Thread: Ron Paul on the Issues

Iowa State Sen. Kent Sorenson Endorses Ron Paul for President

Former Iowa chairman for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann pivots to Paul camp citing, “Ron Paul has established himself as the clear choice.”

ANKENY, Iowa – 2012 Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul was endorsed today by Iowa State Senator Kent Sorenson (R-Indianola) in a major pivot that promises to give Paul extra momentum in the run-up to the January 3, 2012 Iowa Caucus.

In making his endorsement Sen. Sorenson is leaving his post as Iowa chairman for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign here. The resignation and endorsement take effect immediately.

“Congressman Paul is delighted to accept the endorsement of Senator Kent Sorenson, whose blessing and assistance carry a great deal weight in Iowa. The fact that he doesn’t take this decision lightly tells a great deal about the Senator and Ron Paul. This endorsement is a rare find and we hope it pushes us nearer to our goal of a strong top-three finish at the January caucus,” said Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton.

Kent Sorenson was elected to the Iowa Senate in 2011 and represents District 37 after serving in the Iowa House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011, representing District 74. The senator is a member of several committees including the Judiciary, Natural Resources and Environment, and State Government committees. He is also the ranking member of both the Senate and Joint Oversight Committees and a member of the Advisory Council for Agricultural Education, the Family Development and Self-Sufficiency Council, and the Human Rights Board.

Senator Sorenson has been leader in the fight in defense of traditional family values, the sanctity of life, and a restoration of Second Amendment rights.

The full endorsement statement from Senator Sorenson follows.

Sorenson Statement
The decision I am making today is one of the most difficult I have made in my life. But given what’s at stake for our country, I have decided I must take this action.

Today, I am switching my support from Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul for the 2012 Iowa Caucuses and the presidency of the United States.

I still maintain an immense amount of respect for Michele. The reasons are many. She’s never betrayed conservatives on issues like taxes, the Right to Life, and the Second Amendment. So over the past few months, I have been saddened at the dismissive way she’s been treated among some conservatives especially after winning the Iowa Straw Poll.

But the fact is, there is a clear top tier in the race for the Republican nomination for President, both here in Iowa and nationally. Ron Paul is easily the most conservative of this group.

The truth is, it was an excruciatingly difficult decision for me to decide between supporting Michele Bachmann and Ron Paul at the beginning of this campaign. Dr. Paul and his supporters were a major help in my successful campaigns for Iowa House and Senate even when I couldn’t count on the support of the Republican establishment here in Iowa.

Of course, battling the establishment is nothing new for Dr. Paul or for myself. During my time in the General Assembly, I’ve established myself as a leader in the fights for traditional marriage, the Right to Life, and the protection of the Second Amendment – sometimes even against the wishes of my own party.

Since my election, I’ve learned that doing the right thing isn’t always easy. It’s easy to see why so many legislators “sell out” once elected. The pressure to do so is immense.

But what America needs now is a President who will not just “go along to get along.” Instead, we must send someone who puts doing what is right above all else to the White House. That candidate is Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is the only candidate to predict the current mess we find ourselves in economically, and he’s the only candidate to offer a true plan to cut spending and balance our budget.

He’s also consistently spoken out against government spending, assaults on individual liberties, and unnecessary trillion-dollar military adventurism for over 30 years. Polls show he is the Republican candidate that can take on and defeat President Obama in November 2012.

Like all true conservatives, I wholeheartedly agree with Ron Paul that government is too big, and both parties share in the blame. We agree that it is immoral to print money and pass on mounds of debt to the next generation. We agree that life begins at conception and must be protected. We both believe that the Second Amendment must be defended unwaveringly, and that there are too many wars being fought with no end in sight and no obvious path to a defined victory.

Of course, as a state legislator, I recognize that Dr. Paul’s strong views on the 10th Amendment will enable me to fight for what I believe in right in my own backyard instead of having to constantly wait on one-size-fits-all “solutions” from Washington, D.C.

With the entire Republican establishment intent on smearing Ron Paul and his dedicated supporters, I understand this decision could impact the way people see me and my entire political career. But this is the right decision, and one in which I proudly stand behind.

To the truly wonderful people I met on the Bachmann campaign, I look forward to working with them in the future as we further the fights for the Right to Life, traditional marriage, and the restoration of our Second Amendment rights here in Iowa. I personally wish her all the best as she continues to battle in Congress.

As for conservatives who are rightly concerned with defeating establishment Republicans Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and – even more importantly – Barack Obama in 2012, Ron Paul has established himself as the clear choice.

