RON Paul for President is not exactly what Daniel Kogoy, a Greens Councillor for Leichardt in Sydney, is suggesting in an article published today at On Line Opinion. But the article does explain some of the reasons why I would vote for Ron Paul…
“Debate raging between Left, Greens and Progressives on whether or not to support Libertarian Republican outsider Dr Ron Paul’s bid to win the Republican nomination for President.
Really, it is a no brainer, of course the left should be supporting Dr Ron Paul’s bid to win the Republican nomination and many are – see Blue Republican movement. All the other candidates are openly saying that the United States should bomb Iran, whose key allies include China and Russia. All of the other Republican candidates would do nothing to address Wall Street’s crimes. All the other candidates would happily attack civil liberties further.
Obama has done nothing to address Wall Street’s crimes. His administration is full of people from Wall Street and Goldman Sachs is his largest donor. Civil liberties have been further decimated, and tensions with Iran have been raised to dangerously high levels.
Read more here:
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
The greens are not libertarians but totalitarians as are most of the left around the world.
True conservatives can sometimes have a sort of libertarian tendency because they want people to think for themselves and to look after themselves and be responsible for their own families well being.
Our own labor party is infested by groupthink and won’t even allow a member to cross the floor in parliament and vote with the opposition, even when the numbers are not tight.
This is a deadly sin and if you cross the floor you are immediately expelled from the party and called a labor rat for the rest of your life.
The coalition is a lot more tolerant when members cross the floor, because most conservatives have a grudging respect for people who can think and act privately on an issue and are not prepared to tow the line.
They may not always like it but they very seldom ask or suggest that a member resign for this reason alone.
I don’t know enough about Paul but would probably vote for him before some of the other republicans on offer.
BTW I would also bomb Iran tomorrow if I thought it would achieve anything worthwhile, because I have zero tolerance for mad religious, facist lunatics with nuclear capability.
I wouldn’t trust Iran with atomic weapons anymore than I trust Pakistan because of their mad facist, religious beliefs. We’re just lucky we have India as a bulwark against their mad Pakistani neighbour and hopefully they may think twice before stepping over the line.
Very strange that Jen and Jo Nova have run threads on Ron Paul. Not that I disapprove of his commitment and integrity either. But in a world that isn’t even, isn’t safe and isn’t fair – weighing up US foreign policy is very difficult indeed. Provocative vs showing weakness?
I find myself in strange agreement with Neville’s last paragraph (well perhaps not bombing tomorrow) and Labor party groupthink. You can never have enough defence. We should have developed our own nukes.
Luke,
For me it’s a no-brainer that we should get out of the Middle East including Afghanistan. How would you feel if troops from some foreign country deployed in Sydney or Canberra – especially if they didn’t even look like you. We have no business in their countries… and from everything I read we are not helping but just making things worst particularly in Afghanistan.
When I was on ABC TV’s Q&A and was asked about Afghanistan I said “bring the troops home”. And I received emails later from some Conservatives who follow my writings on Climate Change who were surprised and some angry with me. But hey, I’ve never claimed to be a Conservative or Rightwing… that’s what others have labelled me over the years.
It is interesting that Jo Nova, another Australian who runs a popular blog sceptical of anthropogenic climate change, is also a Libertarian and also cheering Ron Paul on. We haven’t discussed the issue, but I see from a distance that we agree about a lot.
Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Ron Paul get the GOP gong. There would be a lot of uncomfortable bureaucrats and bankers about.
But if the US got out of the ME and organised its own energy supply it might even take up the slack in lost govt and army jobs.
The Arab world could go back to their knitting.
Be almost like the old days.
Interesting points from Jennifer and Luke, but I’d like to know what being a libertarian really means?
I find politics and history to be something of a puzzle particularly when we can look back at the two big isms of the 20th century.
At the outbreak of ww2 we had a peace treaty between Stalin and Hitler and when Hitler invaded Poland Stalin joined in with Soviet troups as well.
They worked together to destroy the Polish forces and many shocking atrocities were carried out by both the Soviet and Nazi armies before they divided up the spoils.
