.
The only hope is to attack and dismember the system itself and that requires radical surgery, not simply a new man at the helm. This ship will not go where Obama points it. What it will do is continue to spend nonexistent money and continue to raise the national debt to a level that is unserviciable.
It is noble and right to strive to help those that are less fortunate, but we need to do that as individuals, not as a society. I donate a day of every week and I work at a shelter where I translate English to Spanish. We need to get back to a mentality of service, but that will not happen if people shun religion. Atheists do not tend to donate their time, but back to the subject of Ron Paul and Obama.
Both of these men feel the call to serve those in need, but they go at it from different directions. Paul realizes that the course that we are un is unsustainable. We are going broke. Government services to the poor will end whether we want them to or not if we don't change course soon. We need a balanced budget. We need to start paying the debt. We need to balance our foreign trade, and we need to keep the #@$%!! Fed from inflating the currency.
At the same time we cannot just leave those people that already count on Federal assistance out in the cold. Dr. Paul has repeatedly explained how no-one who is currently receiving goevernment assitance would lose it, but he would change the system to get young people out of medicare and social scurity before those programs go bankrupt. In the meantime he would fund the services that go to the people currently in the system by reducing our overseas expense by 500 Billion.
Obama wants to do everything for everyone, and that is noble. It is also unsustainable. Even without taking his foreign aid programs into account, we will have a deficit of over 25 Trillion dollars in ten years as baby boomers start to use mdicare and Social Security. Obama has no plan to take care of that debt. That debt will kill us.
Good intentions are behind the programs of both men, only one of them has the courage to look honestly at the future.- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -2/+1I am not going to debate with you. Not because I don't have counter arguments, I could write at great lengths on how socialism led the Weimar Republic to greatness. However, in spite of the fact that I want to debate with you, when you make final statements like "only one of them has the courage to look honestly at the future" you show an unwillingness to debate. I have yet to see an argument that would make me consider Ron Paul, but that doesn't mean I've closed him out forever, I would infact prefer him to Cheney as a president. If you want to debate you have to be able to keep an open mind. You are not debating, you are simply delivering a speech. I bid you good day and hope that when Obama is president you are able to see the good he does for what it is.
- kemp34, on 05/13/2008, -1/+3When you pay for your "good" through force, your "good" is no longer good.
- caferrell, on 05/13/2008, -2/+11I agree completely with your sentiment and for years was a socialist, however I spent yars travelling around the world and reading history and have come to the conclusion that government largesse will always be co-opted by the power elites to their avantage. You cannot have a system of coercive socialism that will actually help those who most need help. You may rearrange the hierarchical structure, but the redistribution will not be equitable or even sensible.
- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -9/+2I am voting for Barack Obama because I know that he cares about all Americans, not just the ones he thinks matter. Ron Paul doesn't believe that the homeless have any value because they "made a bad decision" at some point in their life. Ron Paul advocates getting rid of our current welfare state, something that will put millions of Americans out in the cold. He advocates pulling away from the rest of the world, and while I don't mind stopping the wars, we have many wonderful opportunities for humanitarian work. I believe in taking care of every citizen who needs assistance and I believe that those who are too greedy to help to their abilities have forsaken their humanity and should be mistreated as such. I am voting for Obama because I believe that he will help us get to a place where everyone has a roof of their head, food in their bellies, and clothes on their bodies. When the comfort and well being of Americans is assured, then we can move on to something new. The rich got their money by being crafty in some instances, but they also got it by working the poor into the grave, if they are not willing to give back then we will make them. Fight injustice where it exists, not just where you want to.
- MarkDTS, on 05/13/2008, -3/+5Please give me something else to work with besides "My guy Rocks! Your guy sucks! Blah Blah '08!" Give me something that you disagree, or agree with, I promise that I'll listen and consider your opinion. There are still a lot of voters out there that haven't decided for whom they're going to vote. Not because they're ignorant, but because they've been turned off by our Good Guys/ Bad Guys interpretation of a popularity contest/ election.
If you're going to "flame" these boards at least do it in a way that you make me question why I'm voting for Obama, Clinton, McCain, or Paul.
Let me know that you actually care about who controls the Presidency of the United States.
Please don't view these elections as "Do Overs". As in, "Well, that guy didn't work out. DO OVER!" If we continue to do that one day we won't have anymore "Do Overs". We're close to that point now.
Good Luck Everyone.- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -5/+2I actually wanted Edwards initially, he truly inspired me with his speech about the two Americas. When he withdrew I headed towards Obama's camp, but it wasn't until he gave his speech on race that he truly captured my vote. I was also hesitant when I heard people describe him as a rockstar, but as I've watched my son (who gets to vote in his first presidential election this year) I've seen his excitement grow, Obama has instilled in him a real passion for politics. I don't generally flame as it is tedious, I always try to have a point to my statements, so if you'll reread it perhaps you'll see it this time.
- MarkDTS, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I appreciate you taking the time to list a reason here.
