***UPDATE BELOW***That handsome devil to the left is something named Kevin Drum. He blogged about Ron Paul's record-breaking fundraising day (11/5), and boy, is he ever mad!
RON PAUL, FRUITCAKE....Ron Paul raised a buttload of money yesterday. This doesn't really change anything, and everyone knows it,
Everyone = Kevin Drum, apparently.
Some better than others.
But look: can we stop pretending to be political infants, even if we happen to be bored this week? It's cheap and easy to take extreme, uncompromising positions when you have no actual chance of ever putting them into practice, so Paul's extreme, uncompromising positions really don't mean a thing.
If you cannot engage the ideas: smear, dismiss, repeat. Classic.
They don't reflect either well or badly on him. They're meaningless, and I wish grown adults who know better would stop pretending otherwise.
Smear. Dismiss. Repeat. Substance? Optional.
Ditto for his "record breaking" fundraising day, which is just a function of (a) the growth of the internet as a political money machine and (b) the curious but well-known fact that technophiles are disproportionately libertarian.
Oops. I forgot "rationalize."
But I will say this: if Ron Paul really is suddenly a "serious" candidate, then I expect him to start getting some pointed questions at the next debate. In the last Republican debate I saw, this noted truth-teller gave a strange and convoluted answer about his economic policies that the audience plainly didn't understand. Next time I expect to see some straight talk about how we should return to the gold standard and get rid of the Fed. This should be followed by a question about whether he supports the free coinage of silver at 16:1. Then some questions about the tin trust.
Seriously, folks. Can we all please grow up?
You first, Kevin.
Seriously, what a twat. Drum's screed uses up 253 words, yet says...absolutely nothing. What is his point? That Ron Paul's a "fruitcake?" Why? That Dr. Paul has no chance of becoming president? Why not? That it's somehow "unserious" to put any credence into coordinated grassroots efforts? Why? Drum doesn't provide support for a single thing he writes.
Kevin Drum: your blog post, and the "ideas" expressed therein, are so transcendentally terrible that I hereby award you an inaugural "Coxie", named for Dr. Perry Cox from "Scrubs."
Take it away, Per:
Take it away, Per:
***UPDATE***
11/12/2007: Glenn Greenwald has blogged about the smears against Ron Paul - far more eloquently and gentlemanly than yours truly, natch - and cited Drum's crappy blog. Go read it.
3 comments:
Though it's interesting that the left is trashing Ron Paul. I find it even more interesting that the right is as well such as Faux News' Bill O'Reilly and Shawn Hannity. Faux News even took down some online polls that clearly showed Ron Paul as the favorite.
Not tryin' to imply that online polls are anywhere near accurate, but it is interesting to note. ;)
I think this is actually the first instance I've seen of a left-leaning site/publication taking a whack at Ron Paul -- maybe I just haven't been keeping up with things lately. As a lefty myself I can't say I agree with a good bit of Paul's platform, but I admire him because he at least poses intellectual arguments as opposed to the fear-mongering of Giuliani et al. You're right to take this blogger to task though -- there isn't any argument made -- it's pure whining. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was yet one more Ron Paul potshot coming from a neocon.
Apparently straight talk = superficial answer. The problem is (and, sadly, it is a problem) that Ron Paul gives actual, involved, intelligent answers to questions.
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