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Rod Dreher: Ron Paul, if only we listened
The Dallas Morning News ^ | 2008-11-25 | Rod Dreher

Posted on 11/30/2008 11:16:35 AM PST by rabscuttle385

I didn't vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary (I was a Mike Huckabee man), nor did I write him in on Election Day (I penciled in farmer-poet Wendell Berry). But no Texan this year did more good for conservatism and his country than the congressman from the coast.

Lord knows there was no Republican in the 2008 campaign who talked straighter.

Dr. Paul – he's a physician – never had a chance, of course. He is too peculiar in his opinions and doesn't know how to spin like a TV slick. What he had was ideas, integrity and authenticity. On the most critical challenges facing America, Dr. Paul was more right than the well-funded GOP regulars who bigfooted the campaign trail.

(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2008; conservatism; economy; electionpresident; elections; foreignpolicy; gop; libertarian; lp; ronpaul; tx
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To: PerConPat

There are 2 kinds of credit: credit based on actual saved funds and credit created (legally) by the banking system quite literally from nothing. The latter distorts interest rates and is inherently inflationary. Banks only have to legally have 10% reserves backing their deposits which means if all their customers came in at once, they couldn’t pay. Government likes the idea of easy money because it’s alternative to taxes so the concept is legal.

Of course there’s the FDIC but that encourages banks to stay fully loaned up because it removes the fear of a bank run which will naturally keep a bank at least slightly less inflationary.

Although there’s no way the FDIC could stop a nation wide bank run. The fed would have to print the money. If we were an honest society, fractional reserve banking would never have been an issue because it would have been outlawed.


121 posted on 11/30/2008 4:16:00 PM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: rabscuttle385
DioGuardi talking to our newspaper:

“First, let me say how proud I am that so many Albanians came to support John McCain. And why is this important? Since 1998 when we had the problems with Milosevic, McCain has supported everything that we have asked him to do for the Albanian people, including to arm the KLA.


122 posted on 11/30/2008 4:16:42 PM PST by Bokababe ( http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: PerConPat

The current crisis is due to the government forcing down interest rates for so long continually trying to avoid recession. We should have had a deep recession after the tech bubble, but instead we decided to spend spend spend and blow our money on consumer goods and with legislation like the CRA, we developed the much worse housing bubble. The government is still trying to get us to spend, but what we need to do is save, and make no mistake it will be painful, but this consumption based economy can’t last forever and the longer we put it off, the worse and longer the eventual recession/depression is going to be.


123 posted on 11/30/2008 4:20:37 PM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: arrogantsob

A privately owned central bank is no better. It takes away all the checks and balances in free banking that keeps banks (even with fractional reserve banking) from over inflating (or inflating at all). Fractional Reserve Banking has been around since the moment bankers realized people didn’t come in to collect their gold: they issued fraudulent receipts for gold they didn’t have. The problem is government allowed this practice to continue and actively encouraged it.


124 posted on 11/30/2008 4:24:19 PM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: Bokababe

Yup.


125 posted on 11/30/2008 4:27:21 PM PST by dragnet2
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To: PerConPat

The country has been under attack from the beginning. The Constitution was specifically written to RESTRAIN the federal government, essentially allowing it to maintain an Army/Navy, courts, post roads, and very little else. It was implied (and later outright stated as per the 10th Amendment) that the federal government would only have the powers EXPRESSLY granted to it and that all others were reserved to the states or the people.

Pretty much everyone in the federalist camp (who were a very broad group) made these arguments for ratification and even stated that a Bill of Rights was unnecessary because the federal government was not specifically granted the power to take any of the rights mentioned in the Bill of Rights! This was the key to many that were on the fence. The federal government was LIMITED and had only expressed powers.

Yet you had many of the same people arguing after the Constitution was ratified that the government had implied powers such as the ability to create a central bank. The more power the federal government gave itself, the less important states and localities became and the greater the government ignored or brushed aside the original intention of the Constitution.


126 posted on 11/30/2008 4:38:16 PM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: dragnet2
Which is probably why Ron Paul got the highest amount of donations from active military.
127 posted on 11/30/2008 4:41:24 PM PST by Bokababe ( http://www.savekosovo.org)
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To: djsherin
...what we need to do is save, and make no mistake it will be painful, but this consumption based economy can’t last forever and the longer we put it off, the worse and longer the eventual recession/depression is going to be.

Yes...The current fiscal approach is based on the populace being convinced that the freshly printed money now being tossed into the maw- bailouts etc..- is worth something. When they are no longer convinced and hyperinflation stalks the land, we will be treated to those double digit interest rates of yesteryear that helped make Carter a dirty word in knowledgeable circles..

