Kevin C Shinn

Kevin C Shinn

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Ron Paul's Flight of Fantasy

Ron Paul and his simplistic view of the world certainly doesn't scare me but his positions on too many issues are not based on reason. For example, look at his positions on healthcare. Paul rails against Obama's plan as if the government backed program would diminish the quality of our healthcare system. Yet, it was the private-market system that has been driving our country to bankruptcy sucking one out of every five dollars into its gluttonous abyss. There are certain areas which should be within the public realm; such as, national defense, police, fire, EMS, and many believe, medical. He favors allowing citizens to purchase insurance across state lines but fails to articulate how he would address the problem which has prevented it from being done in the past which deals with regulation. Currently, states regulate the policies provided within their borders but by allowing them to cross state lines that will require federal regulation. His opposition to mandatory catastrophic insurance coverage means that those of us who have insurance will continue to have to subsidize the freeloaders who do not. I agree with many of his foreign policy positions but I believe he is wrong about Afghanistan. Iran and Pakistan are significant concerns for our nation. It is not US foreign policy which has destabilized Pakistan, it is their corrupt leadership which has been in place for decades and the extremist groups that have developed a following within the country that has destabilized their regime. Having our forces in the area allows us to have legitimate influence in the region. That said, I am not an advocate of the US being the leader in building Afghanistan or Iraq into a productive economy at the expense of our own.

Paul's perspective that rational citizens do not have a right to draft laws to ensure a "well-regulated" gun industry is not reasonable. Citizens have the right to restrict all rights for reasonable causes. You still cannot yell fire in a crowded theatre because of the public health risk. Automatic weapons and large capacity clips are neither for hunting Bambi nor rational self-defense needs. I frankly believe that it is merely a macho attempt to over-compensate for personal inadequacies in other areas. I could be wrong.

Paul's support of homeschooling simply ignores the obvious lack of accountability placed on those who choose their mommas and daddies as instructors in addition to the loss of socialization that public schools have provided over time in producing the melting pot. How many people are truly adequate to instruct their children in the full range of subjects that are offered to a typical high school student? The answer is not a head scratcher as even a modicum of research can demonstrate. The true rationale for pulling children out of public schools is more typically the result of a fundamentalist approach to religion which champions ignorance over reason or because parents make the decision that for financial reasons, the child's education must take a backseat to the immediate needs of the family. It is unAmerican and it should be heavily restrained and children subjected to such environments should be routinely examined to determine if they are making legitimate academic progress or if their basic skills are being allowed to atrophy.

And finally, his anti-union bias is either naive or disingenuous. To assail the excesses of organized labor without acknowledging the greater evil done under the banners of corporations makes Paul either a fool or a lackey for the Chamber of Commerce. Safe working conditions, a 40 hour work week, overtime, minimum wage, Worker's Compensation and a host of other benefits for the working class people were earned at a high price by union members and the Democratic Party. It is time that those who work for a living recognize the damnable lie perpetrated on them every day by the agents of the wealthy elite in this country and rise up and smite them before it is too late and we lose the very protections we have come to cherish.

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