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Matthew Freeman is a Brooklyn based playwright with a BFA from Emerson College. His plays include THE DEATH OF KING ARTHUR, REASONS FOR MOVING, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE AMERICANS, THE WHITE SWALLOW, AN INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR, THE MOST WONDERFUL LOVE, WHEN IS A CLOCK, GLEE CLUB, THAT OLD SOFT SHOE and BRANDYWINE DISTILLERY FIRE. He served as Assistant Producer and Senior Writer for the live webcast from Times Square on New Year's Eve 2010-2012. As a freelance writer, he has contributed to Gamespy, Premiere, Complex Magazine, Maxim Online, and MTV Magazine. His plays have been published by Playscripts, Inc., New York Theatre Experience, and Samuel French.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

CNN picks up the Ron Paul story

You know, it's a damn shame. Ron Paul does say that American Imperialism is bad. But he also wants to dismantle the Federal Government and statements like these, especially ones under his own banner, are indefensible. It's not like this happened THAT long ago. This isn't Robert Byrd and the KKK just after World War II. These statements appeared in the 1980s and 1990s.

So, all you Ron Paul loonies that troll the interweb just to throw his name into a comments thread... spare us all. If you really want a candidate that speaks out against the war...try Barack Obama.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you write an article about RP you should expect some comments from RP supporters.

Ron Paul went against his party and voted against the war. Obama, while I like him, wasn't even in the Senate at the time of the start of the war. He may have opposed the war, but it was at the state level.

Before the outbreak of the war Ron Paul pushed for a formal "Declaration of War" from the Congress. This was in spite of being against the war. His attempts to get a Declaration of War failed and now many in the Congress now say that they didn't mean to give President Bush the power to start a war.

Sadly, if the Congress had followed the Constitution maybe this 2.5 Trillion dollar "misunderstanding" would have been avoided. That any member of Congress would make a huge mistake like this that lead to 4,000+ deaths should resign.

While I like Obama and will vote for him over anyone other than RP, he wasn't providing leadership like Paul was at the time of the war.

Tom from MA

Freeman said...

Tom -

No one here supports the war in Iraq. But it's hilarious to me that Paul has become the candidate the symbolizes the anti-war movement for so many. There have been countless liberals who spoke up and marched against this war. Huge rallies took place all over the US before the war took place. Many senators and public officials DID stand against it.

Paul may have found a bully pulpit, but beyond his willingness to rant about the war in public, his policies are the worst kind of anti-government silliness and his history of racism, paranoia, homophobia and pro Confederate leanings.

In that context, one might be forgiven for viewing his anti-war stance as simply a product of his distrust of all government action.

Matthew Trumbull said...

The final Ron Paul quote of the CNN article is a bit of a jaw-dropper:

"Libertarians are incapable of being a racist, because racism is a collectivist idea."

Well, thank God there's no such thing as a racist libertarian. Thank God racism has nothing to do with a fundamental, irrational human fear of differences that goes back to time immemorial, it's just that darn "collectivism". Phew.

"There's no such thing as..." is a dubious way to begin a defense of anything, unless you are comforting a child.

Freeman said...

Completely agreed Matt.

Isn't it a little bit ironic to give a blanket pass to a group that isn't "collectivist?" Funny that a group of free thinkers would walk in such lockstep.