Here’s why.
Put frankly, Paul is one of the few political “representatives” who’s not a lying sociopath. Paul means what he says and says what he means. Most Republicans simply talk about their devotion to limited government. If president, Paul would actually attempt to bring the troops home, abolish non-Constitutional departments, and return to the gold standard. Paul also appears to buck the unfortunate libertarian consensus on open immigration.
Paul is a true liberal, in the older sense of the word. He’s what Wilmot Robertson called an “Old Believer” . . . in an Old America that hasn’t existed for at least a century. Paul sincerely wants to leave the citizenry well enough alone, trusting in the goodness of their intentions and their willingness to cooperate. On this and other matters, it’s hard to separate Paul’s great virtues and personal charm from his blind spots and naiveté.
More important, unlike every other candidate—though Trump is a wildcard—Ron Paul actually threatens what I’ll call, for brevity’s sake, “the Establishment.”
Though there’s no room to go into this here, suffice it to say, the egalitarian welfare state, unending foreign wars, bailouts and endless credit for the financial sector—and much else—is predicated on the Federal Reserve System. Without the Fed, what the government is currently doing would be significantly more difficult; to do it all simultaneous and on such a grandiose scale, would simply be impossible.
Paul’s central issue is “End the Fed.” This quest is, of course, quixotic—I think it’s more likely that the current system will implode than it will be rationally reformed. Nevertheless, the Establishment does not want thinking minds to contemplate the source of its power.
Whatever his limitations might be, a Paul presidency would truly amount to a Revolution.
