Ron Paul on Going Back to the Future (and He Says He's Not Going to Go Third Party)

OK, I know that Ron Paul happens to be the Occupy movement's favourite politician, mostly because he wants to end the Fed, legalise pot and bring the troops home (how they fare after their discharge is their problem, by the way, and not the government's).

On those three issues, on face value, the avuncular Paul is quite the Leftwinger, yet he's anything but.

Appearing on Candy Crowley's CNN program today, he let it be known on no uncertain terms how poor and working class people wanting a university education would fare under a Paul administration.

The answer is they wouldn't. Ron Paul wants to take us back to the 1950s, where only people whose parents could afford to put the money on the table for a university degree would be able to go. Although he makes a point about graduates leaving college today "indentured" by debt (and that's true), his only solution to the problem is that those who can, go; and to the less fortunate, fuck you.

That's Libertarianism for you, folks, and that's less than half of what it's all about.




A couple of positive things came out of this interview. First, there was neither a question nor a mention of "property rights," but that doesn't alter the fact that Ron Paul is opposed to Civil Rights legislation. In fact it's the reason Stormfront endorses him. Second, he says that he won't run for President as a third party candidate. That's the second blow Ralph Nader's suffered this week in his quest to primary the President.

Don't heave a sigh of relief, however. All that means is that Ron Paul won't be a third party candidate if he doesn't get the GOP nomination. He fully intends to secure that, and I actually think he has a better than good chance to get nominated and a scary chance of winning.

We're headed into the home stretch now, just before primary season starts. Ron Paul is just the sort of candidate who could run as well in Iowa as he could in New Hampshire and South Carolina. And if he gets the nomination, he could very well attract and excite young and intellectually immature voters (of any age), who aren't capable of seeing past the cool stuff he's selling and miss out on what is really his very frightening heart of darkness.

Caveat emptor.