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He's one of the few politicians of that caliber where I think he's both batshit crazy while being a force for good (?) in the public sphere. I don't really know

He's one of the few politicians of that caliber where I think he's both batshit crazy while being a force for good (?) in the public sphere. I don't really know what to make of the man.

kmfrk 14y ago
He has a voting record to judge him by, for what it's worth.
wyclif 14y ago
Precisely what part of Ron Paul's policies are "batshit crazy", hmmm? Which policies, specifically? Not wanting to fund wars and nation-building in other countries? Not picking sides in foreign revolutions, operating drone wars in other countries, assassinating American citizens and maintaining a secret "kill list" without any congressional approval? Wanting to close down Guantanamo Bay? Vetoing legislation that is unconstitutional and which violates our civil rights like the PATRIOT Act and NDAA? Not wanting to maintain the security theater that is TSA? Hell, if that's batshit crazy, then sign me up. In fact, open up one of my veins and mainline it right into my bloodstream. Because if that's crazy, America needs more of it instead of the status quo "sanity" that results in $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities, TARP, banker bailouts, Dodd-Frank, corporate welfare, the failed drug war, and continued violation of the civil liberties of ordinary citizens.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Politicians lie. The more you agree with them, the closer you should be looking.
  - rhizome 14y ago
    Yes, I should have known better than to comment on an HN political thread.
- astrange 14y ago
  When your policy is to oppose absolutely everything, it sure is easy to make it sound good by listing unpopular policies, since those happen to be part of 'everything'. But I somehow doubt that policy would stay the same if there was more than one (or now zero) of him. And I happen to like public roads, safety regulations, and currency that doesn't deflate.
- Steko 14y ago
  Cherry pick the relatively popular policies and anyone can look reasonable. You want batshit? Getting rid of the Fed. Repealing the Civil Rights Act. Global warming denialism. Getting rid of clean air and water standards. Seizing the Panama Canal. There's no shortage of batshit insane ideas when you go down Ron Paul's rabbit hole.
  - wyclif 14y ago
    Getting red of the Fed is crazy? Wow. And a lot of those aren't policies, you know. You still haven't told me what policies I wrote about above are objectionable to you, and not preferable to the status quo. You like the drug war? NDAA? Patriot Act? Massive debt and unfunded liabilities? Corporate welfare and bank bailouts? Constant war and policing of the globe? Secret kill lists? FBI raids of dairy farmers? Rendition and torture? Please explain to me how voting for Obama or Romney (and thus their support of those policies) is not crazy in comparison to Paul's policies. After you do that, I'll continue this conversation, but not before.
    - Steko 14y ago
      "Getting red of the Fed is crazy?" Yes, it's bananas crazy. Fiat money won everywhere because it outcompeted the gold standard just like mixed economies won everywhere because they outcompeted libertarianism. The story is the same for every single frontier town in the us, brazil and every other country -- more government or ghost town. "And a lot of those aren't policies, you know. " Those are all policy positions. Playing semantic games isn't going to change that. ""You still haven't told me what policies I wrote about above are objectionable to you"" Because the question was which Ron Paul policies are crazy. I answered that, don't move the goalposts. "After you do that, I'll continue this conversation, but not before." You seem to have mistaken my replies as leverage that you can take this subthread hostage for your tangent. I don't care if you continue. The fact that I don't like the Patriot Act and many other things the government does doesn't mean I'm ready to throw out the many good things it does which outweigh this by many orders of magnitude. I'm certainly not ready to chuck the mixed economy so we can go back to feudalism. On top of being a clueless pie in the sky Randian, Ron Paul is a social issue troglodyte whose own newsletters and repeated ties to white supremacist groups should disqualify him from consideration for anything ever by any rational American.

He's one of the few politicians of that caliber where I think he's both batshit crazy while being a force for good (?) in the public sphere. I don't really know what to make of the man.

kmfrk 14y ago

He has a voting record to judge him by, for what it's worth.

wyclif 14y ago

Precisely what part of Ron Paul's policies are "batshit crazy", hmmm? Which policies, specifically? Not wanting to fund wars and nation-building in other countries? Not picking sides in foreign revolutions, operating drone wars in other countries, assassinating American citizens and maintaining a secret "kill list" without any congressional approval? Wanting to close down Guantanamo Bay? Vetoing legislation that is unconstitutional and which violates our civil rights like the PATRIOT Act and NDAA? Not wanting to maintain the security theater that is TSA? Hell, if that's batshit crazy, then sign me up. In fact, open up one of my veins and mainline it right into my bloodstream. Because if that's crazy, America needs more of it instead of the status quo "sanity" that results in $16 trillion in unfunded liabilities, TARP, banker bailouts, Dodd-Frank, corporate welfare, the failed drug war, and continued violation of the civil liberties of ordinary citizens.

rhizome 14y ago
Politicians lie. The more you agree with them, the closer you should be looking.
- rhizome 14y ago
  Yes, I should have known better than to comment on an HN political thread.
astrange 14y ago
When your policy is to oppose absolutely everything, it sure is easy to make it sound good by listing unpopular policies, since those happen to be part of 'everything'. But I somehow doubt that policy would stay the same if there was more than one (or now zero) of him. And I happen to like public roads, safety regulations, and currency that doesn't deflate.
Steko 14y ago
Cherry pick the relatively popular policies and anyone can look reasonable. You want batshit? Getting rid of the Fed. Repealing the Civil Rights Act. Global warming denialism. Getting rid of clean air and water standards. Seizing the Panama Canal. There's no shortage of batshit insane ideas when you go down Ron Paul's rabbit hole.
- wyclif 14y ago
  Getting red of the Fed is crazy? Wow. And a lot of those aren't policies, you know. You still haven't told me what policies I wrote about above are objectionable to you, and not preferable to the status quo. You like the drug war? NDAA? Patriot Act? Massive debt and unfunded liabilities? Corporate welfare and bank bailouts? Constant war and policing of the globe? Secret kill lists? FBI raids of dairy farmers? Rendition and torture? Please explain to me how voting for Obama or Romney (and thus their support of those policies) is not crazy in comparison to Paul's policies. After you do that, I'll continue this conversation, but not before.
  - Steko 14y ago
    "Getting red of the Fed is crazy?" Yes, it's bananas crazy. Fiat money won everywhere because it outcompeted the gold standard just like mixed economies won everywhere because they outcompeted libertarianism. The story is the same for every single frontier town in the us, brazil and every other country -- more government or ghost town. "And a lot of those aren't policies, you know. " Those are all policy positions. Playing semantic games isn't going to change that. ""You still haven't told me what policies I wrote about above are objectionable to you"" Because the question was which Ron Paul policies are crazy. I answered that, don't move the goalposts. "After you do that, I'll continue this conversation, but not before." You seem to have mistaken my replies as leverage that you can take this subthread hostage for your tangent. I don't care if you continue. The fact that I don't like the Patriot Act and many other things the government does doesn't mean I'm ready to throw out the many good things it does which outweigh this by many orders of magnitude. I'm certainly not ready to chuck the mixed economy so we can go back to feudalism. On top of being a clueless pie in the sky Randian, Ron Paul is a social issue troglodyte whose own newsletters and repeated ties to white supremacist groups should disqualify him from consideration for anything ever by any rational American.