rlbond86

That's awfully rude of you to just assume that those who do not support Mr. Paul do so simply to squelch him.

I do not like Mr. Paul for the following reasons:

1. Ron Paul wants to abolish the IRS and make the government really, really small. This strikes me as idiotic. So long, medicare and medicaid. Federally-funded research? Nope. Government subsidized stuff for poor people? Too bad. RP is of the "starve the beast" mentality and that is a very, very silly idea. We give government power so it can act on our behalf, and some people require that help. It's been shown that we need to pump $10 billion into science or China is going to overtake the US in science shortly. How the hell are we going to do that with no income tax? Can you name a single developed nation with no income tax?
There's a reason for that. What we need to do is close the loopholes in the tax code, so the rich get taxed the same amount as the middle class. Warren Buffet said that while his secretary pays 30% tax, he pays about 3%. That's what we need to fix.

2. Ron Paul opposes humanitarian aid in places like Darfour. Come on, there's genocide and we're not going to do anything about it? Genocide = bad.

3. He wants to abolish the Fed and move back to the Gold Standard. Most economists will tell you that this is a Very Bad Thing, because the gold standard was stagnating the economy before.

4. Paul is extremely anti-abortion. He wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, has tried to introduce legislation that would allow states to ban it, etc. For someone who doesn't want government to interfere with people's lives, he has suddenly decided that his definition of when life begins must be impressed upon the people.

5. Paul introduced legislation that would, in effect, allow religious displays on government property, a HUGE MISTAKE imo, as there is supposed to be separation between church and state. Ron Paul also claimed that this separation was not written in the constitution and does not support it, claiming a "war on religion" by the left. As a minority religion this honestly scares the crap out of me. It is a dangerous notion that leads to intolerance. There never has been a war on religion; it is a made-up notion by the right. Those poor Christians. How tough it must be to be the majority.

6. Ron Paul does not want to support funding for stem-cell research. Maybe this goes with #1 but it's a big deal to me; look at places like China which fund research heavily -- many US soldiers who get paralyzed or wounded in battle go to China to have stem cell operations. That's not what I feel is best for our country.


Basically, when you look at him, he just looks like another one of the crazies EXCEPT when it comes to the war and national security. I give Ron Paul a big "no thank you." There is no way I can support this man.


Secondly, I feel like your suggestion is backwards. You say people against him want to squelch a grassroots movement, but I think people who support him are for the most part, just jumping on the grassroots bandwagon. I remain unimpressed with this candidate.