Why do people say Ron Paul is nuts?

Question

What reasons do you have for thinking Paul is too far fetched?

Answer 1

Ron Paul has excellent views on critical issues and it is the reason that his rivals call him nuts.

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Answer 2

I think it's mostly because of these ideas:

- Abolish income tax and the IRS
- End the war in Iraq and bring the troops home
- Eliminate the Federal Reserve System

Abolishing the income tax and the IRS is a simplistic idea. Social Security, whether you agree with the system or not, is a promise from the government to take care of the elderly. It is funded from today's payroll taxes. Getting rid of income tax would leave millions of older Americans out in the cold. Fine, get rid of the income tax, but what is Mr. Paul's alternative?

No war in Iraq. Yes! This is a good idea. However, if you suddenly pull 150,000 troops out of Iraq what do you think will happen? There are dozens of bombings a week right now; does anyone seriously think law & order will suddenly come after US troops leave? For the most part the bombings do not target US forces, they target innocent Iraqi civilians in the long standing struggle between Shi'ite and Sunni groups. Pulling the stabilizing influence of tens of thousands of well-trained soliders would be disaster. Never invading Iraq in 2003 would have been the right move, on that Mr. Paul and I agree. However, now that the US is there, getting out isn't so simple.

Eliminating the Federal Reserve System. A main purpose of a central banking system is to control the money supply to a degree to avoid the types of bank panics that can occur when no central authority is present (at least in US history). He thinks it's unnecessary, but the US economy has been growing at a pretty good sustained clip since the Great Depression, and the Federal Reserve has been in existence that entire time. What makes him so sure the world's #1 economy is so horribly broken?

In summary, I think Mr. Paul throws out simple ideas like "smaller government", "bring the troops home", and "no income tax" without appreciating the complexity of issues. It's a little unfair, but I'm going to compare him to the Bush Administration's plan for invading Iraq. Simple idea: get rid of Saddam Hussein, who's a bad man. Marvelous concept. In practice, the result has been a $500 billion mess with tens of thousands of lives lost, Iraqi and US, and no end in sight. Is that what people want, more shoot-from-the-hip ideas?

Answer 3

Ron Paul is fine. His only problem seems to be what party to stay with, since he was the Libertarian candidate for President a while back. It's many of his supporters who need their medications adjusted. I recently attended a gathering here in the Las Vegas area to see and listen to Mister Paul. Before his arrival I played "fly on the wall" and listened to the devoted followers who were also attending this rally. It made me feel like I had missed a golden business opportunity by not opening a chain of stores selling tin-foil hats.

Answer 4

Ron Paul is never going to be President and at best his ultimate accomplishment will be culling votes from candidates who by far are more electable. He'll match up to whatever attention was drawn by Ralph Nadar in the past. I hope that the unpopular candidates have the sense to drop out of the race so we don't wind up with another mistake in office. Anyone would be better than the chimp we have now but we could wind up with another.

Answer 5

It's not Ron Paul so much as his followers.

Answer 6

I never said he's nuts per se; just that he's an anarchist.

Answer 7

He is smart Cookie

Answer 8

Ha!! He is the only Republican candidate who's not insane!!