COLUMN: The man they just can’t stop

By TIM KLOEPPEL, Guest Columnist

Presidential candidate Ron Paul is a man of his word. Throughout his more than 30-year congressional career, he has maintained a consistent pro-American voting record and has introduced countless bills which, if not for party politics, would have greatly improved the condition of the United States.

His constitutional mindset has earned him an enormous grassroots following, as millions upon millions of Americans yearn for a return to a traditionally limited and responsible government.

In the recent Iowa Straw Poll, Ron Paul came within 152 votes of taking first place, yet he was treated to a mainstream-media blackout.

Is it not suspicious that someone who was nine-tenths of a percentage point away from winning the straw poll was deliberately ignored by every major news article, and those that did mention him made sure to ruthlessly ridicule him?

The fact that the media is ignoring Ron Paul is a sign that his message is spreading, and spreading fast. During the Thursday-night debate in Ames, Iowa, Ron Paul was the standout, the proverbial light in the dark whose honest and realistic answers stunned even the moderators.

When asked about Iran, for instance, Ron Paul maintained his non-interventionist viewpoint and conveyed that a nuclear armed Iran does not threaten the United States, not nearly as much as a nuclear-armed Soviet Union once did.

The other candidates gasped in horror at Mr. Paul’s response, with Rick Santorum even going as far as saying “Iran has ... killed more U.S. troops than Iraq or Afghanistan.” Paul responded by informing the audience that Santorum’s rhetoric was the same as that used against Iraq in 2002, in which the U.S. government incorrectly stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and was harboring Al-Qaeda.

Ron Paul received the loudest and most numerous applause during and after the debate.

Although Ron Paul is clearly the most sincere and patriotic presidential front-runner, there are many in the media who contend that he is “not electable.”

Let us examine this statement. “Not electable” means, in essence, that his chances of being elected are very small; yet at the Conservative Political Action Conference straw poll in both 2010 and 2011, Ron Paul took first place, easily defeating the likes of Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, and Michelle Bachmann.

If Ron Paul truly were “unelectable,” how could he win the CPAC straw poll two years in a row?

In addition to CPAC, the first ever online Iowa straw poll, prior to that of Ames and conducted over a two-week period, was captured by Ron Paul with 44 percent of the vote. To no one’s surprise, except, perhaps, the media, Ron Paul crushed his competition.

Ron Paul is, without a doubt, the only hope for America. He will not turn on us like Barack Obama did in 2009; his congressional voting record is the purest of any past or present candidate.

He was one of a handful of congressmen to oppose the Fourth Amendment-shattering Patriot Act and he doggedly opposed the Iraq and Libya wars.

He does not flip-flop on issues of importance, as he has vowed to dismember the unconstitutional and private Federal Reserve Bank, bring our troops home from all of their present locations and secure our borders from the influx of third-world hordes.    

Ron Paul is feared by the establishment because of his uncompromising message of liberty. So please, ask yourselves, who truly is the best fit for president? It obviously is not the scoundrel Barack Obama.

Is it Rick Perry, the man who increased government spending in Texas from $49 billion in 2000 to $90 billion in 2010 ? No. Is it Mitt Romney, the man whose universal health-care plan in Massachusetts was the basis for “Obama-care?”

No. Is it Michelle Bachmann, the woman who denigrated “American exceptionalism” and spit on the grave of our founding fathers by declaring that the interests of the United States and Israel, a foreign nation, are identical? Absolutely not. I urge all of you to read up on Ron Paul and discover for yourselves what makes this man the only viable choice for president.

You will also find that most of Ron Paul's monetary support comes from active duty servicemen and veterans, who realize that the best way to support the troops is to bring them home.

We must stop voting for parties just because they wear a Democrat or Republican badge; we must stop voting for candidates simply because they wear fake smiles and showcase blow-dried hair; and we must not be swayed by the malevolent bias of the mainstream media Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.     

Four years from now, should America elect a torch-bearer of the status quo (see Perry, Romney, and Bachmann), we will be in the exact situation we are currently in.

We will bicker and rant, blaming the Republicans for all of our woes, and calls will be made to elect a Democrat. It’s quite a vicious cycle.

The alternative? Vote for Ron Paul – and put America back on top.

Kloeppel is a Perry County resident now in his freshman year of college.