I think it's important, no matter how much you support your candidate, to re-evaluate your position with your candidate continually. Not to blindly follow one person simply to appease the catch phase "We need to untie the party!". I think a lot of people blindly followed our current president with such confidence to the polls that they are now dealing with the stabbing pain of embarrassment by duped so completely by him. They've been so hurt that they now "just want to be on the winning side" and are horribly afraid to make the same "mistake" twice, or in some cases a third time.
I have been impressed by both Obama and Edwards in this very long campaign. Personally, I disagree with the concept of universal health care in the sense that the majority of these candidates are hoping to mandate Universal Health Care. That older practices from this country of communities taking care of one another, and private practices supporting that community, even volunteering their time.
I was also moved by these two very well delivered speeches, as I myself am a very mulatto male. Unfortunately, I also know that the facts are that people, not politicians, open the minds and hearts of people around them and people will not change their racial mindset as long as they feel someone is profiting where they should. Take into account the NSO Nazi white supremacy group formed in Russia. I won't go into details, but there's a great report on the hardship that immigrants face there for the failure of the Russian people having someone to blame for their counties economic status. A situation we could find ourselves battling if we don't get our own economy in check.
Anyway, I could go on, but I won't.
I'm very excited that your son is so excited. Please let him know that his vote, everyone's vote, truly does count. Also let him know that the only way he'll ever waste his vote is to vote for someone that he truly doesn't support simply because someone tells him that they can't win. As long as they're running and HE believes in them there's always a chance that they can win, at least until we lose our right to vote.
Good Luck and thanks for voicing your opinion.
- MarkDTS, on 05/14/2008, -0/+1I appreciate you taking the time to list a reason here.
- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -5/+2I actually wanted Edwards initially, he truly inspired me with his speech about the two Americas. When he withdrew I headed towards Obama's camp, but it wasn't until he gave his speech on race that he truly captured my vote. I was also hesitant when I heard people describe him as a rockstar, but as I've watched my son (who gets to vote in his first presidential election this year) I've seen his excitement grow, Obama has instilled in him a real passion for politics. I don't generally flame as it is tedious, I always try to have a point to my statements, so if you'll reread it perhaps you'll see it this time.
- KMye, on 05/13/2008, -3/+7Paul's had less than 1 million people cast their votes for him; I think you're being far too generous allowing another 29 million would vote for him "if they had a chance". But of course your overall conclusion is valid.
- Midoc, on 05/13/2008, -5/+2Well I just feel so bad for them sometimes, I throw 'em a bone every now and then.
- kemp34, on 05/13/2008, -1/+7If that is true, interesting to note that America has become a land of a hand out mentality. Too bad big government is pretty terrible at solving the problems you want solved. Also note, money does not grow on trees. For every government program you advocate, you are taking money out of every working citizens' pockets in a coercive manner. You are fine with this?
- caferrell, on 05/13/2008, -5/+15Midoc, do you realize that the policies of Federal largesse are leading us to an inevitable collision with a national debt of 50 Trillion dollars sometime in the next fifteen or twenty years. You see most people are led to believe that their little bit of the gravy train should go on forever, and they will vote to keep their little bit of government graft.
- reed311, on 05/13/2008, -8/+8Buried as inaccurate and for the line: "Maybe the best thing for this country in the long term is to experience a greater depression than the 1930’s"
Many Ron Paul folk have been hoping and wishing for an economic collapse (just for the sake of proving their hero right). It is disgusting to wish a depression like that upon people. You'd have to be a sick son of a bitch to hope that children would starve to death just so you could prove a point.- mrchubbs, on 05/13/2008, -1/+5It's certainly not a wish, but an extreme observation about what "event" will it take for people to realize that they DO have a choice other than what the two major parties offer.
- onetimer, on 05/13/2008, -11/+10Is this more of the "the media created a self-fulfilling-prophecy" *****?
Oh yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it is a race between Giuliani and the "inevitable" nominee democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, right?
What? McWho? The guy that the MSM basically declared dead one year ago?
Obama? The guy who was running as a gimmick that could make the democratic party look diverse while america overwhelmingly votes for hillary?
Oh wait, the majority of the GOP didn't vote for paul because they don't agree with him. Sorry, I got caught up in a debunked excuse for a second...- kemp34, on 05/13/2008, -8/+7McCain 34% coverage, Paul 0% (January 28 through February 3, 2008, arguably the most critical week in the election):
http://www.journalism.org/node/9610- kemp34, on 05/13/2008, -8/+4I'm sorry, it's McCain 37.4%, leading the way out of ALL candidates. Even Journalism.org calls it an "anointing" by the media.
- onetimer, on 05/14/2008, -1/+9Yes, I can see you can copy and paste. That's great. What your argument (more accurately lack thereof) fails to explain WHY he started winning BEFORE he started receiving more media coverage (in January), despite his campaign being described as dead.
- kemp34, on 05/13/2008, -8/+7McCain 34% coverage, Paul 0% (January 28 through February 3, 2008, arguably the most critical week in the election):
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