The most terrifying thing about Ron Paul, and his ideas, is how much I actually agree with them. If I were to self-identify myself on a political spectrum, I feel like I'd be so far from where Ron Paul would self-identify himself. But then if I were to sit down with Ron Paul, and if I could remove all of baggage and talk to him 1 on 1 as if we were just 2 people, I feel like I'd agree with him on most everything. Or at least completely understand where he is coming from.
First, his biggest thing over the past few years where he has been vaulted to the forefront, he really has been a staunch anti-war guy. Sorta. He isn't completely anti-war. He is anti-THESE wars. He simply is demanding answers, he is simply recognizing that the label "terrorist" is really too simple and sorta embarrassing at this point to even use. He sees war as a cycle that has no beginning, no end, and cannot be slowed down.
He has a big issue with Gov't overall, and generally I think that is right wing rhetoric. Which, he would probably agree, usually is. But Paul decides to take it to another level, and actually speak to that rhetoric. If you take the H1N1 anti-virus fiasco the Gov't is wrapped up in, and he makes you feel like an idiot for not connecting the dots. For example, Democrats and Left-leaners want the Gov't to take over large portions of Health Care...during the same few weeks and months in which the Gov't tells people to get an H1N1 Flu Shot - and can't deliver the shot.
He also takes people on, head first. It has probably stopped him from advancing further than he wants to, but it is so refreshing. He took on Geithner, he takes on Obama regularly, but also went after McCain and nearly everyone else.
He just wants to treat the cause, not the symptoms, and Gov't is the ultimate show of treating symptoms. It's honestly just a refreshing point of view, that everyone in Gov't should have. Every time I read anything he says or writes, I feel this way.
Anyway, I know me, and I know I'll never vote for Ron Paul, and I don't know why. At this point, I am afraid to vote for someone with an "R" next to their name, and that's a fault. I don't know why Paul cannot get more momentum from both the left and the right, especially at this time when we are all just so fed up with nearly everything political.
I think the left equates the Right with a thinking that the Right is a negative, an emptiness of hope and certainly a political ideology that turns away compassion. Ron Paul, on the spectrum, is as far away from Left as possible, and he is one of the most optimistic Politicians I've heard/read.