I’ve read a lot about these two psychopaths and until the 1941 invasion of the Soviet union by Hitler Stalin called him my friend Adolf.
When the invasion took place Stalin was struck dumb and couldn’t make coherant decisions for a number of days.
We seem to forget that it was Churchill during the 1930s that stood against Hitler and the Nazis and was often ridiculed in parliament and the media for his trouble.
Many people on the left in Europe and the USA even praised Hitler and stated that Britain should do a deal with Hitler. Joe Kennedy was one of these and so was George Bernard Shaw for a period of time. But there were many people from the right and left who understandably didn’t want another war.
Then we had the endless atrocities of the Japanese in China during the 1930s and leading up to the start of WW2.
But my question is, where do libertarians fit in to this picture? When do they stop navel gazing and take a stand.
Surely they’re not all pacifists and even refuse to defend themselves, their families and country?
Just to finish, Stalin had an intense hatred of Jews towards the end of his life and arrested and jailed many of the top doctors and intelligensia and a number of them disappeared or were tortured.
All of the above is just my way of asking where right and left really fit in the political spectrum and who really believes in freedom when it comes to the crunch?
I’ve supported Ron Paul since 2009.You don’t have to believe in all his policies .Ron Paul is honest,incorruptable ,most importantly wants to re-instate the US constitution and end the private banksters monopoly called the US Federal Reserve.A proper constitution protects the people from their Govt.We need one in Australia.
Both the left and the right rail about him,but Ron wants to give power back to the individual.As Edward Griffin notes,”Collectivism ” has been initiated by the elites.We have have to act for the greater collective good.Nay,it is their collective good they service,and we are the peasants.It is their environment,their economy and their world.There are too many of us so wars,disease,poverty are needed to drastically reduce populations.
Major General Stubblebine and his wife say that the secret to population control is education.When women have control of their fertility populations fall.The World Bank,IMF,Bank of International Settlements and the US Fed,produce nothing of tangible worth,yet control the West .
Note also Jennifer,when populations or trees are under stress they fornicate more to save the species.So how does war ,disease and economic attrition reduce the need to procreate?
You can see Major General Stubblebine here http://patriotsquestion911.com/
Hi Neville
Great questions.
Interesting the Australian Libertarians “found me”: they listed my blog at their website some years ago and I was so pleased to be adopted by “a group” I decided to find out more about what it meant to be a Libertarian.
They have a rich history and not “navel gazing” as you suggest…
F.A. Hayek in his famous essay ‘Why I am not a Conservative’ explains the significant differences between Conservatives and the English Whig and the essay can be extended to explain the difference between a Conservative and a Libertarian.
Both Whigs and Libertarians oppose all arbitrary power… in my case actively oppose arbitrary decision making.
Jen says How would you feel if troops from some foreign country deployed in Sydney or Canberra – especially if they didn’t even look like you. We have no business in their countries… and from everything I read we are not helping but just making things worst particularly in Afghanistan.”
Well of course I wouldn’t like it. But in Qld we have the Qld Police Service. LOL !
But then again blowing up world trade centres is bound to get a response is it not?
And perhaps aboriginals might have the same sentiment that we have no business in their country too? Anyone leaving soon?
Somehow I don’t think libertarian, Taliban and women go well in the same sentence. Define “worse”. But nevertheless we shouldn’t be there longer than absolutely necessary.
As in the US, there are some really energetic young Libertarians in Australia. One of them, Benjamin Marks, invited me to a seminar in Sydney late last year and it was heaps of fun and I learnt a lot. You can download some of the talks here
http://economics.org.au/
Some more grist for this mill
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/Outside-View/2012/01/18/Outside-View-Multiple-circular-firing-squads/UPI-41801326887520/
And can be some interesting items on the US political scene at
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/
Of course if we ask the very hard questions of libertarians we begin to see an excuse or two start to creep in.
Take a couple who have an unusual sexual relationship but are otherwise law abiding and decent people and seem to be nice neighbours and citizens.
But what if they are brother and sister, or father and daughter, or mother and son, or any combination of these or a threesome or foursome?
