Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Ron Paul Should Run as a 3rd Party Candidate

Listening to progressive radio, I heard a lot of callers voicing support for Ron Paul. The next day, he was interviewed on NPR. Again, he got a lot of support from the callers. This is a guy who finished a close second to Michele Bachmann in Iowa, and he has loyal followers who listen to progressive radio and NPR. Wow.

His only appeal to me is his opposition to our military adventures, but that seems primarily driven by his crank economic views. On NPR, He actually claimed that the financial crisis is a validation of Austrian economics. That blows me away. The government can still borrow money at record lows and inflation is below 2%. That's not validation. That's utter repudiation.

Still, there are obviously a lot of Paul supporters from both sides. This makes me wonder about a third party run. He did well in 2008 and his supporters tend to be very enthusiastic. He doesn't get much love from his fellow Republicans, and he's not running for re-election to his house seat. Therefore, he shouldn't fear pissing off the party establishment. The media ignores him now, which they couldn't do if he ran as a third party candidate. Furthermore, if he really thinks the future of America depends on returning to the gold standard, how can he not run?

Note, this is not a prediction. Logically, I can't see why he wouldn't run as a third party candidate, but Ron Paul's logic is very different from mine.

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