Ron Paul: Half Hero, Half Ostrich

After watching yet another televised commentary by Ron Paul about the idiocy of the current bailouts and schemes to protect investors from bad decisions, I am yet again struck with the thought that Ron Paul is a hero for giving voice to sound domestic policy. But then, I remember the lack of effective foreign policy and I am left disappointed.

Ron Paul is often labeled a Libertarian–which may or may not be accurate. But, then again its appropriate for this commentary because I submit that Ron Paul suffers from the same affliction as many other Libertarians: the lack of a core, consistent and accurate philosophy. Despite the claims of many Libertarians, they do NOT hold a complete philosophy. “Political philosophy” is only one-fifth of a complete philosophy.

Complete philosophies consist of five parts:

1. Metaphysics — the nature of reality
2. Epistemology — the nature and validation of knowledge
3. Ethics — the nature of right and wrong (individual morality)
4. Politics — the nature of proper interpersonal ethics (government and culture)
5. Aesthetics — the nature of art

Anyway, back to Ron Paul… He gets his economics right the vast majority of the time. But he fails when it comes to foreign policy. My understanding of his foreign policy philosophy is that he wants to withdraw American troops from the entire world and somehow pretend that “if we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us”.

The cornerstone of my foreign policy is that America, as the freest country in the world, has the right, but NOT the obligation to invade any less free country for the purpose of making it more free.

This nonsense we have of holding diplomatic ties with authoritarian dictatorships is nonsense (Paul and I agree on this). For example, I believe in “one China” — but not the one chosen by Nixon. The Republic of China is legitimate, the “People’s Republic of China” is nothing but impotent little petty dictators who have been enabled and kept in power through the permission of the West. (IF you ask me how to solve this, eject the entire PRC mission in DC and invite Taiwan to take its place as the rightful representative government of ALL of China– Taiwan and the mainland.

Ron Paul thinks we should come home from Iraq and Afghanistan immediately. The problem with this stance is that it ignores that if we do, we’ll create a giant and explosive power vacuum in the region– one that Iran is sure to exploit. The government of Iran is arguably the most dangerous to the United States. They sponsor terrorism and acts against Americans and the rest of the free world. (I’m still hoping that Israel will take action where the US will not in this area.)

I realize that I’m going all over the place with this entry, so I hope you’re keeping up.

My point is that Ron Paul has the potential of being one of the greatest statesmen in US history–if he’d pull his head out of the sand and help the US to LEAD the world to freedom.