Ron Paul's Liberal Honey

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

cross posted at

GreeneWave.com

   Now that everyone’s feet have hit the ground and Romney has reasserted his “front runner status” (as the mainstream media enjoys to browbeat) some like Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard are musing about another Santorum surge; praying, hoping for Bush 2.0.  There is only one problem.  Although the GOP is potentially dethroning one of the most radical presidencies since FDR or LBJ, as Kristol laments, their Florida primary turnout was actually down 12% from 2008. 

How can Barak Hussein Obama, the Premier of Polarization, not light a fire under the GOP?  They better figure it out.  In Florida, Mitt Romney may have been able to outspend Newt Gingrich by a 4 to 1 margin; that will not be the case against Barack’s billion-dollar war chest.  Romney will need a lot more than millions in milquetoast rhetoric to revitalize this evidently anemic party. 

To be fair, this may have merely been the Florida GOP, Iowa’s turnout after all was record breaking, but was that because of Romney or something else?  Maybe it was the ugliness of the campaign that kept Floridians at home, but that most assuredly will not change as the Democrats plan to make this election more about character than content.  Perhaps it was the nature of the caucus. 

While the Florida Slugfest was grabbing national attention Ron Paul as usual was quiet, but diligent.  He was the first to release ads in Minnesota and Nevada and able to stay clear of the mud he was left alone to continue his long-term caucus strategy, which is proving fruitful regardless of the what the Media Masters tell you.

Ron Paul claims he is 3^rd in delegate count and supported: here and here even though the MSM has him in 4^th: here, here and here.  Why the discrepancy?  Free information sites like Wikipedia and The Green Papers offer a little more insight into the fog that often surrounds the U.S. electoral system. 

There are, for example, differences in “soft” versus “hard” delegates and “pledged” or “bound” delegates versus “unpledged” or “not bound” delegates. It essentially boils down to reporting projected versus formally pledged delegates.  The MSM prefers the latter.  In the end it’s more than just the ballot box, as Politico’s James Hohmann points out:

The primary and caucus “…states don’t award delegates on the day they hold votes, instead apportioning delegates at local party meetings, where Paul’s camp believes its superior organization can help it capture a majority that their candidate may not have won outright on election day.”

Spontaneous organization and zeal as I have mentioned is the bread and butter of Ron Paul’s Guerilla Grassroots.

            As the Christian Science Monitor points out Ron Paul with this odd strategy may in fact win more delegates this coming month than Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich combined!  The reason?  It is what Romney, Gingrich and Santorum all lack and what Ron Paul is in large supply – liberal honey.    

As evidenced in Iowa, Ron Paul pulls from the top of the political spectrum.  This may seem odd to hear, however, many now understand there is a false dichotomy afoot when someone tries to paint another as either left or right.  It is why we see Americans leaving the GOP and Democratic parties in droves.  Fundamentally the real dichotomy is authority versus liberty, everything else is retail politics.

Ron Paul is above the fray in this respect pulling and converting ostensibly progressive and conservative independents into his libertarian coalition of sustainable governance.  The most attractive characteristic of Paul’s liberal honey is it’s cheap enough for a conservative, but sweet enough for a liberal. 

Take ending the War on Drugs for instance.  It promotes personal responsibility with respect to treatment and education while simultaneously emancipating billions of taxpayer dollars dedicated to massive incarceration, property seizures and interdiction from the grip of big government.  Legalizing and regulating drugs like alcohol and tobacco as they once were would serve the single biggest blow to drug cartels and inner city gangs sustained by the black market’s inflated prices.  Moreover, the Drug War disproportionally affects minorities whom notoriously side with Democrats.  Ron Paul’s plan fundamentally undermines this entitlement.

            Liberal honey most importantly allows a left leaning voter to swallow some of Ron Paul’s economic medicine some view as austere.  His stance on the Federal Reserve for example is as bipartisan as it gets, over 75% of voters want a full audit of the Fed.  The idea there is a coalition of private banks dictating how much money to print for themselves, leading to trickle down inflation, is appalling to most Americans.  Ron Paul retains nearly exclusive rights to this idea – End The Fed.

            Local governance looms large in our political future too.   The famous liberal idiom “think globally, act locally” is about to be fulfilled and added to the libertarian lexicon – “think globally, govern locally.”  For far too long central planning has concentrated the power of government in Washington D.C. at the expense of our states, counties and townships.  Ron Paul’s efforts to allow the states to decide on abortion, gay marriage and education allowing everyone to more easily vote with their feet by rekindling our 50 democratic laboratories.

            While the anti-war movement was eviscerated after the election of our Peace President Barack Obama, Ron Paul’s plans to close our foreign bases and return our troops home resonates with independents, paleo-conservatives and progressives alike.  Its police state ancillary, the technological and industrial blowback from our militant adventurism, is on Ron Paul’s chopping block too.  Ending the TSA, the Department of Homeland Security, fusion centers, and curtailing Top Secret America appeals to social libertarians and liberals alike.

          When it comes to a head to head between Barack Obama and Ron Paul it would be a gas to see a 74 year old man run a hard right on economics all the while luring Obama’s base away from under him with all natural liberal honey.

How Drug War Dinosaurs & Traffic Jams Kill Our Economy II

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Read PART I of this series here.

