Column: Why I Love Ron Paul
Ron Paul is not a politician.
Well, maybe he technically is. He holds fundraisers constantly, gives convoluted speeches and has an obnoxiously patriotic website. But when compared to the shadowy shape-shifting creatures that generally run our government nowadays, the man seems to be made out of a different kind of fabric.
While most politicians don one of a variety of masks, depending on the political audience they stumble across, Ron Paul has only presented himself as Ron Paul.
If Romney, Gingrich or, God forbid, Santorum wins the Republican nomination, they’ll turn moderate so fast Usain Bolt would be jealous. It’ll be just like the five-month GOP circus never happened. And can you blame them? It’s how politicians win votes.
But Ron Paul, if by some miracle the Republican Party accidentally nominates him, will still be spouting the same crazy 19th century libertarian economics that he always has, votes be damned.
I’ll admit I’m not sold on Ron Paul’s platform. Yes, the government undoubtedly has grown too large, powerful and bloated, and Paul is the only true small-government candidate we have. His views on bureaucracy stand in contrast to those of the rest of the Republican Party, who only offer a different kind of big government than the Democrats, one focused on the wealthy, rather than the middle class.
Yet, Ron Paul’s views often go to extremes. His position on disbanding the Federal Reserve and moving back to the gold standard would completely reshape an already unstable fiscal landscape. His view of the American government is one where government-economic interaction barely exists, and implementing those changes would demolish the complicated relationship the government and the economy has carefully nurtured for the last century.
Republicans have often mentioned "Obamacare" as an experiment we can not afford to continue, but the ultimate experiment stands right next to them in the form of Ron Paul.
Either his presidency will be the reset button our government desperately needs or the end of American government. There's a chance Paul as president would be a disaster, as former Special Advisor for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Elizabeth Warren so wonderfully said on Jan. 24's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart": “We’ll have no future.”
But it’s not like Elizabeth Warren matters to Ron Paul. After all, even the right wing media has turned their guns against him, and Ron Paul still hasn’t changed his tune. He lost previous Republican nominations because he wouldn’t change his views, and he’ll most likely lose this nomination as well for the same reasons.
Make no doubt, when speaking Saturday night to Central Michigan University, Ron Paul will say whatever he damn well pleases.
He will speak without reservations because he’s Ron Paul — and there is something oddly beautiful about that.