If you are as frustrated as I am with what’s been done by the ruling class, I urge you to join me in supporting Dr. Paul. We can send the national big government political establishment a message they will never forget by voting for Ron Paul for President in the January 3 Iowa Caucuses.

http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2011/12/2...for-president/

Young Ron Paul volunteers descend on Iowa

December 29, 2011 9:16 AM
By Scott Conroy
170 Comments


Supporters of Republican presidential candidate, Texas Rep. Ron Paul (Credit: Charles Dharapak)

This article originally appeared on RealClearPolitics.

NEWTON, Iowa -- As they waited for a bus dubbed the "Constitution Coach" to pick them up at the Des Moines airport and bring them to their makeshift lodgings late Tuesday, about two-dozen college-aged Ron Paul volunteers mingled in the cold night air.

The sudden appearance of a reporter's notebook and tape recorder drew comments befitting a group of young people who proudly wear their skepticism on their sleeves.

"What's the article you're going to be writing, man?"

"Yeah, what's the spin, bro?"

Asked where they had flown in from, the answers ranged from California to Virginia -- with one twenty-something purporting to have made the trip from Brazil to help Paul win the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday.


Unsure of what exactly they would be assigned to do, the eager foot soldiers who had signed up online and paid their own way here said they were prepared to phone-bank, knock on doors, speak at caucus precincts, or do basically anything that is asked of them.

When a volunteer noted that he was not authorized to speak to the media, one of his new friends quickly corrected him. "No, you can," he said. "You haven't signed anything yet."

Members of the group confirmed that they were told by the campaign they would have to sign agreements that would bar them from talking to reporters. A spokesperson for the Paul campaign did not respond to an inquiry about the restriction and declined to provide an estimate of how many out-of-state volunteers were expected in Iowa down the homestretch.

Throughout a 20-minute chat about their efforts, the volunteers frequently steered the conversation back to their level of dedication.

"What other candidate has this many people coming in from out of state?" one of them asked, noting that she had raised the money for her plane ticket to Des Moines.

No one could doubt their enthusiasm, but these young supporters nonetheless face a steep challenge in building a winning coalition of rank-and-file Iowa Republicans and nontraditional caucus-goers, while avoiding comments that might turn off either group.

Though several of them were eager to extol Paul's support for drug legalization and opposition to the CIA's targeted drone strikes in Pakistan, none mentioned the candidate's pro-life credentials that have been a focal point of his TV advertising campaign here.

Still, 25-year-old Brennan Westerson of Santa Rosa, Calif., said he was confident he could help persuade traditional Republican voters here -- many of whom are firmly within the senior citizen demographic -- to get behind Paul.

"They were college kids once," he said. "We're idealistic and we have a lot of passion, and maybe since they're older, they're wanting to revisit something like that."

Westerson said that he was first drawn to Paul because "he was a Republican who was talking about the wars, and that was cool to me."

Standing beside him, a young man who first declined to give his name but then identified himself as "James Smith" interjected frequently to opine on Paul's foreign policy views. In the process, he projected unabashed confidence about how he could make the case for the libertarian-leaning Texas congressman.

"We're going to be arguing the case of liberty," he said. "It's pretty easy just to talk about being left alone."

Asked about the controversy over 1990s-era newsletters published in Paul's name that promoted extremist and racially charged views, none of the young volunteers said that the issue made them reconsider their devotion to the candidate.
"His positions are more important," one said.

Another questioned whether there was really anything anti-Semitic in the writings, as has been widely charged, noting that Paul's GOP opponents were "demonizing" the nuclear ambitions of Iran -- a country that he said merely wanted "to take control of their power, or at least not use their dirty oil, which can't be even refined into gasoline."

With less than a week to go till the caucuses, the candidate himself echoed many of his young supporters' talking points during a town-hall meeting Wednesday at the Iowa Speedway, as he was in no mood to downplay his noninterventionist foreign policy positions.

Many Iowa Republicans have warned that the more Paul talks about his beliefs on defense and international affairs, the more difficult his prospects of winning the caucuses become.

But Paul nonetheless spoke eagerly and at length on topics ranging from how the Peace Corps was not authorized by the Constitution to questioning the continued American troop presence in South Korea, despite the potentially perilous leadership transition in North Korea.

"It's time to unwind the wars," Paul said to the packed room, his voice rising with passion. "Stop the wars, stop the spending, bring our troops home."

The line earned applause from his supporters in attendance, both young and old.

But it remains to be seen how Paul's now heavily scrutinized positions on foreign policy and other hot-button issues will resonate with traditional GOP caucus-goers as they make their final decisions in the days ahead.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_1...scend-on-iowa/

Kelly Clarkson's 'Stronger' rises up chart after Paul praise... < --- Link

Ron Paul Has Already Won

Friday, December 30, 2011 – by Staff Report

What happens if Ron Paul wins Iowa? ... Paul seems to have a natural ceiling among GOP voters: A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that nearly half of Republican voters feel Paul's foreign policy views are a major reason not to vote for him.

