Slave To The Grind

Ron Paul could save a lot of time by just saying "government is slavery" and moving on.

WALLACE: You talk a lot about the Constitution. You say Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid are all unconstitutional.

PAUL: Technically, they are. . . . there’s no authority [in the Constitution]. Article I, Section 8 doesn’t say I can set up an insurance program for people. What part of the Constitution are you getting it from? The liberals are the ones who use this General Welfare Clause. . . . That is such an extreme liberal viewpoint that has been mistaught in our schools for so long and that’s what we have to reverse—that very notion that you’re presenting.

WALLACE: Congressman, it’s not just a liberal view. It was the decision of the Supreme Court in 1937 when they said that Social Security was constitutional under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution.

PAUL: And the Constitution and the courts said slavery was legal too, and we had to reverse that.

Look, if your entire argument is "I don't agree with the General Welfare clause or the precedent interpretations of it over the last 235 years" that's one thing.  But saying "Well slavery was wrong too so that got changed so the entire Constitution is suspect" and equating the two is just insane.   The Constitution is not an infallible covenant handed down from God or Buddha or Sikkar or the Flying Spaghetti Monster or anything.  It's a document written by mortals and interpreted by mortals and enforced by mortals.  It's those last two that often lead to conflict, nobody's arguing the first part there.

But if the best argument the mighty Ron Paul has for libertarianism is "Well the Constitution was wrong about a lot of things originally so yeah remember the whole thing is up to your point of view" then I have to just laugh, because Paul's no threat unless he actually cuts himself with a card stock copy of the Constitution.

Also, anyone who says government is inherently evil and then wants to run for President, well let's just say I don't trust them.  The Zaphod Beeblebrox Theory Of Galactic Presidency states:

The President in particular is very much a figurehead – he wields no real power what-
soever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to
display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the
President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating charac-
ter. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria
Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had –
he has already spent two of his ten Presidential years in prison for fraud. Very very few
people realize that the President and the Government have virtually no power at all, and
of these very few people only six know whence ultimate political power is wielded. Most
of the others secretly believe that the ultimate decision-making process is handled by a
computer. They couldn’t be more wrong.

And frankly, I think Ron Paul is a lot closer to the Big Z than most people realize.  But whenever Douglas Adams makes a better case for your candidacy than your own arguments, it's time to consider maybe doing something else in life.   I want to be President but I really, really, really hate the government?  No thanks.