Mitt Romney is a fake. John McCain is living in 2004 and still getting it wrong. Fred Thompson’s credentials are largely limited to making concerned-looking faces and witty one-liners on a television show. Rudy Giuliani is apparently running for president of September 11. Sam Brownback thinks the last 4,205 pages of the New Testament appear in the Constitution. Tom Tancredo wants to nuke Mecca. Nobody knows who Duncan Hunter is. Mike Huckabee is endearing, but irrelevant.
The entire GOP presidential candidate field consists of liberals pretending to be conservatives, whackos and neoconservative who think it will be sufficient to run on the platform of “at least I’m not Hillary!” Well, almost the entire GOP field. There is only one candidate worth more than the empty suit he fills, and he’s drawing underground support from all across the political spectrum because he offers something radically different: simplicity of message.
Congressman Ron Paul’s message is not complicated. His platform is not based on fear-mongering or cronyism to the various political lobbies that have strangleholds over all the others. Paul believes less is more; freedom is uncomplicated, and it must be protected. He rejects the nanny state and wants to eliminate the bloated bureaucratic beast that is the IRS. Paul believes people have the right to make or break on their own without meddling from blowhards in Washington. He champions liberty and freedom, rejecting the catch phrases and non-statements spewing from the rest of the field.
The one-time Libertarian, now Republican candidate, has exploded in popularity among the youth and on the Internet. He consistently dominates online polls and fundraising. His ideas are dangerous to the political establishment. The Rove Republicans are shaking in their fake cowboy boots and fraudulent political masks. The loopy liberals don’t dare give Paul the time of day. Fox News and CNN routinely write-off and ignore the only candidate who is halfway decent and actually honest for a change.
Paul represents what could be the last hope for a return to reason. Many conservatives got caught up in the Bush disaster, myself included for a time. The neocon destruction of the GOP is nearly complete, with Bush-Bots at the top of the ticket. Giuliani, Romney and Thompson offer more of the same: bigger budgets, socialized medicine, income redistribution, racial quotas, governmental interference in our lives and ridiculous foreign policy cloaked by vague, disingenuous clich’eacute;s. It’s time for the Republican Party to stop kidding itself. It’s time for “Republicans to stop acting like Democrats,” to quote Mitt Romney, the Republican who spent most of his time in office acting like a Democrat.
So if you’re sick of the same old-same old, consider supporting Paul for president in 2008. If you’re tired of a Bush or Clinton being president, if you don’t want to see a GOP hack or a Socialist Democrat in the White House or if you’re just fed up with the lying bastards dominating the political scene, vote for Ron Paul.
– Dave Moberg is a junior political science major and editor in chief of the Northeastern Patriot.