Indeed, the primary reason Paul has an opening to win in Iowa is that no consensus candidate has emerged among social conservatives, which dominate the GOP electorate here – a situation that allows Paul to potentially win with less than 30 percent of the vote. Still, a Paul win in Iowa would have significant ramifications. It would go a long way toward pushing his Libertarian views, long dismissed as outside of Republican mainstream, to the center of the conversation. The resultant media coverage would allow Paul to further spread his message – and potentially win a host of new supporters. And if Paul can do well in New Hampshire on January 10, where he is currently tied for second place with Gingrich, Paul could even move to shared front-runner status with Romney, who is now ahead by more than 20 points in New Hampshire. – CBSNews

Dominant Social Theme: Paul is a crank and will never light up the sky.

Free-Market Analysis: The Internet Reformation is a process not an episode. US GOP Presidential candidate Ron Paul shows us the accuracy of this statement. Ron Paul and his libertarian allies are winning the battle for the hearts and minds of Americans by the millions. In fact, they have already won. More on this below.

It is not too much of an exaggeration to say that a substantial minority, if not a majority, of Republicans and Democrats are really libertarians of some sort. This gives Ron Paul a natural constituency that is far larger than the mainstream media admits.

There is apparently only one struggle in the world – and in the US. That is the seeming struggle between a handful of ancient, elite families who control hundreds of trillions via central banks around the world and want to move to world government (dominated by them) and the rest of us.

This Anglosphere power elite has used its unimaginable money base to seemingly pervert the workings of the entire world. It apparently uses dominant social themes – fear-based promotions disseminated by its bought-and-paid-for media, think tanks, universities and governments – to frighten middle classes into giving up wealth and power to cleverly crafted globalist institutions. This is the internationalist government-in-waiting.

But a funny thing happened on the way to world government. The Internet. About a decade ago, we began to focus on the idea that the Internet was a modern-day Gutenberg Press and would have a similar impact.

The Gutenberg Press basically spawned the Renaissance, Reformation and contributed to counter-Reformation trends such as the Age of Enlightenment that was spawned by the elites themselves in an effort to counteract the power of the Gutenberg Press. The Age of Enlightenment postulated that man was perfectible and the agency of perfection was government.

Government is an absolute necessity for power elites. With the advent of the Gutenberg Press, however, something changed. The great families of Europe found it advisable to promote the fallacious idea of "democracy." This idea, that people would "have a say" in their governments, allowed the power elite then and now to withdraw from the public scene and dominate from behind the scenes. This domination is called "mercantilism."

Just as it is imperative these days for the power elite not to reveal itself, so it is imperative that the elites continue to have access to all levels of government in order to pass the laws necessary to its survival. Without the faux-system of civil society that the elites have erected in the past 150 years, there would be no prospect of a one-world order.

No one wakes up in the morning and decides to spend one's life building global government. It is an entirely false paradigm that this happens. People are coerced into believing that global government is inevitable and that their self-interest is better fulfilled by working with the powers-that-be than against them. This sense of INEVITABILITY is part of what drives the push toward the New World Order.

But it has long been our contention that those who predict the inevitability of the coming one-world order may not be entirely correct. It continues to be our contention – as we follow modern events – that the elites seeking global governance have been considerably set back by the Internet, as we have long predicted.

We know this to be true by the amount of violence the elite central banking families are turning to. Violence, insane legislative initiatives like SOPA, the erection of prison camps and the fomentation of wars around the world are all signs of the fear that has overtaken these elites. They do not want to be found out.

One needs only to study a little history to begin to understand the relevance of the paradigm we are suggesting. After the Gutenberg Press began to expose the power elite of the day and its manipulations, the first copyright laws were passed, the "isms" were suddenly developed, the Hegelian Dialectic was brought into play significantly and wars broke out throughout the West and lasted for decades.

There IS likely a playbook. There are surely manipulations that the elites pursue over and over in their loony quest for world government. One sees them put into play after the advent of the Gutenberg Press just as they are being put into play today. This is not an easy idea to accept, however, even for the alternative Internet Press. It is much easier and more psychologically satisfying to speak of ancient cabals via vast Illuminati-Masonic plots.

Continued Below

But the truth TODAY is simpler than that, in our view. The world is being run by an intergenerational mafia of familial elites that USE religion and symbolism to affright people and impress on everyone the inevitability of what it is to come.

This is the reason, for instance, that Muammar Gaddafi's execution was shown over and over for weeks. This was the reason his purported buggery was made available throughout the world though ordinarily the Western mainstream media is averse even to showing so much as a kiss to a general audience that includes children.

Gaddafi's death was a warning. Just as the wars in Africa and the Middle East are cautionary ones. They have little or nothing to do with oil or the "great game" or other resources. When the Pentagon wanted to make a case for staying in Afghanistan it suddenly discovered a trillion-dollars'-worth of rare-earth minerals and other commodities. It is all so transparent.

