Ron Paul Can Win In 2012 by Walter Block
(2011-05-29 at 16:21:45 )

Ron Paul Can Win In 2012 by Walter Block

If Ron Paul can somehow win the Presidential Nomination of the
Republican Party, he will have an excellent chance of beating Barack
Obama in November 2012. He will of course f ace great obstacles in the
Republican Primaries, but, if he can overcome them, it ought to be
downhill after that.

Why will the Congressman from Texas have a good shot at beating a
sitting President during (non-declared) war time?

Paul can out-lef t Obama on foreign policy and personal liberties, and
thus make gigantic inroads on Obamas base, while at the same time
maintain his right wing credentials on economics.

Not only has Obama not withdrawn the U.S. f rom Iraq, as promised, he
has involved us in yet another undeclared war in Libya. He has expanded
the hostilities from Afghanistan to Pakistan, utilizing drone strikes.

He has presided over the murder of dozens of Yemenis, none of whom posed
any threat to our shores. He has allowed torture for the WikiLeaker, and
on U.S. territory. Obama is responsible for the biggest military spending
in the history of the world, has bailed out fat cats from Wall Street to
Detroit, and still has not closed down our torture chamber in Cuba,
again as promised. Ron Paul, in contrast, opposes corporate welfare, and
would not only exit, and forthwith, from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, but
would do so for hundreds (yes, hundreds) of other nations ranging from
Germany to Japan to vast parts of South America, Asia, and Af rica. What
on earth are we still doing in all these faraway places, the lef t wing
of the Democratic Party might well ask?

A Paul Administration would hack away heavily at the previously
sacrosanct military budget, radically tackling our f inancial crisis
without any need to raise our debt ceiling once again. In contrast, it
will be the same old, same old, from Obama. The def icits will continue
to be monetized by the Fed, creating inf lation, and thus exacerbating
poverty (Is not the lef t supposed to be against poverty?) and further
decreasing the value of the sinking dollar.

Another area in which Obamas base will actually prefer Paulian policy is
drug legalization. Disproportionate numbers of young black men are now
in jail for engaging in this victimless crime, and all too many others of
them have perished from violence due to prohibition (Are not
progressives supposed to favor the black community?). Have we learned
nothing f rom our dire experience with the prohibition of alcohol? The
country to the south of us is unraveling at a ferocious pace due to these
self same drug laws, and we ourselves cannot much longer remain immune
f rom this whirlwind this legislation has created.

Of course, Pauls policies on eliminating U.S. imperialism abroad and
saving us f rom the scourge of drug prohibition at home will not
resonate too well with the Conservative Republicans, who are pretty
rabid in the wrong direction on both issues. And, while Representative
Paul has made great strides in denigrating the central planning Fed and
promoting the 100% gold backed dollar as a method of quelling the
business cycle with its heightened unemployment and bankruptcies, it
cannot be said that this is at all acceptable to the party faithful on
either side of the aisle. (Do both the left and the right favor our
current depression?)

Dr. Paul is particularly vulnerable on the question of Israel, in the
view of some people. He wants to end so called -foreign aid-
(more accurately and less pejoratively translated into -government to
government transfers of funds,- which does not at all imply program
benef its). But this would mean that the only functioning democracy in
the Middle East would have its f inancial support taken away from it.

However, U.S. transfers of funds to Israels enemies in the Arab world
vastly outweigh that given to this country alone. This home of the Jewish
people would have less money (private donations would of course be
unaff ected) from the U.S. government absolutely, but relative to its
enemies it would actually gain. As well, these funds render the Israeli
economy less eff icient than would otherwise be the case. These points
have recently been appreciated by the Jerusalem Institute for Market
Studies.

Social Security, too, is a sacred cow amongst the Republicans. So much
for their adherence to the philosophy of f ree enterprise. But this is
actually a vast left wing conspiracy (FDR inaugurated it). Bernie Madoff
just went to prison for something very much along these Ponzi scheme
lines.

The idea behind this Third Rail of American politics is that people
are too stupid to save for their old ages and the state must force them
to do so, for their own good. But if the electorate is that deranged,
how can we allow them to vote at all, let alone to expect them to mark
their ballot boxes wisely. And, how is it that they are so wise so as to
elect politicians who will then correct these errors of theirs?

No, this policy rends asunder family ties between the younger and older
generations, and is not needed. Just because some f ew will act in a
silly manner is no reason to forcibly victimize all of us with the Ponzi
Scheme. Ron will end this sacred cow, but the Republicans, to say
nothing of the Democrats, will not like it one bit.

But at least this Statesman from Texas is not a socialist like Romney
with his medical plan for Massachusetts which anticipated Obamas
compulsory support for the health insurance industry. Dr. Paul would
rely, instead, on a truly f ree market in medicine to drive prices down
to reasonable levels, as this system has done in all other industries
that have been lef t relatively f ree. Capitalism works for everything
else, why not health care? Nor is Congressman Paul a theocratic
imperialist as is Mike Huckabee, nor is he a lightweight of the order of
Sarah Palin, nor is he a f lake like Donald Trump, whose main
accomplishment in politics is to force Obama to release his birth
certificate. So, will Ron win the Republican nomination, and then go on
to victory in the next election?

All we can say for sure is that the next political cycle is likely to be
fought over ideas and philosophies, not personalities as in the past,
if Paul gets the nod from the Republicans.

A truncated version of this article appeared in the Loyola University
Student Newspaper, The Maroon, on 5/6/11.

May 26, 2011

Dr. Block is a prof essor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans,
and a senior f ellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. He is the author
of Defending the Undefendable and Labor Economics From A Free Market
Perspective. His latest book is The Privatization of Roads and Highways.

Copyright © 2011 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or
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