Ron Paul 2012 - The RonPaul2012 Movement

Obama for the win

Ron Paul’s message of smaller government, lower taxes and expansion of civil liberties has earned him a large following of devout followers. Unfortunately Ron Paul’s fiscal and monetary policies ignore basic economic history. And his ideas of Civil Liberties would actually do away with many of the liberties we Americans take for granted.

Ron Paul 2012: The Ron Paul 2012 Movement

Ron Paul has amassed a large following of grassroots activists. His economic and monetary policies are a huge hit with fiscal conservatives and his foreign policy bodes well with many in the younger crowd. The Ron Paul 2012 Campaign has proven successful thus far. Through his money bombs, Ron Paul has amassed a large volume of political contributions making the Ron Paul 2012 campaign a force to be reckoned with within the Republican 2012 caucus.

Ron Paul on Taxes and Government

Ron Paul believes that government is too large and needs to be scaled back. While many agree with this view, Ron Paul’s view goes much further. Ron Paul would eliminate Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, the EPA, FDA, FAA, IRS , CIA, FDIC and just about any acronym one can think of. It is his belief that these agencies are unconstitutional and that they are either unnecessary or the free market would replicate their function.

This all sounds great. Who doesn't love the idea of lower taxes and a smaller government? The post world war 2 middle class was created through New Deal initiatives. Prior to this, America was a society with a small wealthy elite, virtually no middle class, and a large working class that lived in relative poverty. This economic disparity has reappeared through decades of lowered taxes on the rich, and increased union busting leaving working class Americans with less wage-bargaining power. As for being overtaxed, Americans actually have the lowest tax burden of virtually all OECD countries (and the largest wealth disparity). And anyone who’s spent any amount of time in a less developed country knows that not having an EPA means you are unlikely to drink tap water. The free market doesn’t magically fill this void (as Ron Paul would have you believe) because filling the EPA’s shoes isn’t a very viable business model (the assumption that every public service imaginable somehow translates into profitable returns is part of the misconception Ron Paul’s followers tend to have.


Paul Krugman on the Middle Class




According to Gini coefficient data, income inequality in the U.S., already among the highest in the post-industrial world,[13] has risen considerably between 1967 and 2005 among households[45] and individuals.[46] In 2005 the Gini index for the EU was estimated at 31.[47]

Ron Paul on Fiscal Monetary Policy

Ron Paul also believes that taxes are too high, regulations are too stiff, and that the Federal Reserve should be ended and that the dollar should go back to being backed by the gold standard. Ron Paul’s ideal society would look something similar to the pre-New Deal United States.

The Federal Reserve has become the common whipping boy since the recent economic downturn, and this has indeed made Ron Paul’s crusade to “End the Fed” seem all the more worthy. And it’s true that the Federal Reserve kept interests rates too low for too long. But it’s also true that the banking and credit sectors were largely deregulated over the last 30 years and that Alan Greenspan refused to regulate the new credit/banking sector the way he was pressured to do so. Why? Because Alan Greenspan mistakenly assumed that regulation was unnecessary and that the market could best regulate its own interests. In other words, it was the assumption that business owners (in this case, banks, day traders, hedge fund managers, etc) knew how to best ensure their businesses stayed safe and profitable.

But this is now how the stock market works. In fact, Bank runs were extremely common before the FDIC (which Ron Paul would do away with if given the chance). Ron Paul believes that returning to a currency backed by gold would create a more stable economy. In fact, this would make currency far less elastic and the government would be far less able to react in times of financial panic (largely due to speculative bubbles). Ron Paul and other free market apologists would have you believe that this is a good thing because “the market does best when left to its own devices.” Unfortunately, history teaches is a different lesson. Market crashes and conomic downturns were more common and longer-lasting before the US switched from a gold standard to a fiat currency.

With wealth disparity here in America now a mainstream concern, Ron Paul is attempting to sell his monetary policy, claiming that it's the Fed's printing of money that's leaving the middle class behind. But the middle class was created and wealth disparity reduced with the implementation of the New Deal, and these were reversed with the implementation of Reaganomics. The Federal Reserve Act of 1934 happened well before either. The problem isn't the value of the dollar, it's the fact that working Americans are seeing less and less of those dollars for their hard work as more and more of those dollars find their way at the top.

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Ron Paul on Civil Liberties

Ron Paul also believes that states should determine civil liberties, not the federal government. So topics like abortion, gay marriage, drug usage, etc should be decided by individual states. What this means is that he also believes that The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unconstitutional. Not surprisingly, Ron Paul has become a hit among racist Republicans.

It’s important to take note of hat this all means. By Ron Paul’s own words, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was unconstitutional. The federal government had no right to tell business owners what they could do. This was best left to the states. So keep in mind what this all means. Voting rights for women and other minorities, interracial marriages, a woman’s right to do what she wants with her own body, etc—in these matters, the federal government “imposed” these rights on states that had yet to allow them. So the idea that leaving such decisions to the states somehow increases “civil liberties” is highly suspect. No doubt, there are those who would be happy to see certain states disallow all abortions and no doubt, those who wish the Civil Rights and Voting Act Rights were never passed. But to the rest of America, Ron Paul’s philosophy is at odds with any notion of expanded civil liberties. And as to the illusion that the free market would have ended segregation; The truth is, at the time the free market actually favored it.

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The RonPaul2012 campaign

The RonPaul2012 campaign is allowing these views to be heard. As a competitive candidate in the Republican primaries, Ron Paul is able to get his views heard on mainstream television. Unfortunately, this is the "middle class" America of Ron Paul.

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