Replies

Ron Paul is anything but a fraud.

Incorrect. That is all he is.

Paul is a fervent supporter of the Constitution

Also incorrect. He is an advocate of the views of Lysander Spooner, who advocated the scrapping of the US Constitution.

Moreover he is an advocate of the positions of the Anti-Federalists, who opposed the ratification and adoption of our Constitution in the first place.

one of the very few prominent politicians to openly oppose the entity that enables Big Government and robs us blind: The Federal Reserve

The entity that actually enables Big Government is the entity to which he has long belonged (despite his fraudulent advocacy of term limits) - the US Congress.

Its appropriations are the source of bloated government and the most dangerous potential source of tyranny in our system - as described in The Federalist.

It’s no coincidence that The Fed, the Income Tax, direct election of senators (effectively ending Federalism) all happened at about the same time.

These were all elements of the Populist and Progressive Parties' agenda at the turn of the 20th century. They were an effective sop to those movements, neutralizing them.

I recognize that Libertarianism is not embraced on FR, or by the Republican Establishment, or by Talk Radio for that matter.

The objection to Ron Paul is not his supposed libertarianism.

All claim to be supporters of Liberty, but are essentially statists - supporting Medicare, Social Security, military interventions, the War on Drugs (...and, No, I am not and have never been a drug user)

Conservatives in the GOP have certainly advocated radical reforms that would end Medicare and Social Security and replace them with market solutions. Paul Ryan is one such worthy.

Ron Paul's ineffective but lucrative (for him) war on the Fed has been accompanied by his complete lack of action against Social Security or Medicare.

Which stands to reason, since Medicare paid his bills for years.

Military interventions are completely constitutional. The Constitution does not endorse pacifism. Nor does it endorse Ron Paul's treasonous attitudes, either.

The Constitution gives Congress full authority to regulate interstate commerce - in pharmaceuticals and other goods - as well as commerce between the US and foreign nations and groups.

above all - Israel.

And there it is. The unhealthy fixation that Paul supporters have with Israel is interesting.

If we spent not one cent on aid to Israel, what impact would it have on the federal budget? Statiscally close to zero. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security represent trillions - but Ron Paul has done more to try to pry a rounding error's worth of aid from Israel than do anything to address those 800 pound gorillas.

Is there any other explanation besides anti-Semitism for this bizarre obsession with .0006% of the federal budget?

Not really.

All of this points to why Ron Paul is a fraud, but I'll give you the two main reasons why he is a fraud.

(1) He is famous for always voting "no" to appropriations bills, and to plenty of other legislation. yet he gets reelected term after term. Is this because his constituents get no pork from Congress and just like him?

Hardly.

It is because he puts appropriations requests for his constituents into bills that he knows will have so many votes for passage that it does not matter whether he votes for the bill he put the appropriations request into or not.

It comes up for a vote, it easily passes, and he cyncially votes "no" as soon as the pork is guaranteed for delivery.

This makes him not just as bad as any other Congressman, but actually worse.

(2) He is a fraud in his perennial candidacy for President because he knows that he has zero chance of winning - but also a 100% chance of collecting millions in contributions from suckers. Millions he does not spend on a Presidential campaign, but which he spends on his reelection campaigns and on friendly foundations for favors.