Ron Paul has been getting a lot of attention lately in his presidential run. Even lefties who ought to know better think he might be some kind of straight-talking anti-war populist with real ideas for change.
Nonsense. He’s a sharply right-wing libertarian who, like most libertarians, is deeply tortured by the thought that someone, somewhere might gain benefit from his tax dollars. He hates taxes and also suffers from the hard right-wing delusion that abolishing the Federal Reserve will, with a wave of the pixie dust wand, make everything wonderful again.
He opposes regional agreements the US might a signatory to. This is not because GATT, for example, is noxious and exploitative but because it, gasp, allows other countries to have a say in what America does. In other words, he believes in American Exceptionalism and is also isolationist, a pretzel of logic that only those on the fringe right try to negotiate.
As for immigration, he wants to send all undocumented workers back home, stop birthplace citizenship, eliminate hospital care for the undocumented – but somehow neglects to mention enforcing the law against employers who hire them. That the US economy would be in a shambles if all of Them were sent home does not occur to him, but then reality seldom dents the skulls of ideologues.
His stand on the war is conspicuous by saying absolutely nothing about what should be done in Iraq. Not one word.
He wants to remove Roe vs. Wade. “I am also the prime sponsor of HR 300, which would negate the effect of Roe v Wade by removing the ability of federal courts to interfere with state legislation to protect life.”
He’s also heavily allied with and supported by neo-confederate forces, is rabidly anti-gay, and has a 100% rating from the Christian Coalition.
Don’t be fooled by the low-key approach, he’s further to the right than either Bush or Cheney.
