A Note To Dr. Paul

I’m breaking one of my rules by posting this murderer’s mug atop this post, but I believe I have to.

You see, Ron Paul, no doubt nursing some illusions of glory within the long-since-bought-and-paid-for-by-the-corporatist-class-and-reactionary-wingnuts Republican Party, believes he can effect change as part of his “revolution” by helping to write his party’s platform in time for the convention in St. Paul, Minnesota this September.

I hope you’ll forgive me if I’m not overcome with rapturous joy at this moment.

That’s fine, though; if he believes he will be heard by his party if he does this, more power to him. Then again, maybe I will ingest that Mocha Latte Grand from Starbucks one day that will cause multiple synapses to fire off within my brain and allow me through a miracle of mental cognition to realize the plan that brings peace to Israel and Palestine once and for all, returns oil to the once-staggering price of $62 a barrel within a year, and finds a destitute child in sub-Saharan Africa who will refuse to be adopted by actress Angelina Jolie.

The problem for real, though, appears below…

Paul pointed out that McCain is anathema to pretty much everything Paul has been fighting for the past 30 years and he probably won't throw his support behind McCain, even at the Republican National Convention in September.

"Unity might be secondary to principle," he said.

Nor does it mean that Paul is going to endorse a Democrat. He pointed out that Sen. Obama, one of the Democrats still in contention for the nomination, says he wants to pull out of Iraq, but continues to vote to fund the war and wants to send more troops into Afghanistan, where the Taliban has seen a resurgence.

"His rhetoric is playing to the people that come my way, but he is every bit as much of an interventionist. He wants to send more troops into Afghanistan. He wants to broaden the military. I think it’s a fraud when he talks about how he wants to really get out of Iraq, but I think that's politics," Paul said.

Yep, Dr. Paul, it sure is “politics” all right when your party continues to obstruct on any attempt whatsoever by Congress to tie funding of the Iraq war to troop withdrawals, to say nothing of the head of your party, George W. Milhous Bush, who would veto any bill mandating that anyway.

And given that obstruction, we have scenarios such as this where Senate Democrats must vote for war funding on construction projects and necessities for our troops despite their professed objections to the war (oh, sorry, I forgot – you serve in the House and really don’t have a clue as to what goes on in the Senate anyway).

And as far as Afghanistan is concerned, our troops were set up to fail because precious human and material resources were diverted to Iraq, so now we have to play catch-up so whatever gains we’ve accomplished aren’t totally negated (to say nothing of trying to get the guy in the photo after all; in a related vein, I thought this was an interesting post, though I have to admit that it prompted a bit of a "duuhhh!" reaction from yours truly).

So just keep up this contrarian act as long as you want, Dr. Paul. You have a ways to go before you grow as tiresome as Ralph Nader, though I have to admit that you’re on a path to do that.

Just remember that you will never be “the anointed one,” and remain on your best behavior later this year for your party’s TV show, full of pretend praise for diversity and tolerance of other points of view.

The stars will be John McCain and his running mate, let’s not forget. Keep a stiff upper lip and a smiling face, and maybe “Senator Honor and Virtue” will let you clean up the confetti as the parade passes you by.