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Ignoring the noise... www.momtofive.com My friend commented on my last post and asked me what I thought about Ron Paul. I figured I would respond in a post so everyone can have the information for themselves. Although Ron Paul has some conservative views I agree with, he has some libertarian views that would prevent me from voting for him. He is very pro-homeschooling, promotes Christianity in the schools (teaching creationism as an option and school prayer), and has been consistently pro-life. That is all great, but for the reasons listed below, I think someone should look twice before endorsing Paul as the best candidate for the next four years. First, he opposes the war in Iraq and wants to bring our troops home immediately. This is a personal subject in our home, since my husband is an Intelligence Officer (Major) in the United States Army and just returned from 9 months in Afghanistan. Moving our troops out of the middle east would spell disaster at this point, and put our country in danger. Even knowing that my husband could end up back over there I am in full support of the war. Paul also opposes increasing the size of our military, holding the opinion that "military agressiveness weakens our national defense". Second, he has been consistently in favor of legalizing marijuana. His opinion is that the "Just Say No To Drugs" campaign was a failure and has only increased drug use. Therefore, we should legalize drugs and quit spending billions of dollars to fight it. Third, he is neutral on the issues of gay marriage and gay rights. While he voted against gay adoptions, he also voted against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as "between one man and one woman" and also voted against an amendment banning same-sex marriage. Fourth, although some people have wanted to label Paul anti-semitic, it is more accurate to say that he opposes defending Israel than to say he personally opposes Israel. He doesn't believe in getting involved in wars outside our borders and interests. In his opinion, when Jews were being slaughtered in Germany during World War II we should not have gone in because the Germans were not hurting us. This doesn't make him anti-semitic in my opinion, but it also doesn't hold to the Biblical standard of protecting God's chosen nation. Finally, he opposes the death penalty. His reasoning is that too many mistakes have been made in the process and prisoners have been executed when they were not guilty. It should also be noted that Ron Paul does not take a strong stance against illegal pornography. Well, there you go. It's probably more than my friend asked for, but if you read my previous post then you would know that I really do think it's important to study out the candidates on issues. There is so much information out there, but I encourage you to check out the websites of each candidate you consider endorsing, as well as some neutral sites that have all of the voting records, such as OnTheIssues.org . You can find out very detailed information on the actual voting record of politicians...not just everyone's opinions of their voting record. Another site with a much more brief overview is 2008 Presidential Election Candidates . Another way to find out how strong a candidate is on a topic, is to do a google search for what the opposition to that candidate is saying. In other words, what do the teacher's unions say about your favorite candidates position on homeschooling? Are they up in arms or do they consider that candidate "not a threat". How about checking out how the gay rights movement feels about your top pick? Searching backwards gives an interesting perspective on how outspoken or effective a candidate has been on an issue. Hope this is helpful to anyone interested - |
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