A reader writes:
Thanks for your mention of Ron Paul in today's Daily Dish.
I arrived in the US almost 10 years ago now. Born and raised in Holland, I was about as liberal as you can get, but after only a few years of visiting political online sites, I found myself a libertarian. In the 2000 presidential election, listening to the debates between Gore and Bush, I honestly believed that the Republican Party could finally bring out the true potential of the United States. It didn't take long for me to see the truth, that the current crop of Republicans has done more damage to the United States than I could've ever imagined.
I do not believe the Democratic Party has what it takes to undo the damage. Their socialist ideology of fairness goes against my core belief of liberty, and the best they had to offer in '04 was John Kerry. The Libertarian Party just doesn't seem to be able to reach an audience in the US. I still support them, but don't believe that they have a chance to accomplish anything until things get really, really bad in the US. I was so disappointed with politics that I simply stopped caring.
And then came the Republican debate last week. The format was horrible, most of the questions were lame, and the three main candidates got most of the airtime, but it gave me, for the first time in a long while, a glimmer of hope. There was this one candidate that seemed to say everything I wanted a candidate to say. The next day, I went online to do some research about this candidate, and the more I read, the more passionate I became about this candidate.
The Republican party needs root and branch reform. Maybe a Paul candidacy is the best way to express this sentiment.