If there is to be any chance of a reasonable recovery, it will be founded on tax cuts and drastic reductions of useless government spending. This will take time. Alas, it seems that without Carters there can be no Reagans.
128 posted on 11/30/2008 4:42:11 PM PST by PerConPat (A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground.-- Mencken)
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To: Bokababe; dragnet2

B-b-b-but he’s a kook! /s

I’m going to be an officer in a few years and the last thing I want to do is be involved in some random war (especially if it’s a “police action”) in some random country.

I also don’t want to have to lead people that don’t want to be there i.e. draftees and I’m worried with Obama’s National Service crap, but that’s another issue.


129 posted on 11/30/2008 4:46:26 PM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: I see my hands

“Friends of Truthers are enemies of the US.”

So are liars.


130 posted on 11/30/2008 5:37:36 PM PST by Harrius Magnus (LIBERALS: We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.)
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To: mysterio

I did not see it that way, and I was “rooting” for Paul too.


131 posted on 11/30/2008 5:56:20 PM PST by Theodore R. (The most frightening words in the English language: The American people!)
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To: Species8472

You got that right!

As a libertarian-leaning conservative, I voted Republican quite often and contributed to both individual candidates and the RP before 2008. Though it is possible (though unlikely) that I may vote for a particular RP candidate again, I have resigned from the RP and will certainly never give the RP a nickel again.

RP loyalists can continue to advocate nation-building wars, national greatness conservatism, deficits, bailouts, pork-barrel spending, expanded entitlements, faith-based initiatives and utter incompetence. They can keep on touting how steadfast George Bush has been, and how brilliantly Karl Rove has advanced the conservative agenda. Just be prepared for the destruction of the Republic under a permanent Democratic Party majority.


132 posted on 11/30/2008 6:09:53 PM PST by RBroadfoot
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To: mysterio

Right.

Truthtellers are never popular. Those who lead on principle are never popular.

RP was far more conservative and pro-American than any of the other Republican candidates in 2008. I don’t consider it “conservative” to advocate a global war of liberation when the Republic is financed by massive foreign debt. And I don’t believe that Iraq was involved in 9/11 - or at least, I haven’t seen or read any credible proof.

Many of my Republican friends are starting to come around, but it is too late now to avoid the impending socialism.

BTW, I don’t personally know anyone - R or D, antiwar or pro-war - who doesn’t support the safety of our troops.


133 posted on 11/30/2008 7:20:13 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: rabscuttle385

“The most dangerous foreign (or economic) policy is that of doing something for the sake of doing something.”

And the idea that our military is useless unless we use it is ridiculous. Our national military resources should be used sparingly, lawfully and wisely, in the same way that our personal security resources should be used sparingly, lawfully and wisely.


134 posted on 11/30/2008 7:23:25 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: arrogantsob

“Credit is an inseperable element of Capitalism.”

Do you mean “debt”?

America is no longer a creditor nation. We haven’t been for almost 30 years, I believe.

SAVINGS and INVESTMENT are inseparable elements of a free market economy. Debt is for socialists, commies and their fellow travelers at the Fed and Wall Street.


135 posted on 11/30/2008 7:30:40 PM PST by SecAmndmt (Arm yourselves!)
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To: SecAmndmt

It’s the same concept behind owning a gun. You don’t expect to use it everyday and you certainly don’t go looking for an excuse to, but you must know how to operate it and fire it accurately. Only a few hundred criminals are killed by people defending themselves with guns, but there are hundreds of thousands of incidents where a gun is shown and the criminal runs.


136 posted on 11/30/2008 7:41:10 PM PST by djsherin (The federal government:: Because someone has to f*** things up!)
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To: Perdogg
The problem with Ron Paul was his foreign policy.

Paul is wrong on Iraq and the threat of Islamofascism. But on the rest of foreign policy he's correct. If we had a traditional foreign policy of securing our borders and wiping out any country that attacks us, the world would be a lot safer.

137 posted on 11/30/2008 7:58:40 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: I see my hands
Friends of Truthers are enemies of the US.

Paul has never been a Truther nor has he identified with them.

138 posted on 11/30/2008 8:00:30 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: RKV

No! I just prefer conservatism - and not liberal light!


139 posted on 11/30/2008 8:01:04 PM PST by CyberAnt (Michael Yon: "The U.S. military is the most respected institution in Iraq.")
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To: CyberAnt
but Ron Paul IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE - HE’S A LIBERTARIAN

Paul has been married for over 50 years to the same woman, is strongly pro-life, and is a devout Christian.

How does that not make him a conservative?

140 posted on 11/30/2008 8:02:42 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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