Commentators continually draw attention to the \u201csteadiness\u201d that Mitt Romney has shown vis-\u00e0-vis the GOP presidential primary contest.\u00a0 Romney, they point out, has \u201csteadily\u201d maintained his first place position.\u00a0 Yet never do these same commentators point out that for all of the race\u2019s \u201cfrontrunners\u201d that have come and gone\u2014Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain\u2014Ron Paul has steadily remained in third or fourth place, depending on the polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In this \u201cAn Honest Look At\u2026\u201d series, I have sought to show that in spite of their protestations to the contrary, each of the GOP presidential candidates exhibits a penchant for the ideology of Big Government.\u00a0 Each is either ignorant of or indifferent to the secret of American liberty, a secret that lies within the fact that our national government is supposed to be a federal <\/em>government, a government to which our Constitution assigns but a few specific \u201cpowers.\u201d<\/p>\n As this final edition of the series establishes, it is in the person of Ron Paul alone that the Republican Party\u2019s rhetoric of liberty becomes incarnate.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let\u2019s begin by examining Paul\u2019s positions on domestic policy.<\/p>\n <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Domestic Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n Abortion<\/em><\/p>\n Rick Santorum is widely heralded among the Republican Party faithful as a strong \u201csocial conservative.\u201d\u00a0 For example, Santorum, we constantly hear, is as \u201cprincipled\u201d and stalwart a defender of the unborn as anyone in contemporary politics.\u00a0 But Ron Paul has proven himself a tireless champion of the unborn, not just in political life but, more tellingly, as an obstetrician<\/em>. \u00a0Over the span of decades, Dr. Paul delivered over 4,000 <\/em>babies.\u00a0 Not once did he so much as entertain the possibility of performing an abortion, and he regularly assisted women in pursuing life-affirming alternatives\u2014like adoption\u2014to the life-denying choice of abortion.<\/p>\n If elected President, Paul would seek to pass a Sanctity of Life Act which would identify conception as the beginning of human life.\u00a0 He would also \u201ceffectively\u201d repeal Roe v. Wade <\/em>and introduce legislation that would prevent \u201cactivist judges from interfering with state decisions on life by removing abortion from federal jurisdiction [.]\u201d\u00a0 Being the Jeffersonian that he is, Paul agrees with our third President that it is at once \u201csinful and tyrannical\u201d for anyone, whether individuals or governments, to coerce another to subsidize \u201cthe propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors.\u201d\u00a0 So, in order to prevent this \u201csinful and tyrannical\u201d coercion, Paul has expressed his desire to labor inexhaustibly to end all <\/em>taxpayer-funded abortion services.<\/p>\n Paul, it should be obvious, is as committed\u2014and consistent\u2014an exponent of both \u201cthe right to life\u201d and <\/em>\u201cthe right to liberty.\u201d\u00a0 In both word and deed, Paul has shown that the two are inseparable.<\/p>\n The Economy<\/em><\/p>\n Of his Republican competitors, not one forecasted the economic crisis of 2008.\u00a0 Ron Paul did.\u00a0 Moreover, Paul predicted as early on as 2001 that the housing market was headed for a crash, an event that would have dire ramifications for our entire economy.\u00a0 Unlike some of the other GOP presidential candidates, Paul staunchly opposed TARP and \u201cthe bailouts\u201d of which it consisted.\u00a0 He recognized\u2014and insisted\u2014that the government\u2019s response <\/em>to the economic crisis was an instance of precisely the sort of intervention in our economy that fueled<\/em> it to begin with.\u00a0 Correctly, Paul as well predicted that such intervention, far from abetting this crisis, would actually exacerbate <\/em>it.<\/p>\n To begin repairing our economy and restoring our lost liberties, Paul suggests some measures that, as President, he promises to appropriate.\u00a0<\/p>\n First, he will veto any <\/em>and all <\/em>unbalanced budgets that Congress sends to him.<\/p>\n Second, he will steadfastly refuse any proposed increases in the debt ceiling.\u00a0<\/p>\n Third, upon insisting upon a \u201cfull\u201d audit of the Federal Reserve, President Paul would set his sights on abolishing <\/em>it.<\/p>\n Fourth, Paul would establish \u201csound money,\u201d so that our government could never again dream of dramatically debasing the dollar by printing money out of thin air, so speak.<\/p>\n Fifth, Paul advocates the elimination of the income tax, the death tax, and capital gains taxes.\u00a0 With a President Paul in the White House, Americans would be able to actually keep their legally acquired property.<\/p>\n Sixth, Paul would affect a drastic reduction in gas prices by way of a number of measures.\u00a0 He would allow off shore drilling, eliminate the highway motor fuel tax, increase the mileage reimbursement rates, and supply tax credits to those utilizing and producing natural gas vehicles.