Link: Viewers Say Romney (29%) and Paul (25%) won GOP SC Debate, Not Giuliani (19%).
I’ve examined the footage of Saturday’s GOP debate and I am very excited. Ron Paul is tearing the stuffing out of the GOP’s 9/11 straw man. Paul had the temerity to question the self-righteous, blindly chauvinist framing by the GOP that asserts 9/11 happened for no reason other than the suicidal blood-lust and religious rage of Al Qaeda. Paul made a forceful case to the Republican base that we need to pay attention to real-world cause and effect of our foreign policy.
Predictably, Giuliani tore into Paul for suggesting that ‘America is responsible for 9/11’, which isn’t at all what Paul said, and demanded that Paul retract his statement, presumably because there are certain things that American politicians aren’t allowed to think in Giuliani’s America. The far right blogosphere is already putting the grass crown on Giuliani and granting him a triumph for his principled defense of the deeply dysfunctional denial they live in. But Fox viewers responded favorably, handing victory to Paul over Giuliani in the text message polling following the debate.
The ruling class in this country has largely bought into a narrative regarding 9/11 that is as insidious and destructive to objective policy formation as it is comforting to our collective self-image. No one wants to believe that terrible things sometimes happen to people for a reason. We would rather imagine ourselves helpless victims, targeted by evil because of our superlative virtues; rather than as helpless victims, targeted by evil because we have tolerated evil, short-sighted, and stupid acts by our own government in the past. That’s what Ron Paul put on the stage of a Republican debate. That isn’t even a position that is acceptable on a Democratic platform.
Right now, Ron Paul is without a doubt the most important, bravest, and healthiest voice in American politics. He’s lancing the boils that no one else is willing to even acknowledge for fear of being infected. He doesn’t stand a chance of gaining the nomination, but we progressives need to keep him in the game as long as possible. An uncompromising and rational foreign policy message coming from inside the GOP during the primary will give permission to the conservative electorate to follow their best instincts and voice support for realistic policies in international affairs. That will make it easier in the general to get them to vote across the aisle when they discover that their own candidate is a ideologically-befogged war-monger; that is a service to our country that is worth a small donation.
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How about those Democrats selling out the American people … as expected. They don’t have the spine to stand up to their lying murdering piece of crap president. At least Bush does what he says. Kiss America good bye. These sell out folks will outsource our jobs, steal and spend borrowed Chinese money to line their pockets and leave Americans to fend for themselves in the new banana republic.
Gee, how come I never see headlines like that in the Daily Star?
In the spirit of Ron Paul ; I will say to My Fellow Citizens today;” It will be a Cold Day in Hell before Illegal Mexican Nationals Hijack my Country!” The American Citizen has put on notice all Federally Elected Officials who support the subversion and Hijacking of The Rights of The American Citizen granted in The United States Constitution! As our Federal Seal states;” Do Not Tread On Me!’
Paul speaks as McGovern did in the 1970’s. The Democratic Party so far has no McGovern voice of the Party that is why he resonates with us in the Democratic Party. Funny that both parties have changed so much that you can’t recognize the zebra for its stripes!
from what I’ve researched, Ron Paul is well aware of essential points that Jeremy Scahill brought up about Blackwater and its CEO Prince. and considering Ron’s beliefs and voting records, he’ll never allow a firm that patrolled the streets of NOLA post-Katrina with impunity under contract from Dept of Sie Deutschland Security, oops Homeland Sekurity after govt declared martial law and 1st time in US history where a GOP admin confiscated guns from citizens, to repeat that same neocon criminality again.
and frankly I’m appalled at some democrats’ contention that we open our selves up to invading Iran. For crying out loud, we have 35,000 nuclear warheads on standby, most still targeting Russia, and rest towards China. Israeli scientist and whistle blower Mordechai Vanunu, already proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Israel has somewhere between 500-1000 nukes, and the only Middle Eastern nation with nukes, not to mention never having signed the Nuc.Non-Prolif.Trty. Go figure.
and we’re worried what one or two non-existent nuke without the benefit of an ICBM may or may not pose a threat to poor ol’ us?? you have more chance of being sued or even be hit by lightning than be involved in a terrorist attack. people better wake up and put things in perspective before we all annihilate ourselves through sheer stupidity and fear. 35,000 vs. 1 or 2? besides this nation is the most armed in the world with some 500 million guns in private hands, and we’re worried because….??
