Respect

I came to Ron Paul because he was for libertarian ideals, a change in our foreign policy and sound fiscal policy. The latter position is a breath of fresh air when the two major parties are locked in a battle to the death over whether we should spend recklessly on the military or whether we should spend recklessly on social programs. Essentially, which set of corporations and special interest groups should get the pork. Paul is running as a Republican because he supports what they claim to stand for on paper, though not at all in practice. This page shows the conventional wisdom that the Republicans are fiscally conservative to be complete fiction.

Given that McCain seems certain to win the Republican nomination and Paul has ruled out a third party run, I ask myself who, among McCain, Hillary and Obama, I'd prefer as president. None have made fiscal restraint as central to their campaign as I think is warranted to avoid long-term damage to the economy (though I'm sure they all pay lip service to it.) On foreign policy, however, Obama is by far the best choice.

We should engage the friendly nations of the world instead of demanding they follow our lead. We should talk openly with Iran and Cuba. They are both the victims of acknowledged U.S. plots to overthrow their government, yet we act indignant when they don't make such-and-such concessions as a precondition of negotiations. So their wary governments become radicalized against us. We should openly acknowledge mistakes made in Iraq and pain inflicted on its people. Instead we just blame the al Qaeda boogeyman for 100% of what's gone wrong like we are innocent bystanders. In short, we need to learn some humility and respect.

The culture of respect (or lack thereof) of people who think differently goes back to what I was saying in the last post. This video shows a long, but very good, speech by Obama about tolerance and respect in a democratic society. I defintely encourage you to watch it. If Paul is not on the ballot I will vote for either Obama or a third party candidate.