<\/p>\n Seventh, as Investor Business Daily <\/em>has acknowledged, Paul is the only candidate in the GOP (or, for that matter, the Democratic) field that has shown seriousness regarding spending cuts.\u00a0 He has released a plan that would cut spending by one trillion dollars<\/em>, not in ten or twelve or 15 years, but in one year.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Second Amendment<\/em><\/p>\n Congressman Paul is as faithful a friend to Americans\u2019 right to bear arms as any that it has ever had.\u00a0 He has made legislative proposals to repeal both the Brady Bill as well the ban on \u201cassault weapons.\u201d\u00a0 Furthermore, Paul has sponsored legislation that would withdrawAmericafrom the United Nations, an international body that has sought to impose \u201cgun control\u201d plans\u2014like \u201cthe Small Arms Treaty\u201d\u2014around the world.\u00a0 Paul, it would appear, has this peculiar notion that it is unconscionable that American taxpayers should be forced to subsidize such efforts.\u00a0 Finally, Paul authored a bill that would permit airline pilots and other \u201cspecially trained law enforcement personnel\u201d to carry fire arms aboard commercial airlines.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Foreign Policy<\/strong><\/p>\n Ron Paul is opposed to all <\/em>foreign aid.\u00a0 He discerns no small measure of injustice in an arrangement under which Americans are made to part with their legally acquired earnings in order to fund foreign governments.<\/p>\n As far as national defense is concerned, the conventional wisdom among establishment Republicans is that Ron Paul is something on the order of an appeaser.\u00a0 However, we needn\u2019t look far to see through this piece of reasoning for the folly that it is. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n First, of the eight GOP presidential candidates, Ron Paul is the only one that has actually served in the military.\u00a0 Secondly, he routinely receives more in the way of monetary contributions from active-duty military personnel than all of the other candidates\u2014and <\/em>their Commander-In-Chief\u2014combined.\u00a0 Third, Ronald Reagan, upon whom Paul\u2019s Republican detractors look as a great \u201cconservative\u201d god of a sort, once remarked of him: \u201cRon Paul is one of the outstanding leaders fighting for a stronger national defense.\u00a0 As a former Air Force officer, he knows well the needs of our armed forces, and he always puts them first. We need to keep him fighting for our country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But there is much more to show that not only is Paul not the appeaser that his Republican foes make him out to be; he is actually more <\/em>serious\u2014much more serious\u2014than are they about national defense.<\/p>\n National defense is the one, the singularly most important, of the federal government\u2019s responsibilities.\u00a0 This Ron Paul believes firmly.\u00a0 Thus, he finds it inexcusable that Americans are being compelled to invest billions of dollars annually into protecting the borders of other<\/em> countries while the borders of their own <\/em>country remain porous.\u00a0 Correcting this injustice and devoting the resources of the federal government back to where it belongs\u2014America\u2019s borders\u2014Ron Paul considers the <\/em>greatest of our nation\u2019s priorities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Paul voted in favor of America\u2019s deployment of military force in order to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, as well as other targeted terrorists.\u00a0 Yet he adamantly rejects as a colossal waste in treasure and blood an interminable \u201cWar on Terror\u201d consisting of \u201cthe democratization\u201d of the Islamic world and beyond.\u00a0 \u201cNation building\u201d is at once unconstitutional and immoral, to say nothing of foolish.<\/p>\n As President, Ron Paul would<\/em> indeed continue in pursuit of those who would do America harm. But to this end he would employ only those means that our Constitution accommodates.\u00a0 This, in turn, implies that the Patriot Act would be put swiftly out to pasture.\u00a0 It also implies that America\u2019s days of waging undeclared <\/em>wars would just as rapidly come to an end.<\/p>\n <\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n If <\/em>Republicans, Tea Partiers, and self-avowed conservatives are truly serious about wanting a presidential candidate who is thoroughly committed to restoring and preserving liberty, then Ron Paul is their candidate\u2014their only <\/em>candidate.<\/p>\n Jack Kerwick, Ph.D.<\/p>\n originally published in The New American<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Commentators continually draw attention to the \u201csteadiness\u201d that Mitt Romney has shown vis-\u00e0-vis the GOP presidential primary contest.\u00a0 Romney, they point out, has \u201csteadily\u201d maintained his first place position.\u00a0 Yet never do these same commentators point out that for all of the race\u2019s \u201cfrontrunners\u201d that have come and gone\u2014Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Herman Cain\u2014Ron Paul…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n