After attending the Texas Straw Poll as a voting Delegate, I posted a comment concerning Congressman Paul and the "Paul Bots".  As a result of that post, I was asked to expand my assertions in a longer blog post.  Since I've generally assumed I was the only human being reading my blog posts - how could I refuse?  Here goes:

Ron Paul is an admirable man.  He has been a lifetime proponent of Pro-Life legislation, 2nd amendment rights, individual liberties. limited government, and lower taxes.  It is upon these issues that Dr. Paul has distinguished himself to be a verifiable great American.  It is upon these positions that Dr. Paul has become an icon of Texas legislators.  He has never relied on "pork" deliveries to maintain his Congressional seat, only his persistent and consistent message of strong individuals, and limited government have kept his political career intact.  Such is the stuff of Ron Paul, such is the stuff of his Texas constituency.

Such is not, however, the stuff of the "Ron Paul Revolution."  It became painfully evident during the Texas Straw Poll event, that when Ron Paul "shakes his internet moneymaker", he attracts a huge following of people that have little respect for, and in fact a great deal of disdain for, Ron Paul's traditional political positions.  The  "money line" in the Ron Paul platform is, "Bush lied", "Out of Iraq Now."  More than that, he's got a Congressional voting record to match that position.  For good measure throw in that Ron Paul is, at his very core, a Libertarian that believes all drugs should be legal.

The result is a Paul Bot following  repleat with disaffected, conspiracy theory, anti-military, anti-American, substance abusing nut bags.  Think "Cindy Shehan" and you get the picture.  In all fairness, these folks don't make up ALL of the Paul Bots.  Discussing the virtues of "strict Constitutional Government" with some college age Paul Bots was uplifting and encouraging.  The largest portion of the bunch though, blended seamlessly into the simultaneous demonstrations adjacent to the Straw Poll titled, "Out of Iraq Now,"  "Arrest Bush," and "911 Was an Inside Job" were among the more notable organized groups.

As a long time admirer of Ron Paul, this writer would like to believe that Representative Paul is simply, and quite profoundly wrong on his assesment of Iraq.  A review of his positions on his web site however, strains that belief.  His "issues" description of Iraq policy is repleat with  Democrat propoganda.  For good measure consider these direct quotes:  (quotes in italics)

      "-The war in Iraq was sold to us with false information."
This worn out Democrat talking point is simply untrue.  There were WMD in Iraq.  Though we only recoverd about enough to decimate 3 or 4 major American cities, we never found huge stock piles.  More importantly, if one reads George Bush's speeches leading up to the war, or reads the legislation which authorizes the war, it is obvious that WMD was only one of several reasons to invade Iraq.  None of the others are in dispute.

    "-We destroyed a regime hated by our direct enemies, the jihadists, and created thousands of       new recruits for them."
This is beyond absurd.  The links between state sponsored terrorism and Iraq are extensive and well documented.  One can consult Tom Clancy's (non-fiction) Shadow Warriors, or for a more dramatic point of view try Jack Cashill's strikingly clear   http://www.cashill.com/terrorism/index2.htm.  Lastlly, the idea that killing jihadists by the thousands for the first time in modern history is a great recruiting tool for jihadists is crazy.  Their greatest recruiting tools are the Democrat leadership which insists that despite approximately a 50 - 1 kill ratio - we're getting our butts kicked in Iraq.

   "-there are new calls for a draft of our young men and women."
This quote is absolutely a lie.  It didn't work for the Kerry campaign.  It won't work for Paul.

    "-No war should ever be fought without a declaration of war voted upon by the Congress, as       required by the Constitution."
This is a lame argument of semantics.  The Congress voted overwhelmingly (twice) to authorize the invasion of Iraq.  Whether or not the legislation used the word "declare" is irrelevant to any thinking human.  They Congress clearly "declared" war when they authorized the President to Invade Iraq.  If they didn't vote on going to war - what does Ron Paul claim he voted against?

These above examples are so clearly inspired by anti-war talking points, it's difficult to imagine that they are the sincere beliefs of Ron Paul.  It seems rather, that his candidacy has been hijacked by the lunatic fringe who've been looking unsuccessfully for a home in the Obama, or Clinton camps.  They're loud.  They're ugly.  They're mostly stupid, naive, and dangerously uninformed.  Luckily, they're a very small group that appear very signigicant when they travel to small functions like The Texas Straw Poll.

Sadly, Ron Paul; the great Texas supporter of individual liberties, a champion of the sovereignty of the individual (on which this blog has previously expounded), a great leader of gun rights, and right to life, has mounted a so called "internet grass roots phenomenon" based on none of the above.  When people think "Ron Paul" they think "Bush Lied - People Died; No blood for oil; Impeach Bush"

Sad - but true.