After returning from the holidays, I was able to catch up with a Tivo’d version of Meet the Press.  Tim Russert interviewed Ron Paul and after the interview, I realized that Ron Paul did actually seem like a decent candidate for President despite his Libertarian - Republican views.  Ron Paul gave up on the Republican Party and ran for President as a Libertarian in 1988.  He then came back to the party as a Representative and picked up where he left off.

Ron Paul has raised a very impressive amount of money and it actually seems to be based on his ideas and practical sounding solutions.  He seems to be attracting money from people normally viewed as independents or moderates and he seems to be crossing many lines of sex, race and economic levels.

Here were some of the views that I gleamed from the interview:

  • The US should not go to war unless the Congress Declares War.
  • That’s how it is in the Constitution
  • All Troops should be brought home from every country.
    • Includes Germany, Japan and South Korea
    • Also includes base in Saudi Arabia, which was one of the reasons why Al Qaeda attacked the US.
  • Why would Iran attack Israel, that’s like Iran invading Mars, they do not have the ability. Israel has 300 Nukes, why would Iran attack them?
  • No more foreign Aid for Israel, and let them have their national sovereignty back.
  • If the economy proceeds towards a dollar crisis, Seniors on Social Security will receive checks for a fixed amount that will not be worth as much as they are today. Possibly not worth anything.
  • Immigration is a problem due to a welfare state. Immigrants are coming here for free schools, free hospitals, free benefits etc.
  • All Drugs should be decriminalized.
    • Regulations should only exist at the State level.
  • Slavery should not have been abolished by the Civil War, Abe Lincoln could have ended slavery without a civil war that killed 600,000 Americans.
    • Ex. The British Government purchased all slaves from slave owners and then released them.
  • The US should get rid of the Department of Education.
  • Ron Paul did not vote for either George Bush nor George W Bush for President.
  • He believes that America is moving towards Fascism through a concept of corporatism.
  • He also had a view that the 1964 Civil Rights Act was flawed as it abridged property owners rights.  I didn’t fully follow his logic on this one.  He did definitely seem in favor of equal rights but felt that real estate property owners should not be compelled to do one thing or another on their property.
    • Now, by his argument that would seem to include ending the practice of say separate restrooms for whites and blacks, which sounds ludicrous to me on the surface.  I suspect that there may however be a flaw in the legislation that was the result of some compromise and that it is this flaw that Paul is referring to as opposed to the result that the law achieved despite any existing flaws.