So far Gravel, Kucinich and Paul are the only ones who are pro-peace. screw Obama and his fake tough guy talk, especially after he bent over backwards at an AIPAC function. besides his voting records speak volumes. he’s already proved he’s beholden to the bankers after he voted for GOP’s bankruptcy bill. champion of the middle class and the poor, he is not.
Hillary is already proven to be a corporate shill and a warmonger, not to mention Rupert Muder-doch being her biggest contributor.
Life funny sometimes, since and including 2000 election, I’ve been voting for all progressives and almost strictly democrats, while I was a registered no-party affiliation. but for the first time in my life, despite the current criminal regime, I actually changed by voter regis. to GOP. for one, gotta know the enemy and get inside scoops. but really, so that I can nominate Ron Paul in the primaries.
I for one would rather see Ron Paul as the Pres. Period.
and for all you pro-choice folks, he’s not for banning it. he’s for limited abortion in cases of rape and incest and danger to mother’s life. and for states regulating their own. he’s against the federal govt in the biz of deciding or subsidizing abortion.
as an ob-gyn and man steeped in history, he knows that anytime a govt has its toes in subsidizing and deciding who gets to live and die, that by default becomes govt participation in euthanasia. as late as 1970’s N. Carolina regularly euthanized black babies deemed to display early signs of autism or other supposed abnormality, without the parent’s consent. and especially worse, toward black single mothers. that’s genocide anyway you look at it, esp. considering it was in a Southern state.
Just look at the field. most are shills or already been bought.
I think that Michael is right on this one. However, it’s my belief that the reason the South Carolina auience reacted so vociferously to this debate moment has less to do with Iraq, 9/11, and foreign policy generally than it does with Ron Paul’s unapologetic intellectualism.
Paul suggests, for example, that better foreign policy could be made by leaders who read and think about history. He puts on display his knowledge about the Middle East, about Washington’s suggestions on foreign policy. He repeatedly holds up for admiration “Mr. Republican”, Senator Robert Taft, and he remembers Reagan accurately rather than in the false manner his memory is used by contemporary Republicans. He believes that people should reason from facts.
All this is totally repellent to a “faith-based”, values” Republican Party. President Bush relishes his own image as ignorant and ordinary, and it’s his greatest strength within the party. Andover, Yale and Harvard notwithstanding, it’s believed that he thinks with his viscera rather than with his brain.
So yes, the longer Ron Paul can hang in there, the better it is. So, it should surprise no one that the Republican Party chairman of Michigan is circulating a petition to bar Paul from further debates and even recognition as a Republican — bcause he doesn’t have real Republican “values.
You’re right, he’s not a man for all seasons. But he is the man for this season: he can let the hot air out of the GOP’s message on national security, regardless of how much or little political capital he may have. His message is resonating with a lot of conservatives, and the resulting internal dissension is reason enough to keep him wound up. I don’t want him as President, nor even the GOP nominee (though we could do worse than a nominee who wants to be like Hoover rather than like Mussolini), but I do want him on stage and in the media causing the GOP some self-doubt on national security policy.
I was happy to see Paul say these things too, but before you get too excited about the guy, remember that he is firmly entrenched in a John Bircher view of the world. He is against intervention by the military, but supports outsorcing such efforts through “letters of marque” issued to private organizations. Sounds suspiciously like we would be turning over a great deal more of our international military policy to Blackwater and company rather than changing course.
He also would be one that would agree with Grover Norquist’s vision of a government so small that he could drown it in a bathtub. He’d abolish most of the welfare system as well as the IRS. Oh, and he’s also for a return to the Gold Standard. Given these radical stances, I doubt he’d have the political capital to be a good spokesman against the war.