This article refers to a blog by the editors of Foreign Policy which can be found here:
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/mboyer
Mike Boyer is a blogger for Foreign Policy magazine. In a recent blog entry he asserts that Ron Paul's fifteen minutes of fame should be up. Of course, when Andy Warhol originally made the statement that in the future everyone would have fifteen minutes of fame, he was referring to the common man, not politicians or other public figures. But, whatever. Mr. Boyer apparently believes that everyone, no matter what their stature in life, is only allotted fifteen minutes, no more. Well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news Mr. Boyer sir, but Ron Paul has already had more than fifteen minutes. The Ron Paul girl has had her fifteen minutes, but, like it or not, Ron Paul is working on at least his second hour of fame and will continue racking up the minutes whether or not he wins the presidency. So, even though you might close your eyes and wish Dr. Paul would go away, there are many, many of us who would like to see him stick around for quite a bit longer and hope his fame grows to biblical proportions.
Normally, I wouldn't bother with some blogger discounting Ron Paul's candidacy, but this is from an establishment publication and the establishment still seems to be trying to bury Ron Paul's relevancy even as he appears on TV shows such as The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Like CNBC, Foreign Policy Magazine is doing its best to minimize Ron Paul. This gentleman starts his blog by stating that Ron Paul is a seductive mistress. Hmmm. I've never really thought about Ron Paul that way. Well, to each his own I suppose.
Mr. Boyer goes on to ask whether or not people understand what Ron Paul stands for. He then lists five of Ron Paul's policies that are "fraught with danger." He lists the first policy as "Foreign Policy and the Constitution." I suppose that these things can be fraught with danger and I can understand why some people would be very frightened of them. If you don't like freedom and want the government to take care of you and protect you from the big bad world, then the government obeying the constitution and the foreign policy Dr. Paul espouses can be quite terrifying indeed. But Mr. Boyer asserts Dr. Paul's understanding of the Constitution and the vision of the founding fathers is profoundly flawed. He then goes on to suggest that Ron Paul believes that the founders vested absolute authority for foreign-policy making in the congress and not in the executive. He then goes on to use the opinion of someone else to complete his argument that suggests that Dr. Paul is wrong. I simply decided to look at what it says in the constitution. You see, I have the ability to read that document and decide for myself what it says without having to look to someone else to interpret it. Article II Section 2 (presidential powers) reads as follows:
"The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session."
I don't see anything there about the president creating foreign policy except that he can make treaties "provided two thirds of the Senators present concur."Everything else he does is by and with the advice of the senate. On the other hand, taken from the Constitution, the congress has these powers:
"To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;"
It appears to me as if Dr. Paul, with his twenty years experience as a congressman, does know a little bit more about the constitution and what it says than the journalist gives him credit for.
Mr. Boyer's second point is to suggest that Dr. Paul is an isolationist instead of a noninterventionist. He asserts that Dr. Paul is an isolationist because he wants out of some organizations formed some sixty years ago through the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange, a system that failed in the early 1970's by the way. Let's make this clear, Dr. Paul is a noninterventionist. This means he does not believe the United States should interfere in the internal affairs of another nation. I happen to agree with this philosophy. We would not want some foreign power interfering with our internal affairs, so why should we interfere with theirs? As far as getting out of some musty old organizations that aren't doing us any good anyway, I say go for it. This doesn't mean that Ron Paul wants to stop trading with other countries. On the contrary, it means he wants to trade with them on a voluntary basis, not by force of treaty. This is how all trade should be done. The U.N. does not necessarily help accomplish this.
Mr. Boyer asserts that Ron Paul has stated he would get out of Iraq immediately. Again, Mr. Boyer is misrepresenting what Ron Paul has said. He has stated time and again that he would get out of Iraq, and indeed out of every country our military occupies, as quickly as possible. Now, if Mr. Boyer wants to assume that as quickly as possible means immediately, that's his prerogative, but Ron Paul was in the military and he realizes that he can't simply pull out, that the withdrawal has to be organized rather than chaotic. So yes, Ron Paul would begin the program of withdrawing the troops from Iraq immediately and we all know that process would take some time. That timetable is a lot sooner than all the other Republican candidates who would keep the troops in Iraq indefinitely, as we have in Germany, South Korea, etc.
Mr. Boyer's fourth point is the intimation that Ron Paul is crazy. He suggests that because Ron Paul's websites warn of a very real danger world government could pose to our sovereignty that he has lost his mind. This ploy is quite upsetting. Mr. Boyer is another mainstream journalist who exposes his own paranoia when trying to expose Ron Paul's. Mr. Boyer is obviously frightened, in my opinion, of a world where no one is allowed to paint their helicopters black. Why, to him, the thought of people even talking about helicopters being painted black is fear mongering at its worst. No talking about helicopters being painted black or you're going to the loony bin to sing songs with world leaders that never leave their own country. But seriously, does he really think that the United States leaving these organizations would mean the end of the world? Would the WTO, U.N. and other organizations fail if the United States is not a member of their little club? Perhaps it's time we just let the other countries of the world worry about their own internal affairs and they just let us worry about our internal affairs and we all agree that trade should be done on a voluntary basis.
His fifth point, that Iran might create a nuclear weapon and needs to be attacked now, is the point that sets Ron Paul apart from the crowd. He is the only Republican candidate that has come out and said that he would not start a war with Iran. We can hardly afford to keep Iraq going. Most people want out of Iraq. Iran is much bigger. It has ties with China, India and Russia. There's no telling what would happen if a conflagration was started in that country. I don't want to find out. There has been enough death and destruction caused as a result of our foreign policies, and it's time for that to end. The United States of America was supposed to be a compassionate country where the poor and the down trodden could come to make a better life for themselves, not a country that kills the poor and down trodden in the streets of their nation and destroys what little infrastructure they had in the first place. It's time to stop threatening countries, to start treating them like human beings, to start trading with them fairly, equitably and responsibly. In this way we can start influencing them diplomatically instead of forcefully at the point of a gun.
Mr. Boyer concludes by saying that play time is over. I have to agree with him. It's time for Ron Paul supporters to pull out all the stops. It's time to put your money where your mouth is. It's time to quiet all these nay sayers who think that Ron Paul's supporters are few and far between. It's time to show our strength. Donate. Put on the bumper stickers. Keep going to those rallies and holding up your signs. Keep submitting those videos to Youtube. Keep blogging. Keep writing those articles. Let those in the minority, those like Mr. Boyer, those who think that their vision is the only clear vision, let these people know that they can no longer tell us what to think. Let them know that it is time for them to worry about themselves and not about everyone else. Let them know that the majority of people want to accept responsibility for themselves and want government out of their lives. Let these people know that the ideas of freedom, liberty, smaller government and self reliance are still viable ideas today that resonate with Americans. It is time to elect Ron Paul and send the message that we wish the rest of the politicians to stop playing with our lives.
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