The Daily Background
| Why did Ron Paul vote against aid for Hurricane Katrina victims?
by Arlen Parsa
There are a number of interesting points for progressives in the New York Times’ lengthy article on Ron Paul today.
For Eric Dondero, who plans to challenge him in the Republican Congressional primary next fall, foreign policy is Paul’s central failing. Dondero, who is 44, was Paul’s aide and sometime spokesman for more than a decade. According to Dondero, “When 9/11 happened, he just completely changed. One of the first things he said was not how awful the tragedy was . . . it was, ‘Now we’re gonna get big government.’ â€
The NYT says “The two parted on bad terms.”
More on Paul, and his views on government spending:
In the very district where, on the night of Sept. 8, 1900, a storm destroyed the city of Galveston, leaving 6,000 dead, and where repairs from Hurricane Rita and refugees from Hurricane Katrina continue to exact a toll, he votes against FEMA and flood aid. In a district that is home to many employees of the Johnson Space Center, he votes against financing NASA.
And on Paul’s voting record:
In 1999, he was the only naysayer in a 424-1 vote in favor of casting a medal to honor Rosa Parks. Nothing against Rosa Parks: Paul voted against similar medals for Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. He routinely opposes resolutions that presume to advise foreign governments how to run their affairs: He has refused to condemn Robert Mugabe’s violence against Zimbabwean citizens (421-1), to call on Vietnam to release political prisoners (425-1) or to ask the League of Arab States to help stop the killing in Darfur (425-1).
On immigration:
At a breakfast for conservative journalists in the offices of Americans for Tax Reform this May, he spoke resentfully of being required to treat penurious immigrants in emergency rooms — “patients who were more likely to sue you than anybody else,†having children “who became automatic citizens the next day.†(Paul champions a constitutional amendment to end birthright citizenship.)
Previously:
Ron Paul compares convicted extremist right-wing tax evaders to Martin Luther King
Is Ron Paul really a Libertarian?
Racism in Ron Paul’s Past Writings?
What Ron Paul would get rid of
A progressive viewpoint on Ron Paul
Ron Paul’s dangerous advocation of a non-interventionist foreign policy
By the same token, you could say nobody explains George W. Bush better than George W. Bush himself. Also, check your math on the “more than 500 cays left before the 2008 election” claim– it’s wrong.
That would only be true about GWB if he told the truth. He doesn’t.
As for the topic, did you see the way the money was being spent? All those trailers they bought etc, and they just went to setting up temporary offices and stuff, instead of shelter for the people as it was intended. When the majority of the aid is being spent on the government officials, and not the people who need help, I’d vote against it too. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of taxpayer money. They also told people they couldn’t help.
Arlen,
I believe Ron Paul has a lot to offer progressives. To address your points:
Eric Dondero has an interest in tearing Congressman Paul down on foreign policy, where the two of them have their disagreement. The quote he purports Paul to have said may or may not be true, More interesting, I thought, was a paragraph later in the Times piece that said, “Paul says Dondero’s outspoken enthusiasm for the military’s “shock and awe†strategy made him an awkward spokesman for an antiwar congressman. The two parted on bad terms.” From a progressive perspective, wouldn’t you rather have the antiwar guy on your side than someone who advocates carpet-bombing Iraq and Afghanistan?
His decisions to not fund FEMA and NASA are classic libertarian votes. Libertarians simply believe private parties and free markets can provide these services better than the United States government. Given FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina, I have to believe there is a better way to organize a response. Paul WANTS disaster readiness and space discovery, but his study of economics and government has told him the means to those ends are not through the federal government. I agree.
His votes against symbolic recognition or condemnation of Rosa Parks, John Paul II, Robert Mugabe, Vietnamese political prisoners, and the Arab League’s inaction in Darfur seem strange, I agree. And, I see absolutely no harm in “celebrating success” in the forms of Rosa Parks and John Paul II. Those are small gestures that just seem to show Paul’s stubbornness. (my guess is he sees that work as wasteful and unnecessary uses of Congress’ time…) However, he is probably quite right in refusing to make public condemnations of other governments’ immoral actions. How can we condemn Vietnam if the CIA operates “black prisons” around the world where “torture-that-isn’t-called-torture” like waterboarding takes place? Our words only make us look like hypocrites and inflame tension. Obviously, work needs to be done to solve the crisis in Darfur and heal Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe, but who is the United States Congress to make proclamations from on high about those issues?
I’m not sure how I feel about immigration, but I think I disagree with Paul on pieces of his position. I agree that there should be strong border security, but I’m okay with amnesty as long as it includes legality. The United States’ policy on immigration should be something like: if you want to live here, you need to follow the laws and learn English. We will in turn protect you and let you use our phenomenal legal system.
Also, even though I bet goldenequity was just posting a copy-and-paste “promotional item” for his/her website, the 500 days until the election number wasn’t that far off.
It’s currently 470 days.
Croak: Look up progressive in a dictionary, or Wikipedia. It’s about as far away from Libertarian (big L or little l) as you can get.
Aha Mr. Croak, my enthusiasm for fighting back against Islamo-Fascism, is only half the reason why I now oppose Ron Paul.
The other half is his hypocrisy.
I served as his Campaign Coordinator in his first Congressional run in 1996, for about 15 months. Ron was running in a super Conservative District, with it’s center in Hyper-Conservative Victoria.
Ron ran as a solid Reagan/Gov. Bush Republican. He was all Red, White & Blue. All Pro-Military. Break out the Marching Bands, and all.
He accepted massive support in his race from Tom DeLay, Kay Baily Hutchison, Phil Gramm, and ever top Texas and even National Republican imaginable in 1996.
I personally spoke with Bush’s Aide Carl Rove twice on the phone about our Campaign. Magically, after those conversations, let’s just say “things started to happen” for Ron in CD-14.
For a few years after this Ron played up the “Proud Conservative Republican” angle, even placing a Ron Paul meets with President Bush in the White House photo prominently in the front of our Freeport District Office.
Today, Ron plays this all down, and even denies a lot of it.
It’s funny when it benefits him, he’s glad to take GOP support.
Now today, what benefits him most, is gaining Liberal media attention. And in order to do that he has to play up the Bush-bashing, Anti-War in Iraq angle.
It seems to be working like a charm, for the Major Media has only scratched the surface on the real Ron Paul story.
I read all these articles in the NY Times, Washington Post, and New Republic, and am amused at the rosy picture they mostly paint of Paul.
Terribly ironic when Paul was Public Enemy of Liberals Number One in 1996, the Austin Statesman and the Houston Chronicle tore Ron Paul a new asshole. You really need to go back and review the negative media he received from that 1996 campaign, some in the MSM even comparing him to a Nazi.
Now that he’s aligned with the Left, all that has just gone out the window.
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