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DAYS OF YORE

8/23/2011

 
Days of Yore
    Senator Ron Paul looks and sounds like your favorite uncle. He believes what he says, says what he believes, and hasn’t a deceitful cell in his body. Next to a fulminating phony like Rick Perry or a shape-shifter like Mitt Romney, he’s a breath of fresh mountain air. If George W. was a good guy to have a beer with, Senator Paul is perfect for Thanksgiving dinner. I’d want him to carve.
    Watching a video of him before a small audience in Orlando, Florida, he radiated sincerity, folksy charm, and presented a consistent Libertarian view. He wants to abolish the IRS, the Federal Reserve, the Patriot Act, draft registration, laws against guns, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, and all drugs, abolish unemployment insurance, Medicare, you name it.

    As president he would bring the troops home “as quickly as I could get them loaded onto ships.” He spoke against “Obama’s constant wars and attack on civil liberties,” saying that “Government is failing around the world.” His audience (one wore a tricorne, the three-cornered hat popular in the 1700s), applauded throughout and gave him a standing ovation.
    Well why not restore liberties cherished in the 1800s? Why not bring all troops home, seal the borders, and settle into splendid isolation from a fractious, frightening world?  It’s not enough to say that we are deeply tied into that world. Senator Paul would cut such ties.
    But can an industrial nation of 300 million live like an agrarian nation of 5 million? Can a multi-ethnic country divided into constituencies, states, counties, districts political, police, and school , businesses small, medium and huge, agri-businesses, unions, corporations with interlocking boards of directors, and every other organized entity that has evolved in the past two centuries, also contending with technologies that can blow up and poison the entire world or connect people anywhere and pinpoint many within two feet, revert to a vanished agrarian Eden?
    If Senator Paul, a sweet man I greatly respect as a human being, were ever to find himself holding the levers of power, I’d  hope that the band would quickly strike up because in very little time our ship of state, like the Titanic, would have its hull ripped open, and sink.



astromoner
8/23/2011 12:01:55 am

complexity rules carried by quick-silver information.
this is a dangerous world. made possible through mans violent historical proclivities; shrinking through technologies.
we seem embattled by a thousand cultural exasperation's here; confusing America's core(maybe all of us).
.. i think its important to stay economically strong through individual initiative, while trying to keep Americas many centers. which is essentially impossible!...(but strong leadership helps)this we don,t have.
it has never looked good for nations looking to last forever, but they never stop trying.
eventually the states will divide to reflect unknown proclivities(maybe even wars)...so faith and freedom are a valid defense in whatever form.

Barbara Friedlich
8/23/2011 01:06:51 am

I agree with you that Ron Paul seems like a nice guy, but what would he put in the place of all the things he wants to abolish? Chaos would follow. Not that we don't have chaos now. I'd like him to pick and choose what he wants to abolish, but gun control..no way.

Jack Gescheidt link
8/24/2011 01:24:13 am

The other big change in the last 100 years is the rise to power and overpowering influence of multinational corporations. Many argue convincingly they already run the show. Without what Ronnie Raygun called "big guvment," how would their tremendous power be balanced and at times necessarily checked.
Say what you will about the controversial Ralph Nader, but see the doc. film about him, "An Unreasonable Man" and you'll come away with heightened appreciation for the millions of lives saved because of government.
Surely our government is flawed, but I shiver to envision our country stripped bare of at least SOME voice of we the people, even if watered down by elected officials (often unduly influenced by those same big companies).


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    Author (Yuma, AZ, 1944)

    Being 90 years in this world,  with great kids,  great grandkids, great wives (two, one at a time) and great memories, I wonder why some people seem to have stopped loving the U.S.A.? I will wonder in print right here. If you wonder too, or can provide some answers, please comment.
                                   Stuart Hodes

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           With my friend, Nero.
                   April, 2012.
        Photo by Ray Madrigal

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