(Long Island, NY) I have never gotten the kind of overwhelming response on anything I’ve ever written here at LI Exchange the way I did regarding my post on Republican Presidential long shot candidate Ron Paul. My inbox has been clogged with responses, too many to reply to. Warning: Rambling screed ahead. May contain inherent contradictions, unclear writing, and a bit of froth around the mouth area.
For starters, let me admit to a major error in fact by calling Paul a Libertarian candidate. My research was faulty, guilty as charged. No excuses there, and many thanks to everyone who wrote in to correct me. Of course, the title of the article was “Who The Heck Is Ron Paul” which is a subtle hint as to my complete ignorance of anybody but the frontrunners in this 2008 thing.
Paul’s status as a Republican candidate changes nothing in my estimation of him being the Howard Dean of this election. He’s still not going to make it as President this time around. If Ron Paul were running as a Democrat, I might have a revised opinion of his chances. Americans will be voting for regime change this time, folks. If you can’t see that at present, don’t worry. You will.
The thing that really disturbed me about the quality of many of the e-mails I got in response to my first article was the “true believer” tone many of those missives had. People took issue with me for saying Paul doesn’t have a chance, others took issue because I said Paul doesn’t have any hope of succeeding on the strength of doing away with income tax. I’ll paraphrase a few of the messages. “We NEED to get rid of income tax. It’s not FAIR!”
I completely agree that our tax system is ridiculously flawed. I’d love nothing more than to have it deep-sixed. Let me explain. I am a writer for many different publications, blogs, how-to guides, I’m even working on a little book. Because I have the audacity to work at home, for myself, I wind up being taxed about 30% (at the minimum, near as I can tell.) Here’s the sick part. I could probably just break even every year if I could just find a way to spend the same amount of money on my business as I owe in taxes. If I owed 10K (and I will) at the end of the year, I could spend 10K on business travel, computer software, and other stuff. At least, I think that is how it works based on two short conversations with a financial advisor. (Can’t afford any more, but she tells me I can write her off on my taxes.)
If me voting for Ron Paul would change that bizarre situation into something a bit more equitable (how about everybody pays the same moderate tax?) I would vote for him in a heartbeat. But I won’t be voting for Ron
Paul because you can’t just eliminate the income tax, you have to replace it with something. It’s too complex an issue to simply say “We’ll fix it, don’t worry.”
Some people assumed that because I predict Obama will be president, that I am in favor of that. I find this amusing, because nowhere in the article do you get MY opinions on who would be a GOOD president. I have no idea what Obama stands for. I already know what Hillary Clinton stands for. I don’t care for her bait-n-switch politics any more than I can stand for George Bush’s bait-n-switch tactics. If you ask me, the real problem with these people is NOT political affiliation. The TACTICS are the same, regardless. Liberal, conservative, these labels matter not a bit. The strategies, the pandering to the lowest common denominator, these are the things politicians have in common. ALL politicians.
Ron Paul as the exact same chance to get into the White House that George McGovern had back in the day. Sure, he’s got some great ideas about eminent domain and Social Security. Sure, he’s got an unfortunate set of beliefs regarding abortion. (Come ON folks, take an anthropology class and you will soon learn that our conception and life definitions are CULTURAL and not based on science or ‘ultimate truth’.) But he just…won’t…make it.
Hate to be the bearer of bad news here. But I’ll make you this promise: If I wake up some day after the election to find that my income tax problems are gone, that we’ve fixed Social Security, and have more secure borders, I will assume that for the first time in history that we have a candidate that has not only honored his pre-election rhetoric, but that it actually has a chance of working somehow. I’ll take it all back in this column, right here. I’ll also eat my hat.
Too bad it never works out that way. National Health Care, No New Taxes, you name it. Americans have the biggest case of collective amnesia in the history of the world. We still believe these dorks will live up to the hype, and every time we get more of the same. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Besides, how many Americans bother to actually VOTE? If we get the government we deserve, we must be pretty rotten as a society to have to deal with 8 years of George Bush’s ham-fisted leadership. He’s got all the charm and grace of Britney Spears, with the subtlety of Caligula. Whoever takes his place–Ron Paul, Obama, Hillary Clinton, Rudy Giuliani an overflowing bucket of spanish moss–will surely have a herculean task ahead, digging us out of the muck we’re currently in. Good luck!
