{"id":39815,"date":"2016-06-08T19:26:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T23:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=39815"},"modified":"2016-06-08T19:28:09","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T23:28:09","slug":"ron-paul-we-do-not-really-have-democracy-in-america-2016-is-a-distraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=39815","title":{"rendered":"Ron Paul: “We Do Not Really Have Democracy” In America, 2016 Is A Distraction"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0by Carey Wedler
\nTheAntiMedia.org<\/p>\n

Former congressman Ron Paul has long been an unabashed critic of American foreign policy, central banking, and corporatism. This election season, the former presidential nominee has consistently<\/a>, candidly expressed<\/a> his views on the presidential race, often issuing scathing indictments of the two-party system and the authoritarian tendencies of the candidates in the running.<\/strong> On Monday, Ron Paul appeared<\/a> on MSNBC<\/em>\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe\u201d to discuss the presidential options Americans are left with, arguing the current campaign quibbles serve as distractions from deeper, more systemic problems.<\/p>\n

\u201cMorning Joe\u201d news anchor Mika Brzezinski highlighted disappointments the contentious Libertarian Party nomination of former New Mexico Gary Johnson, who has been criticized<\/a> not only for lacking a philosophical understanding of libertarianism, but also for selecting an arguable neoconservative<\/a>, former Massachusetts governor and Council on Foreign Relations member<\/a>, William Weld, as his running mate.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u201cI know you don\u2019t feel these candidates who are in \u2014 Gary Johnson, Bill Weld \u2014 they\u2019re really more than a shrug. Is there any possibility for anyone else at this point?<\/em>\u201d the anchor asked Paul \u2014 sparking a characteristically uncensored response.<\/div>\n

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\u201cNot really<\/em>,\u201d Paul respond. \u201cI think the people are left with very poor choices and no real contest<\/strong>.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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He said he is looking for a \u201csecond\u201d party because, as he said<\/a>, \u201cI see the Republicans and Democrats and all they do is fight and scream at each other, [but the] policies never change<\/strong>. The size and scope of the executive branch, which is a big concern for me, keeps growing, no matter which candidate \u2014 and quite frankly whether it\u2019s Hillary or Trump. I think they believe in a strong executive and that\u2019s opposite of libertarianism.<\/strong><\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut the libertarian principle of non-aggression \u2014 that is where government can\u2019t use force to mold society or the economy or tell other people how to live around the world, I would say that\u2019s a great principle. I\u2019m not overly enthralled with the candidates, but that principle is really worthwhile and the opposite of what we\u2019ve been living with and the opposite of the ideas that have brought us to this point where \u00a0we are now.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Paul also highlighted the inanity of the American government\u2019s tendency to meddle in other countries\u2019 affairs in the name of democracy.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe send hundreds of thousands of people and spend trillions of dollars going overseas and saying \u2018We\u2019re going to throw out your dictator and we\u2019re going to force you to have democracy and elections,\u2019 and they have elections and we throw them out because they\u2019re not our guy<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Against that analysis, he offered an examination of the state of \u201cdemocracy\u201d at home:<\/p>\n

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\u201cIn this country, we do not really have democracy,<\/em>\u201d he said.<\/u><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He continued, discussing the way the establishment crushes alternatives to the two-party system.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI mean even if we were really, really super happy with the libertarian candidate, do you think they\u2019d get in the debates? No, the debates are run by the Republicans and Democrats.<\/strong> They\u2019d find a way of excluding them, so that\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d <\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ron Paul was famously ignored by moderators during the 2012 Republican debates \u2014 to the extent Saturday Night Live<\/em> even depicted<\/a> the bias in a sketch.<\/p>\n

On his Monday \u201cMorning Joe\u201d appearance, Paul continued to speak candidly on the core problems in the United States that will continue after the 2016 election. Speaking on the unavoidable similarities between Clinton and Trump, he said:<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut no, overall foreign policy won\u2019t change with either party in a significant matter, spending is going to continue, government intervention and the Federal Reserve is going to keep manipulating interest rates and never facing up to the fact that this country has lived way beyond its means and the debt is incomprehensible and all we know is it\u2019s going to grow and grow<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He concluded:<\/p>\n

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\u201cI think the fighting \u2014 the personal fighting \u2014 is a distraction from the real issue, which is personal liberty and the bankruptcy of this country and the failure of our foreign policy.<\/strong> That\u2019s where the problem is.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

___
\nhttp:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/news\/2016-06-08\/ron-paul-we-do-not-really-have-democracy-america-2016-distraction<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39815\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}