PART II

Image Source: Documentary Film: American Drug War

The Drug War Dinosaur

            The argument that the Drug War is a colossal failure was won long ago albeit Washington and many of our local politicians have paid little notice.  To them it is a handy campaign slogan “Keeping Our Kids Safe” and “Our Streets Clean” but the levels of drug use in America has grown relatively unabated since 1960. 

The War on Drugs is a waste of national and local resources, it has created the largest most unproductive and corruptive black market the world has ever known, militarized our local police, slowly eroded respect for civil liberties, and has led to incalculable innocent deaths.

            From the coca farmer in Colombia to the Drug Czar in Washington D.C. this has to be one of the biggest examples of market distortion available.   There are nearly 11,000 DEA agents, 4500 ATF agents and almost 650,000 police and sheriff patrol officers obliged to enforce national drug laws to the tune of $15 billion annually. 

Likewise inner city gang members and suburban drug peddlers instead of creating value, merely loiter, cause trouble and distribute in their local communities. Similar to the relationship between a jailer and inmate, both of these groups do nothing for the economy.

            Because of the illicit drug market and its false scarcity the black market has invaded the inner cities and provided those willing to take a little risk the opportunity to make money merely by providing a substance that would otherwise be available at your local drug store or smoke shop.  It is often a part time job, but many times is a full time occupation and with it comes violent gangs because it is not protected as legitimate property by authorities.  Simple economics.

            If we legalized the current spectrum of illicit drugs as they many of them were prior to 1930 while drug abuse would still remain a public health concern, the international black market, wholly dependent on American drug consumption, would grind to a halt as responsibilities for production, distribution and regulation would be absorbed by local and national pharmacies.  The boogey man would simply disappear and much like cigarette and alcohol addiction our local substance abuse infrastructure would step in as it does now.

The Military Industrial Entitlement Program

If you have yet to read my article on why I feel the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is in fact one of our largest entitlement programs I’d suggest you do, but I’ll give you brief outline.  In 2012 it has become a $1.2 trillion program the largest of its kind in the world.

Similar to welfare, which breeds dependency and prevents many recipients from reentering the workforce our MIC prevents countries from seeking their own defense.  South Korea, Germany and Japan really have no reason to build up their own military apparatus even though they are wealthy and peaceful because we already do it for them and have for over 50 years.  We also currently offer our military training services and foreign aid to 75 smaller countries throughout the world.  Our MIC is their entitlement.  This is a massive distortion which enables our competitors to better compete against us.

The profligate spending we condone also subsidizes the industries here at home that would otherwise be producing innovations of peace rather than warfare and competing rather than waiting for a generous government contract.  When our government directs funds to Homeland Security and the Pentagon or to build a massive Cyber Security Center in Utah these are limited resources that could have been used to deepen our economy.

Nation of Bureaucrats and Managers not Creators

When you step back and take in the full breadth of our economy it’s easy to understand much of it isn’t accomplishing anything.  The sectors we have just covered are what we call living breathing distortions in the marketplace.  Imagine what these people could be creating or servicing if they weren’t telling us what to do, causing violence, creating boogey men or sitting in traffic?  Granted tax accountants hold our hand through the labyrinth that is the US tax code, but if it was simple we wouldn’t need this legion of tax coyotes.

Think about the reported unemployment rate, add the real unemployment rate, which includes underemployment (a growing problem created by diploma mills) and those who have given up looking for a job after 90 days.  Introduce everything we’ve just talked about and one begins to catch a glimpse of our anemic condition.  Most of our country isn’t creating or innovating anything, by virtue of their unemployment or the distortions created by government

Conservatives & Progressives Agree: #OccupyWeed

Topher Morrison
PurpleSerf.com

While I pondered the possibilities of the #OccupyWeed movement,
someone else evidently beat me to the punch.  Damn stoners.
Follow me on Twitter @PurpleSerf.

On June 17th, 1971 President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs, since that time our country as well as our neighbors have suffered, not from the use of drugs, but from the fact they are an artificially rare, unprotected and extremely valuable commodity.  Imagine the world of the late 50s and early 60s before the wars began, it was a different world by every measurement.  In 2011 are we as a nation safer, freer or happier because of the War on Drugs?


          The Occupy Wall Street movement has many facets, much of it is misguided, naive and offers no solutions other than benighted calls for more democracy and regulation, however, as we all know there is much the mainstream media (MSM) doesn't cover.  At Occupy Phoenix we found people from every corner of the political spectrum as we have documented and in this segment we'll show a sharp contrast between both ends of what is increasingly being viewed as our false political paradigm.


          The left and the right apparently agree on one thing in the Occupy movement - End the War on Drugs.  Apparently big banks can't Just Say No, violence rages on both sides of the boarder, but evidently it has subdued Northern Mexico into fearful submission. At Occupy Phoenix we got a taste of what people were thinking when it came to America's lost war.

         This country is much different since the 1960s.  We have more crime, the most people incarcerated as a percentage of our population on the planet and a bountiful cornucopia of exotic drugs.  The corruption one faces at the hands of a joint of marijuana is nothing compared to the market distortions caused by the billions upon billions of dollars and lives wasted in the War on Drugs.  The Obama administration may have stopped using the phrase because they feel its "counterproductive", but it's still illegal and we're no closer to ending it.