The powers-that-be seek control. The stiff-necked Pashtuns and tricky Punjabis that are now 300 million strong and have dominated the navel of the earth for millennia must be conquered and pacified. This is the struggle taking place today.

And yet, we have predicted the Anglosphere may already have lost this war for global domination. The hidden influence of Money Power in our view peaked in the 20th century. The 21st century has offered them one disaster after another.

9/11 itself is still a questionable event. Attempts to impose the phony meme of global warming are also not going well. The war on terror is increasingly met by disbelief. Scarcity memes of all types have less power to upset, and are increasingly exposed on the Internet.

And then there is Ron Paul. Four years ago, libertarian politician Ron Paul was regarded by the mainstream media as a harmless, crazy crank. Today, according to a CBS article (see excerpt above), the only thing standing between Ron Paul and a sociopolitical consensus around his libertarian points of view is the view by many that he will "undermine" national security. Or so we are told.

But this meme, too, shall have its day – and be gone. That's because the Internet is a process not an episode. The damage control that the elites practices in the 20th century doesn't work anymore. They have turned to a more ancient playbook, in our view, but history shows THAT is not so effective, either.
People naturally lose perspective. But back in the 1990s a trio helped change the world. Dr. Ron Paul and economist Murray Rothbard were close friends. Lew Rockwell was the organizer and raised the money. Rothbard wrote prodigiously and Ron Paul kept delivering babies and running for office. Ron Paul is the most famous and successful libertarian politician of the past 100 years.

This trio built on what is good in what we today call civil society and eventually, as the Internet era began, were joined by popularizers like Matt Drudge, Alex Jones ... and then more. And so once again the ideas of freedom and individual HUMAN action (versus Adam Smith's Wealth of NATIONS) were propagated as they had been before. No one is perfect, but this aspiration is larger than personal agendas, and grounded in the logic of civil society built up over centuries by the greatest and most courageous of minds.

This is the story of civilization, in fact. It is a language and a conversation. It reoccurs. It cannot be extinguished because it may blaze anew in the hearts of the next generation. Sure, it may take a village, but it is one made up of INDIVIDUALS. And everyone is welcome. All who subscribe to the individual greatness of the human species are conveyances for what is worth carrying forward in human society. God damn those who do not.

History seems to us a series of cycles, struggles between historical elites and the rest. Such a struggle has been joined today. This is REAL history. We are lucky enough to live at a time when the old order is passing. Maybe what we are seeing is its death struggles.

The Internet is making it impossible for it to thrive in its current form. Central banks printing monopoly money-from-nothing, wars of aggression, the incarceration of millions ... these are indefensible paradigms when one does not fully control the media anymore.

The Internet Reformation is like a wildfire, perhaps. It seems to be burning away the manifestations of the American Empire by incinerating the disingenuous moral buttresses that hold together this phony construct of the modern power elite. By the time the Internet Reformation has run its course, today's authoritarian verities may have perished entirely. (They will of course emerge in another form.)

Right now, according to this CBS article, only the lie that the military-industrial complex "keeps America safe" stands between the fullness of Leviathan and its subsidence. But what happens, as will be inevitable, when Americans in larger numbers find out that this "safety" is non-existent?

What happens when Americans finally realize that the string of wars that have "defended" them were perhaps phony? What happens when the seeming manipulations that caused the phony Cold War fully penetrate popular consciousness? What happens when the truth about 9/11 – whatever it is – is finally revealed?

The last memes of the power elite that will tumble (as we have long predicted) are the fundaments of the state itself: the insanity of the current model of state justice (where the state itself and its controllers make the laws and then pay for the legislatures, courts and military and civilian police and penitentiary guards that enforce this phony "justice.")

The corollary is the military-industrial complex itself and its myriad millions of intel operatives in London, Washington, DC and Tel Aviv. These individuals are already worried; their privacy invasions, incarcerations and tortures weigh heavily on them. It is occurring to them that they may be on the wrong side of history – real history.

George W. Bush is afraid to travel outside of the United States. David Rockefeller is approaching the century mark and is not his old persuasive self. The Rothschilds are regularly making appearances on business television to show they are merely struggling businessmen and bankers. The US Congress attempts to pass evermore Draconian laws to stop the Internet Reformation. Wars are fomented to take over the world. And yet the navel of the world remains unconquered.

Conclusion: The Internet, which was never supposed to happen, continues to inform people every day about the despicable nature of the elite's 20th century directed history. The old paradigms are crumbling. A thousand, ten thousand, a million prison camps may not capture the truths echoing around the world. The Internet is a process not an episode.

http://www.thedailybell.com/3417/Ron...as-Already-Won