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scottie said: That he is not a libertarian. Libertarians support the concept of 'small government' - limiting the government's power to effect the populace. This is reflected socially, in not limiting people's freedoms, and economically, which tends to advantage corporations, hence they are seen as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Ron Paul, by contrast, believes that the federal government should be weak, and that local and state governments should be very, very powerful. This belief is not libertarian. As examples of this, consider
Giving power to the individual states, thus limiting the oversight of the Federal government, is supporting small government? He doesn't want States to be any more powerful than their size allows them to be. This is the whole idea of 'Small Government'. Is government that your voice actually matters. By giving power to the states (How the consitution desired it to be), we effectively have a series of small governments, watched over by a small footprinted federal government.
"In 1997, Paul introduced a Constitutional amendment giving states the power to prohibit the destruction of the flag of the United States." - Giving state government the right to crush freedom of speech is hardly libertarian.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul99.html
"In 1997, Paul voted to end affirmative action in college admissions.[190][191] Paul criticizes both racism and obsession with racial identity:" - Ron Paul believes in the free market, except when he disagrees with it. Then, the government must stop it.
How is ending affirmative action in college admission in anyway related to the government stopping something? Affirmative action is the exact opposite of free market? Lol. You do know what Affirmative action is don't you?
"Paul opposes all federal efforts to define marriage, whether defined as a union between one man and one woman, or defined as including anything else as well. He believes that recognizing or legislating marriages should be left to the states" - Again, small federal government, big state government.
Ron Paul is for small federal government, not small government. He is not a libertarian.
So voting for Flag Burning amendment to appease to his distrixt, while outwardly admitting his dis-taste for it and displeasure in voting for it and giving power to the small state governments makes him non-Libertarian?
That he doesn't believe climate change is a big issue In an October 2007 interview, Paul held that climate change is not a "major problem threatening civilization," http://www.grist.org/article/paul1
What does this even matter? Scientists can't even agree whether it's happening because of factors on this planet, whether it's the Earth coming out of an Ice Age, or a slew of other factors? Beyond that point, what is Ron Paul or any singular person supposed to do about this? You have developing nations across the globe feeling success of industry and having more and more gas powered vehicles and power plants being built. This is completely irrelevant.
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