Ron Paul's candidacy is important for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that he's the only Republican (just as Kucinich and Gravel are the only Democrats) to relentlessly challenge the mainstream Washington orthodoxy about what this government's continuous, still astonishing law-breaking, lying, fascistic behavior, and criminality.
Paul also has some very loony and dangerous ideas, such as being extremely anti-abortion, anti-taxes, and so on, and yes, he's attracting a hardcore racist following. As a person, and as a Black person, this troubles me tremendously. But part of this is that he's one of the few who keeps hammering this lawless president on his violations of the US Constitution, and many of the white surpemacist and Neo-Nazi types in this country have a strong anti-government bias, which the Republican Party has fostered while also using our government as a cash machine for corporations and well-connected, anti-meritocratic insiders. ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job!")
Why isn't there more outrage out there about the government's and telecoms' illegal spying on us? This didn't start after 9/11, but
JUST WEEKS AFTER BUSH TOOK OFFICE! Why on earth did he authorize this? Why? Can anyone find a legitimate explanation? And if he was spying on Americans--not foreign terrorists in Afghanistan and his fave nation of Pakistan, but people IN THIS COUNTRY--why on earth did 9/11 happen? I know it's passé to bring up this worst terrorist attack on US soil in our history, especially in light of the ongoing disaster in Iraq, which the next president is going to have to deal with, but seriously, what the hell were Bush and Cheney doing or not doing? Why were they spying on us months before 9/11?
Then there's the billions of dollars this fiscally irresponsible president is borrowing FROM CHINA and SAUDI ARABIA and Lord knows who else to finance his illegal war. Aren't Republicans supposed to be about fiscal responsibility? Aren't they? Don't they spout that claptrap at every opportunity they can? That money is going to have to be paid back, but most of the major Democratic candidates, like their bonkers Republican opponents, refuse to say much of anything about this.
And guess what: everyone on Outsports who has a job and pays taxes is going to be stiffed with the bill for decades--DECADES--to come. You don't get something from nothing. We're going to get nothing from nothing and pay for it till our pockets are empty. Paul, like Kucinich, realizes this, and is saying it. I find most of his views abhorrent, but on the issue of Bush's lawlessness, this illegal war, the Christo-fascism of Bush, Huckabee and others, and the destruction of our Constitution, I have to say I agree with him.