Andrew Sullivan endorses Ron Paul
December 20th, 2007 | Published in Politics | 2 Comments
Andrew Sullivan has endorsed Ron Paul for the 2008 election. Paul seems like the best candidate to me, too. Here’s an excerpt:
But the deeper reason to support Ron Paul is a simple one. The great forgotten principles of the current Republican party are freedom and toleration. Paul’s federalism, his deep suspicion of Washington power, his resistance to government spending, debt and inflation, his ability to grasp that not all human problems are soluble, least of all by government: these are principles that made me a conservative in the first place. No one in the current field articulates them as clearly and understands them as deeply as Paul. He is a man of faith who nonetheless sees a clear line between religion and politics. More than all this, he has somehow ignited a new movement of those who love freedom and want to rescue it from the do-gooding bromides of the left and the Christianist meddling of the right. The Paulites’ enthusiasm for liberty, their unapologetic defense of core conservative principles, their awareness that in the new millennium, these principles of small government, self-reliance, cultural pluralism, and a humble foreign policy are more necessary than ever – no lover of liberty can stand by and not join them.
He’s the real thing in a world of fakes and frauds. And in a primary campaign where the very future of conservatism is at stake, that cannot be ignored. In fact, it demands support.
Go Ron Paul!
(via Hynes)
December 20th, 2007 at 11:58 am (#)
Ron Paul’s opposition to civil rights, voting rights for the District of Columbia, net neutrality legislation, and the 14th and 16th Amendments thoroughly disqualifies him from my list, even without considering his eager backing by neo-Nazi groups and conspiracy cults. I’ve been seriously bothered by over-eager Ron Paul supporters who conflate the man himself with the concept of freedom, gloss over his close and current ties to crypto-libertarians and survivalist militias, and buy into his uncomfortably Larouche-esque rhetoric of economic catastrophism, all the while equating his values with those of the founding fathers without regard for diverse interpretations of historical context.
Sullivan’s endorsement as a gay conservative is especially troubling given Ron Paul’s inconsistent wavering on support for key homosexual issues: opposing a constitutional amendment on the definition of marriage (good for gays) while at the same time also opposing gay adoptions in DC (bad for gays). He could do better given his context, but he appears to have bought into the hype instead.
More info: http://icanhaz.com/ronpaul
December 20th, 2007 at 12:18 pm (#)
Thanks for commenting, Paulo.
People do seem to love him or hate him. I like what I’ve heard him talk about. There are always extremists who support candidates, but you are right that he seems to attract more. Probably because he takes some extreme positions on things, and that attracts those kinds of people.