Republican Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate of either party to tell the truth that America is "slipping into a fascist system."
That is unquestionably the critical issue of the hour for the United States of America and one that Paul's Republican fellow candidates and their Democratic opponent President Obama choose to ignore.
Hand in hand with this existential crisis is that a nation that goes fascist at home invariably becomes a tyrant abroad. Thus, the Congressman from Galveston is right on the mark when he calls for the predatory U.S. to pull its troops out of the Middle East and Africa and close down its foreign bases. The U.S., indisputably, with its 1,000 military bases at home and a thousand more abroad, is now the most awesome military power ever.
"We've slipped away from a true Republic," Paul told a cheering crowd of followers at a Feb. 18th rally in Kansas City, Mo. "Now we're slipping into a fascist system where it's a combination of government and big business and authoritarian rule and the suppression of the individual rights of each and every American citizen."
According to the Associated Press reporter who covered his speech, "Paul repeatedly denounced President Barack Obama's recent enactment of a law requiring military custody of anyone suspected to be associated with al-Qaida and involved in planning an attack on the U.S." (Note: Paul is a consistent defender of individual rights. He also opposed that previous horrific piece of totalitarian legislation mislabeled as the Patriot Act.)
When Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act(NDAA) into law last New Year's Eve he pledged he would not subject citizens to indefinite military detention without trial. Yet if Mr. Obama should change his mind, who lives free and who is shackled behind bars is up to him, not to any legal system. The rights guaranteed in the Constitution are worth zero to a person who can be imprisoned indefinitely on Mr. Obama's say-so.
Ralph Munyan, a Republican committeeman who attended the Paul rally, told AP he agreed with Paul's warnings of a "fascist system" and Paul's pledges to end the War on Drugs as well as U.S. involvement in wars overseas. By contrast, candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich are all hawks spoiling for a fight with Iran and who leave peace-minded Republican voters no one to turn to save Paul.
An article on Paul published in the Feb. 27th issue of "The New Yorker" quotes him as saying, "We thought Obama might help us and get us out of some of these messes. But now we're in more countries than ever---we can't even keep track of how many places our troops are!"
In the evaluation of "New Yorker" reporter Kelefa Sanneh, "So far, the Paul campaign is neither a groundswell nor a failure. He is slowly collecting delegates..." which could impact the final selection of the nominee even if they do not have the strength to nominate Paul.
Overall, Paul's message appears to be "doing better, state by state, than he did in 2008," Sanneh writes, but "he has conspicuously failed to establish himself as this year's Tea Party candidate."
"People don't think of Paul as a top-tier Republican candidate partly because they think of him as a libertarian: anti-tax and anti-bailout, but also antiwar, anti-empire, and, sometimes, anti-Republican," Sanneh continues.
To date, Paul's shining contribution to the 2012 campaign is educational---even if the major networks and cable powerhouse Fox News downplay his candidacy in their primary night election coverage. Some of what he says gets through to the public, particularly youthful voters. On the grave issues of totalitarianism at home and tyranny abroad, Paul is the last truth-teller. As such, Paul is a dove fighting for survival among a flock of hawks, and his chances are not bright. #
(Sherwood Ross heads a public relations firm for political candidates who favor peace and prosperity.)
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