Posted on 11/28/2011 11:15:55 PM PST by Windflier
I've got a few dear old friends that are Paul supporters. They sometimes write me the most heartfelt emails, encouraging me to get behind Ron Paul.
Some of them are guys I've respected for decades, and it just kills me having to burst their bubble with those facts. I try to get them to confront the fact that Ron Paul has run for president before, and that he never got more than a few percentage points of the vote.
I ask them to explain to me why they think he's got any better chance of winning this time. They usually point to straw polls and internet polls for proof, and then I show them the results of the national polls. At that point, they usually revert to conspiracy theories to explain why he's stuck at 7%.
I usually let it go at that, and allow them have their fantasy.
Depends on the bank. I don’t do business with Darhel, Klingons, Democrats or other such riff-raff...
I think it’s a template. I get locked in a debate with my brother who just sort of laughs when I throw him facts and snap him in to reality. Meanwhile, he counters with conspiracy theories involving the Jews (both here and abroad) and the state of Israel.
His views on FP and “the war on drugs” are understandably controversial. That aside, his remaining domestic positions are often spot on.
I haven't watched any of the debates on television, but I have listened to them on radio. I kind of prefer doing it that way, so that I'm not distracted by camera work, lighting, strange looks, split screens, etc.
I feel like straight audio is more honest, and that it's harder to fool the ear.
Anyway, the way Ron Paul sounded in the last debate was positively geriatric. He also sounded high strung and emotionally tweaked. Compared to the other candidates, he came off sounding like an old kook off the street, and that's not any sort of prejudice on my part talking. He really didn't sound like a presidential candidate.
Windflier wrote:
“Just what is it about Ron Paul that attracts these nuts?”
Paul has two support bases, both very small:
The mainly younger group likes his combination of pacifist foreign policy and willingness to legalize drugs. They ignore his fiscal policies, assuming they’ll worry about those later.
The other group tends to be older and garden-variety libertarian. They like the fiscal policies and the posturing.
Together they don’t make up enough of the electorate to matter. But somebody had to take over for Harold Stassen.
I'm sure you've heard Freepers give Ron Paul his due, over and over again. Few of us deny that he's got the right ideas about a lot of things, but his supporters just won't accept that he's broken the deal with us in other areas.
Some deal breakers are minor, some are modest, and some are major. Ron Paul's got some major deal breakers with most conservatives. Add to that, the fact that he doesn't have the leadership credentials to be a president, and the fact that he's a House member (which puts him at very long odds of being elected), and his advanced age, and it's pretty self explanatory.
He's a No Sale for most thinking conservatives.
Well, it’s drawn on the 1st Bank of Free Republic. Hope they’ll do ;-)
I’ve got a brother like that, but he’s even worse. He’s a progressive Dem. You oughta hear the ridiculous conspiracy theories that come out of his mouth.
I point out all the things the Obama mal-administration is doing, and the lightbulb never goes on. I’ve given up on trying to close the circuit.
Embracing the Alex Jones/paranoid nutcase market sure doesn't keep the crazies away.
I don’t call him Ron Pol Pot for nothing.
Yep. I was just telling someone that most Freepers give the man his due, but that he simply breaks the deal with us in ways that are non-negotiable.
Oh yeah, I’ve met a few Obama Drones these past few years.
Yeah, and some of them have buyer's remorse and are now crossing over. First stop - Ron Paul.
Which could prove dangerous if enough of them crossover and vote as Republicans like last time. Careful what you wish for.
I think maybe you all are right, and my statement was unfair. What I meant was something like: the latest medical expertise (on sodium etc.) always seems to want you to get you to change your ways in a quite radical manner. Doctors often seem to go with the latest trends, oblivious to the fact that these trends have only just been reversed or re-reversed. My own grandfather was advised to “stay in bed” following his heart attack, which killed him. Therefore, like Galen, and as a son of doctors, I am wary of doctors who claim to be know-it-all “experts” and am thankful for those who seem to understand the complexity of life and the perhaps unquantifiable value of individual liberty.
[ Few of us deny that he’s got the right ideas about a lot of things, but his supporters just won’t accept that he’s broken the deal with us in other areas. ]
I havn’t seen that.. Mostly he is condemned as crazy or addled..
I think he is so smart he does not want to be President..
Just to adjust the dialog on the debates.. as he does..
A few over the top comments does it...
There are many places the US should NOT be like Korea or Germany.. or Japan except nominally..
Pulling back from everywhere is just silly..
Paul used to be tough, but he has turned into a silly little girl.. pity.. age maybe..
The truth is Congress wouldn’t let him go off half-cocked anyway..
Only Michele Bachmann would do (some of) the intelligent things he proposes (intelligently)..
Many Freepers themselves act like silly little girls..
And some of them ARE girls..
I waiting for the meanest leanest son of a bastich I can find to be behind..
A compassionate conservative is little more than a democrat.. a silly one..
Finding a democrat thats not silly would be a hard job..
I like the old mean nasty Ron Paul.. the Icehole.. I like that one..
The only one that comes close is Michele Bachmann..
Yeah. LOL.
Except that George Washington, John Adams, Hamilton, and even 0Franklin would also be perceived as “crazy old loons...”
The guy really is a constitutionalist.
Remember that document?
uh....because a NUT KNOWS other NUTS.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.