I'm not sure if it was before or after I singed into Amazon a couple of weeks ago that I decided to purchase Ron Paul's 'The Revolution'. I don't know if it was due to my lack of confidence in both our current candidates or that I just wanted to gain another perspective for myself. Often, I'm a bit snobbish in the books that I read, paying only for what I think is going to improve, or at least advance, my own thought processes. As it turned out, 'The Revolution' met all of my criteria. Wow, what a book...
Central to this (very compact) book was the fiscal soundness of this country. A fair portion was aimed at ending the huge (and growing) dependence on our government. You could look at this statement and say that it is simply blasting the Democrats or even the Republicans of today but that would be an incomplete view. Throughout the world there are entire nations that have become dependent upon the United States for various forms of support. You might include with that the 700 military bases that we maintain in 130 countries. Now that's a world police force.
Most people realize that earmarks are costing taxpayers a fair chunk of change. New to me was the idea that they can be used to support incumbency. Essentially, they work by throwing home town voters a bone in order to increase reelection chances. Bills filled with earmarks also come with much less clarity about them and allow argument over the validity the actual votes. A legislator dealing with an issue unpopular with constituents might insert an earmark, again, to keep the home town voters happy. This distorts the voting record.
All of the ideas in the book were deeply felt and very well thought out. As for my own views, I need some digestion time as the concepts might easily be considered radical in the context of what we are used to. As the book presents a view of the government the way it was designed to function, I would recommend it to everybody of voting, if not reading, age.
* For the record, I don't think that Ron Paul is presidential material. The ability to get your point across is very important and I think that he did a poor job of doing so during the Republican debates. In no way does this diminish the value of this book.
** It's ironic that while I was writing this post, Senator McCain actually stated publicly that the fundamentals of the economy are strong. If he believes this, then, maybe he is a little out of touch. If he doesn't...
Real change is always a bit radical- welcome to the revolution jeff!
Posted by: josie | September 17, 2008 at 09:09 AM
I've heard quite a bit about this book, but haven't gotten it yet, so I'll make sure to do so soon. From what I understand of Mr. Paul's crusade, his revolution is ironic in that it isn't a revolution at all; he's pledging a return to strict-constructionist interpretations of the Constitution, which we never should have strayed from in the first place. That we need a so-called "revolution" to bring us back to that which we already fought a revolution for is a frightening thought. So thanks for the input on the book. It's looking better every day.
Posted by: David Lamb | September 17, 2008 at 06:57 PM
Amen to what you said.
Posted by: Elaine | September 19, 2008 at 01:08 AM
HI jeff, thanks for the post about Ron's Book...I am a big fan of Ron Paul and campaigned quite a bit for him...and the debates I saw (all of them), I thought Ron did as good a job as he could with the amount of time he was allotted in comparison with the other candidates...he freaking gave Guiliani a reading list for christs sake!... There was a lot of bias against Paul...the debates were not set up in a fair way whatsoever and simply tailored to the more "mainline" candidates.
He is certainly more presidential than McCain or Guiliani...and...Huckabee?!?!?!
Posted by: Matt Oxley | September 27, 2008 at 06:45 PM