Some Views from Across the Pond about Ron Paul's Candidacy

Because The Guardian showed Paul's latest campaign ad, which tells what he's really supporting ... and because the thinking British just see things that wee bit clearer than some of us do.

Some comments about Ron Paul, from today's Guardian:-

From Incurable:

Ayn Rand had all the classic hallmarks of a sociopath. No feelings for those less fortunate, elevation of the "heroic individual" and an ideology that basically says people should do whatever they want to get what they want. She saw trade unionists as evil. She defended a mass murderer and thought of him as heroic for following his own self-interest and not obeying society's rules. She denies that any human being should have an obligation to help other human beings. She had affairs and had no remorse for those she hurt.

It is sad that this worldview is becoming quite common among those with plenty, who have never known poverty or what it is like to be ill with no means to afford health care.

And yet this possible sociopath is held up as a model to everyone who follows right-wing libertarianism. This ideology believes that the poor, the sick and disabled and anyone who has a social conscious are, basically, untermenschen.

I shudder to think what the US would be like with Paul in charge. His one good idea, ending the Federal Reserve is completely overshadowed by his other views and making the state as small as possible as well as his extreme belief in "state's rights". He says individual states should have had a choice to end discrimination nor not during the civil rights movement in the US.

Scary times indeed.

From teaandchocolate:

He is very right. He is to the right of right. He is so right, he's almost meeting left. He's almost Stalin.

From hydroxyl:

Ron Paul would be perfectly happy to see poor, uninsured people dying on the sidewalks in front of hospitals.

From NatashaFatale:

Well, yes. Left libertarianism - and there is such a thing - and right libertarianism - Paul, OK? - do have more than a little in common, after all. Which people have noticed and written about, at great length in fact, for decades (at least). Paul's positions aren't random or sui generis - they are mostly cut straight from the right libertarian prototype, which has been floating around rich men's clubs for at least the better part of a century. As a great man once said, "You could look it up."

And, finally, Ian70 gets it:

Ron Paul is a right libertarian. It's not complicated. Yes, he's not such a hypocrite as most conservatives (on some social issues, on foreign policy he's a breath of fresh air) but on economic policy he's a Gold Standard imposing, anti govt nut. And let's be honest, he's shown himself far more concerned over the years with a mans right to be racist and the iniquities of the Civil Rights Act than gay marriage.

Sometimes, it pays to have a bit of outside perspective.