Or in vogue today how about we include racism in our constitution and change it just for one race/group of Australians?
Remember this race of people can now look blond/nordic, or anglo/celt, obviously of some asian lineage, or part african american or whatever. But if they now feel they are of this other race nobody can disagree, although everyone knows they don’t live the culture or nomadic lifestyle of these former tribes.
I didn’t notice too many libertarian groups jumping up and down defending the Bolter’s freedom of speech in last years court case.
No they all played it safe and kept their heads down (navel gazing?) because they couldn’t afford to get involved or didn’t want to or it would be too embarrassing for them.
You didn’t have to agree with him at all but you should have agreed with his right to state how he percieved that particular issue.
Jennifer,
“How would you feel if troops from some foreign country deployed in Sydney or Canberra – especially if they didn’t even look like you. We have no business in their countries…”
I would point out that we assisted Afghanistan in throwing out the USSR and then left. The Taliban then moved into the power vacuum and embraced Al Qaida who proceeded to attack the US. The Taliban couldn’t seem to hand him and his nut jobs over so…
When discussing who did what to whom first we have to go back over 1000 years. Islam has been an expansionistic Group since its inception who seem to have settled on a combination of insurgency, terrorism, and outright invasion to increase their area.
We had the Crusades mostly because Islam thought they could take Europe while also expanding into Africa and Asia. They have been fighting the Serbs and neighbors for a thousand years and our intervention FOR them in Kosovo and surrounds was a huge mistake. (part of the Cold War stupidity where we helped anyone who would fight the USSR I believe)
Note that we also played a hand in setting up the Shah, who was the best thing to happen to the area in quite a while and then helped knock him down assisting the Mullahs who are the current whackjobs in Persia.
Ron Paul repeats a lot of leftard talking points about the US invading, bombing, and occupying foreign countries. Unfortunately it is absent MOST of the background history and information on world affairs and the FACT that the USSR, China, and others locally and internationally had a lot to do with our RESPONSES to specific areas.
Please do some research and find out what was happening in those areas BEFORE the US “bombed, invaded, and occupied.” The Mullahs actually came out of Marxist groups supported by the USSR. The Muslim Brotherhood were also assisted in organization and training by them. Much of the US’ meddling was in direct response ot the involvement by the USSR and others. The 1967 Israeli conflict was instigated by the USSR for example.
Trying to reduce the modern history of the world to these simplistic one liners blaming us for the response is idiotic at best. Yes there are plenty of mistakes that our idiot politicians, military, and intelligence community have made. Which countries have not also made terrible mistakes?? Because we are the biggest on the block and assumed Police Duties after WWII we ended up involved much more than would have been preferred by most people. Whose fault was this?? There were no other countries that had the capabilities for decades and dangers from Communism that the World actually enhanced by the way WWII and the following decades were handled made it necessary for SOMEONE to do it.
It is very easy to talk about how the US didn’t need to do any of this intervention. I would suggest that you do a detailed research of the world and see how many countries are unstable and WORSE even with the efforts we have made. Some of them are due to purely local issues. A number are still Socialis or Communist type remaking of countries. by far the largest number, over 40, are due to Islamic populations taking control of their countries or suppressing minorites. Even the EU has seen much violence from Muslim groups. Here in the US it is still primarily isolated incidents, although part of this is the huge intelligence efforts since 911 to preempt larger activity.
Basically Ron Paul, like the leftards he parrots, is completely delusional on foreign affairs. The leftard educational system and control of the media has made it a popular view similar to what the US held before WWI and II. Personally I would love it if the US brought our troops home and concentrated on defending our country. Then again, if you have a friends, do you tell them to kiss off when they ask for help??
A parting shot, the US has “conquered” a lot of territory in its wars. Could you tell me how much of that territory is still part of the US and held against the populations will??
Ross Johnson,
outside of border control and foreign policy, I too had similar feelings about RP being incorruptible and wanting to reinstate the US Constitution, until recently.
