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Health & Fitness

Ron Paul for President

Writer makes the case for the Ron Paul for President candidacy

 

Ron Paul for President

By Lance Lamberton

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On Tuesday, March 6th, voters in the Georgia Republican Primary will be offered “a choice not an echo”. That slogan harkens back to the one used by Barry Goldwater when he successfully differentiated his philosophy of limited constitutional government against his republican opponents when he won his party’s presidential nomination in 1964.

 Prior to Goldwater’s candidacy, there wasn’t much of a contrast between the Democrat and Republican political establishments. They both accepted an ever expanding role for the federal government as both inevitable and desirable, with the only debate being who would be best suited to administer this growth. Goldwater would have none of it. In his path-breaking book, Conscience of a Conservative, he wrote:

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“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution…”

 Now, in 2012, we have a champion for the Constitution who is holding aloft the banner of freedom, peace and prosperity resurrected by Goldwater and brought to partial fruition by President Reagan. His name is Dr. Ron Paul, a congressman from Texas who is running for the Republican presidential nomination.

When Dr. Paul first threw his hat in the ring four years ago, he was dismissed by pundits as a minor fringe candidate who was completely at odds with the mainstream Republican leadership. On the latter point these pundits are correct, which is why he is running. But on the former, something funny happened on the way to the primaries. Dr. Paul’s message is resonating with millions of Americans, many of whom are getting involved in politics for the first time. They have seen how the Republican Party has frittered away its once proud legacy of limited government. Even when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, spending went through the roof, budget surpluses turned into huge budget deficits, the first major new entitlement program since LBJ’s failed War on Poverty was enacted, our constitutionally protected right to privacy was severely curtailed, and a war was initiated against a nation which poised no threat to the safety and security of the United States.

 In the face of these failures and debacles, Dr. Paul offers a viable alternative. In foreign policy, Dr. Paul calls for bringing our troops home from the hundreds of military bases where they are stationed throughout the world. The purpose of America’s military is to defend the people and property of the United States. Instead we squander billions of dollars and thousands of lives in a vain attempt to impose our will on others.

 In domestic policy Dr. Paul would defer, as our founding fathers did, to limiting the role of the federal government to those functions explicitly defined in the Constitution. He recognizes that it is sovereign individuals, not government, which is best equipped to achieve the blessings of liberty that was promised to us in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.

 Is this an impossible dream? Well the founders didn’t think so, which is why they devised a system of limited constitutional government; a system which has served us well and made us a nation which has become a beacon of freedom and prosperity to world over.

 However, in this election year, there is a lot of talk about the need for change from the other republican candidates. They are responding to a great sense of disquiet about the direction – indeed rudderless direction – that our country is headed. But if the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, then it is time we eschew the tired old prescriptions of our recent past.

Ron Paul represents the catalyst for change that is needed and necessary if we are to realize the vision of our founders when they wrote the Constitution. A strong showing for Paul by Republican voters in Georgia and the other states which hold their primary on March 6th will provide the nucleus of change upon which we can build a better future for ourselves and our progeny. Don’t let this opportunity slip you by. Vote for Ron Paul.

 Lance Lamberton lives in Austell and was the deputy director of the White House Office of Policy Information under President Reagan

 

 

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