Although I find my stomach churning at some of the blatantly ridiculous things he has to say about an entirely deregulated free-market economy, I still find myself admiring Ron Paul in a strange, abstract way.
I believe it's because he has emancipated himself from a stereo-typically rightist arrogance, in which he feels he will 'always know best, regardless of everyone and everything,' and will actually listen to other people in order to form his own personal political philosophies, whether I agree with them or not.
He's not like other Republicans who simply take their views from some sort of ideal 'love of the family' and a 'love for Our Lord.' He quite literally knows what he's talking about, inside and out... and his welcome contrast in the arena of Republican perspectives on foreign affairs is very much enlightened and realistic, and doesn't seek to make war with every country that shows signs of dissidence to the American police-state.
Regardless of all of this, he is still a 'profits-over-people' Republican like the rest of the party, and would destroy the final vestiges of the welfare state the first chance he got. It is for this reason that I would not support his becoming President, although I do believe were it to come down to a vote between him and Obama, and he came out on top, he would end-up pleasantly surprising the world's progressive-leaning individuals more than anyone would expect.
He has more of a heart than John McCain, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Dick Cheney combined, and has a tinge of empathy any severely neoconservative Republican would likely find to be a sign of blatant weakness.
Whilst half of the Republican Party is simply made up of selfish and willfully ignorant individuals, another quarter is made up of profit-centered geniuses who lack empathy and proper interpersonal skills, affected by that characteristically rightist arrogance that gives them a license to believe 'they know best,' regardless of what others may say. The last quarter is made up of individuals who share similar characteristics with Ron Paul; they believe in the principals of American universalism and the inherent political correctness of the free-market economy as the 'perfect system,' but regardless of all this, they still carry a torch for the well-being of all people, and are willing to admit when the opposition is correct on a certain matter. They are also well-learned and have the strength to stand-up to their compatriots should they feel a good jostle is required in order to cease a complete and utter neoconservative takeover in which everyone in the party subscribes to the absolute dogma of a certain individual or group, regardless of how absurd the ideas may actually be.
So, thank you, Ron Paul, for acting as an apt representation of the last pulsing vestige of humanistic rationalism within the American far-right.
Your contrast is a welcome addition to the political scene.
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