He is now on record as stating that closing the Federal Reserve and the IRS are Long Term goasl. Yeah, after campaigning and selling newsletters on these ideas for 30 years they are not priorities!! I also notice that he has flipflopped on open borders and illegals with the caveat he warns us that the fence can be used to keep us in. Umm, there is no fence on the Canadian Border and the control of the Financial Institutions is a more effective “fence” already.
His excuse for haveing some of the largest earmarks for his district and state in the country are that he doesn’t actually VOTE for them, he just puts them in the bills and others vote for them!! He also has gone to bat to get special loans and federal assistance for businesses in his district and state!!! Sorry, that is wha t we call pok and special interests when we are calling out the Dhimmicrats and Republicrat big spenders!!!
Basically I am no longer sure of just how pure Ron Paul is with his multiple terms in Congress and large cash flows in his campaign and for his district.!!
Ross Johnson,
not to misdirect, RP has also stated that the earmarks are just to get back some of the money his district pays in taxes! Of course, what if they are getting back more than their fair share?!?!?!?!
Libertarian is a flavour, like liberal, progressive and conservative. The test of a leader is in his ability to walk away from old friends and stated principles when the need arises – which it always does. Reagan sacrificed thrift to keep taxes low, expanded government to win the Cold War, did deals with Iran to to fight commies in Nicaragua, played footsies with a repressive Sunni-dominated regime in Iraq – to counteract Iran. He may well have funded some of those WMDs. And so on. Clearly, he was wrong, but was he more right than wrong? I actually think so, but I can understand the contrary case.
Franklin Roosevelt stayed true to his principles of taxing and spending, and was able to reassure the American people by his constant interventions, explained comfortingly in fireside chats. And did he – and tariff-warrior Hoover – make a Great Depression out of a big slump? It’s a fair bet.
The flavour, whatever it be, is never enough. Character matters more than flavour. If Ron Paul were to be elected, he would need to walk away from old beliefs and old friends, because that is what you always have to do. Prince Hal had to tell Falstaff to get lost. Henry of Navarre saved France and the rest of Europe much grief by deciding he was Catholic after all. In the end, it is not a matter of being right, but of being more right than wrong. Do that with moderation and humanity – maybe keeping your sacrificed principles vaguely in view – and you might be “great”.
Ron Paul will be the catalyst for change.He does have all the anwers but is honest and incorruptable.He is a breath of fresh air for many,this is why those from the left and right support him. Restore the US Constitution and END the FED.
Bill Still (http://www.secretofoz.com) criticises him for not going beyond ending the the US Federal Reserve and stop all private banks creating money form nothing to equal increases in our productivity + inflation but we cannot expect change to happen that quickly.Ron wants gold to back our currencies but Bill Still is correct is saying it is all about who creates and regulates the new money for growth, not a scarce commodity to back it.
All Western countries are in grip of this debt based money creation system owned by a few elites.They counterfeit our currencies ,control our Govts and Corporations and make us their debt slaves.As George Carlin says,we have owners.Before he died in 2007,he predicted they would steal our super ,Govt assets and social security.He was an extremely funny and perceptive man.’ Its a Big Club and You ain’t in It ‘ http://www.youtube.com?watch?v=i5dBZDSSkyD&feature=related
George Carlin. ‘Its a Big Cluband You Ain’t in It’ http://www.youtube.com/watchv=i5dBZDSSky0&feature=related
Moving score card
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/17903
and
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/17900
“All-Purpose Libertarian Cartoon
January 20, 2012, 3:29 pm
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From http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/all-purpose-libertarian-cartoon.html
South Carolina Will “Newter” Mitt’s Cake Walk To Nomination
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/17935
Newt’s Big Win In SC!
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/17940
More at both
The current lineup of major candidates for the US presidency is a train wreck. They’ve waffled badly on global warming, hispanics, you name it, they have nasty skeletons in the closet. Ron Paul has stuck to his guns at least, making him both the best candidate and the least likely to win the nomination. Which means that we should consider a re-election of Obama to be a real possibility.
As for the invasion of Australia by a foreign power, that was a Japanese ambition during WWII. Thwarted by the US Navy as I recall. I think the Japanese actually had an Australian beach-head, albeit briefly. Somewhere here there is a history buff who knows more about this.