As a Libertarian, I am definitely a fan of Ron Paul. It is sad that there is no mainstream party that is Liberal in the traditional sense of the word. Now, liberal means left-wing when I look at Liberal quite differently.

Anyway, there was an article from Time magazine a few days back that I just caught talking about Ron Paul and why he scares the Republicans. Read it yourself.

One quote in the article I want to take issue with is here:

“In some ways, Paul is a throwback to the frugal and isolationist wing of the old Republican Party, the fuddy-duddy GOP of Robert Taft and Calvin Coolidge.”

Isolationism is a red herring. Ron Paul may well be an isolationist, but that is a matter of opinion. Be skeptical when loaded words like “isolationist” are bandied about.

Another quote that begs skepticism is this:

“he is an extremist — partly in the Barry Goldwater extremism-in-defense-of-liberty-is-no-vice sense of the word, but also in the wacky let’s-relitigate-the-currency-debates-of-the-1820s sense of the word. The late William F. Buckley wanted conservatives to stand athwart history yelling stop; Paul seems to want to slam history into reverse. The guy genuinely wants to abolish the Federal Reserve and start circulating gold again.”

I have been following Paul for years and I know he wants abolish the Fed. Is that a bad thing? Irrespective, he is a political realist and is on record for saying that he does not want to make radical change from day one. Radical change may be his end goal, but he respects the need to work within the system to move our country in the right direction. Again be very skeptical when you see code words like “extremist” bandied about.

When I find a reference to his true position on how he would govern in moving toward these more radical changes over time, I will make an addendum to the post.