Ron Paul – RationalWiki

Dr. Ronald Ernest Paul (born 1935) was a Congressman from the 14th Congressional District of Texas and is an honorary lifetime member of the Libertarian Party.[2]. Having ended a bid for the Republican Party's nomination in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election on 8 March 2008 after obtaining only 15 delegates out of 2,360 (although he did garner 5.7% of the vote in the Republican primaries that year), Ron Paul loitered around the lunatic fringe before entering the 2012 Republican nomination process in 2010. He was supposedly gaining popularity thanks to the work of his fanbase, affectionately known as "Paulbots," "Paultards," or "Paulites," and most have, by now, seen the rabid shrieks of "RON PAUL 2008 2012!!1!!!" at least once on the Internet.

It took him absolutely nowhere, unless you count winning the Virgin Islands in 2012 Republican primaries as an accomplishment. In early January 2013, Ron Paul announced his retirement from politics.[3]

You see, Mr. Powers, I love goooooold! The look of it! The taste of it! The smell of it! The texture! I love gold so much that I even lost my genitalia in an unfortunate schmelting accident.

Ron Paul is frequently described as a conservative with many libertarian ideas, giving him the label of paleolibertarian.[4] However, given that he is not so much interested in reducing governmental powers as shifting them from the federal government to the states, the term "anti-federalist" would be more accurate.

Anywho, he is a strict constitutionalist though his interpretation of what the US Constitution is is somewhat inaccurate, to politely say the least and believes in "limited government"[5] to the point of abolishing the IRS and the income tax, slashing most federal spending, reintroducing the gold standard, and abolishing the Federal Reserve. (We don't have to tell you what the consequences of that are.) He also voted against the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007,[6] which would have banned federal contracts with firms doing business with the Janjaweed militia of Sudan.[7] He was the only Congressman to do so.

On the other hand, he wants to end the War on Drugs, supports medical marijuana, and opposed the U.S. war in Iraq.

Following the recent TSA act, he was the one standing up to say that taking nude photos of passengers, and feeling up people's grandmothers, is not making anyone safer.[8] He proposed a simple law which would essentially say that government officials have to go through the same screenings the rest of us do, in an effort to wake them up. He has even spoken in defense of WikiLeaks, a whistleblowing website that has among other disclosures exposed government corruption.[9]

However, even in areas of foreign policy, Paul has demonstrated that he is not to be trusted; a month after 9/11, he proposed H.R. 3076, which would place a $40 billion bounty on top Al Qaeda members who were brought to the government dead or alive. Essentially, it would hire a group of private mercenaries to handle the Afghanistan War their own way. That or some of the more... dedicated leaders would be sacrificed to give their organization tens of billions of dollars to recruit and support tens of thousands more members.

For some reason, he seems to not like the idea of jus soli the granting of citizenship to those born in America.[10]

It has been suggested that Paul is in league with the Dominionist and Christian Reconstructionist movements.[11] Paul introduced the We the People Act into the House of Representatives twice. This bill would strip federal courts of jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, same-sex marriage, privacy related to sexual behavior, and Establishment Clause issues, leaving them to the states... which is exactly what the Religious Right wants to do. He has engaged in outright dishonesty in support of this agenda, for instance claiming that prayer has been prohibited in schools.

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Ron Paul - RationalWiki