Josh Kaufman

NOTE: I purposely keep this blog to great quotes and interesting tidbits on self-education. However, I just sent this letter concerning US politics to my family and close friends, and thought it would be worth sharing with you as well. I do not plan on writing about politics often, but I care deeply about the cause of freedom and liberty in the world, and believe this information is important enough to share. If you’re not interested in US politics, please feel free to skip this post.

All,

I’m not sure if you’ve heard about Ron Paul, the congressman from Texas who’s running for president in the Republican party. I’m normally not one to get too excited about politics, but this guy is currently the only presidential candidate I’m remotely interested in supporting and I’ve been doing a lot of reading and research recently, so I thought I’d pass some information along. I hope you find it interesting and useful!
Ron Paul is a Republican presidential candidate who believes strongly and consistently in limiting the federal government’s power and spending to the powers defined in the Constitution, supports a non-interventionist foreign policy (including the current war in the Middle East), and deeply understands economics and the role government currently plays in distorting markets through tax, subsidy, and monetary inflation.

It’s really nice to finally see a politician (in either party) take a thoughtful and principled position on issues he understands, act consistently on those principles, and hold to those principles under massive pressure to compromise. Individuals like that are rare indeed, particularly in the political arena.

Ron Paul is very much a grassroots candidate at this point and has less campaign funding than his counterparts, but he’s getting a lot of attention from the media right now due to a disagreement he had with Giuliani during the first Republican debate. The issue was over whether or not the 9/11 terrorists were motivated to attack us due to our long-standing interventionist Middle East foreign policy. Giuliani, in response, immediately jumped down Paul’s throat and asked him to retract the statement.

As it turns out, Paul was completely right, and his position on foreign policy “blowback” is fully supported by both the 9/11 Commission Report and the CIA. Giuliani, on the other hand, was shown to be completely ignorant of an important and salient fact concerning one of the most important foreign policy situations concerning America. For a “leading” presidential candidate, that ignorance is disturbing. Here are a few videos that cover the exchange:

VIDEO: Exchange between Raul and Giuliani during the debate.

AUDIO: Interview with former head of CIA’s Osama bin Laden unit on Ron Paul’s position on “blowback” and Middle East foreign policy.

VIDEO: Speech by Ron Paul in New Hampshire regarding foreign policy.

Due to his contrary opinions, the traditional news media (first CNN, then MSNBC), as well as the GOP, attempted to remove him from the next few presidential debates. The outraged response from individual citizens has caused both media networks and the Republican party to retract their plans to remove Paul from future debates. Paul is currently being excluded from official media polls, but he’s currently leading the vast majority of online polls sponsored by the same media networks.

To get a good idea of what Ron Paul is advocating, here are a few videos and articles you can find online:

VIDEO: Compilation of Ron Paul quotes and video clips.

VIDEO: Ron Paul interview on CNN Late Edition.

ARTICLE: Ron Paul’s position on peace and freedom.

VIDEO: Ron Paul on economics.

During the last presidential election, I was incredibly disappointed to be forced to vote for what I thought to be the lesser of two evils. Hopefully, this election cycle we’ll be able to vote for someone who genuinely deserves respect and support.

Be well,

Josh