November 12, 2007

Ron Paul’s Legislative Record Must Be Considered

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We’ve had a LOT of debate in our comments section between Ron Paul supporters and Ron Paul detractors. Supporters tout his positions on the war in Iraq and the war on drugs, and his willingness to speak honestly and directly at all times. The detractors tend to concede all of those points and then say, “Have you seen the other things the man wants to do?”

Well, now we finally have a definitive list of what those other things are. Over at the blog Orcinus, they’ve put together a list of bills Ron Paul has sponsored or co-sponsored in his long legislative career. It gives you a great sense of what a President Paul would do on some of the issues that aren’t being highlighted in the current debate.

Some of the included are:

H.R.777: To prohibit any Federal official from expending any Federal funds for any population control or population planning program or any family planning activity.

H.R.2597: To provide that human life shall be deemed to exist from conception.

H.J.RES.80: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the States to prohibit the physical destruction of the flag of the United States and authorizing Congress to prohibit destruction of federally owned flags.

H.R.2962: A bill to repeal all authority of the Federal Government to regulate wages in private employment. [Abolition of the minimum wage.]

H.R.1789: To restore the inherent benefits of the market economy by repealing the Federal body of statutory law commonly referred to as “antitrust law”, and for other purposes.

H.J.RES.46: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to deny United States citizenship to individuals born in the United States to parents who are neither United States citizens nor persons who owe permanent allegiance to the United States.

H.R.2424: To repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and amendments to that Act.

H.R.1146: To end membership of the United States in the United Nations.

If there are Ron Paul supporters who are familiar with all this, good for them. Everyone ought to be so familiar with the candidates they support. And I’m not a Ron Paul critic; I’ve admired and repeatedly defended him. But every single Ron Paul supporter needs to read this full list and then state if he or she still wants Paul to win the presidency. Let’s get it on.

Update: Glenn Greenwald has essential reading on Paul’s flag burning position. Thanks to Greg in the comments.

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

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