It’s the eve of Super Tuesday, and your humble correspondent is completely exhausted. Candidates were dropping too quickly for me to get interviews on all of them, but since my predictions at the beginning of all this were completely wrong, we may have another few weeks or even months of Primary Season before the candidates settle into the real business of attacking theVe other party.
But in the interests of fuller coverage than the national media brings you, we have an interview for Super Tuesday-eve with a supporter of one of the more interesting and outspoken candidates this year: Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is a representative from Texas and a staunch libertarian, though he’s running for the Republican nomination. While not a front-runner, he has gotten between 3% and 19% of the vote in the states that have voted thus far, and has 6 delegates. While this puts him in fourth place among Republicans, he has some of the most ardent supporters of any candidates, and possibly the most yard, window and street signs of any. Chances are, no matter where you live, you’ve seen a Ron Paul sign.
Guymon Adams is a musician and Internet radio host currently living in Austin, Texas. Formerly a New Orleans resident, Adams is highly critical of the federal government and was drawn to the libertarian candidacy of Ron Paul. You can find his radio show, Dead City Chronicles, on weekly on Revere Radio by clicking here.
Kaffeine Buzz: What got you interested? Did you learn about Ron Paul in Texas?
Guymon Adams: I first heard of Ron Paul shortly after moving to Texas in 2005. I was instantly interested in his views just as a congressman. He was the only guy in office, regardless of party affiliation, who seemed to be consistent in his views against the war in Iraq, the economy, and the rights of the people.
KB: He’s definitely the only one who’s really come out and said that terrorism is caused by our foreign policy.
GA: Yeah, and it’s incredible to me how many people still refuse to understand such a basic premise. That consistently gets distorted and turned around making it sound like he is “unamerican” for daring to make such an obvious statement.
KB: I think a large part of his appeal has come from just that idea.
If I can backtrack just a second…who did you support in 2004? Before that?
GA: I never really supported anyone. In 2004 I was curious about what was going on with the Green Party and Libertarian Party, but in all the years leading up to then I had pretty much lost all faith in presidential elections. I was more concerned with local and state issues specifically.
KB: Local issues get ignored a lot, but in New Orleans the local politics always seemed pretty interesting.
GA: That might be an understatement.
Thinking back on it, New Orleans was always kind of a microcosm of just how corrupt national politics and elections are. I remember several occasions where there were issues with skewed vote counts, electronic voting machines with questionable results, etc., and all that just on a local level.
KB: So besides the war, which issues drew you to Ron Paul? Are there any major ones that you don’t like? For me, even though he doesn’t believe in federal legislation, I find the fact that he’s pro-life a deal-breaker.
GA: Well, the pro-life issue is something that he believes should be strictly up to the states to decide, NOT the federal government. From one state to the next, the laws could be dramatically different, as determined by “we the people.”
And therein lies the core thing that attracts me to Ron Paul — getting the federal government off our backs, and understanding that SO many issues are actually just a matter of STATES rights. It all boils down to basic concepts outlined in the Constitution – a document that has otherwise been forgotten by most these days.
His straightforward approach, using the Constitution as his guide, has set him consistently on the right side of virtually every issue, the pro-life issue being perhaps the only one to stir any controversy simply because it is such an emotional issue.
He opposed BOTH Patriot Acts, the Military Commissions Act, The John Warner Defense Authorization, and more recently, the Veterans Disarmament Act. He supports true free speech and dissent, the right to bear arms, and so on. Without these rights firmly intact, tyranny will continue to creep into our lives until it is too late to return.
KB: The thing that I fear when it comes to libertarianism is that it allows huge corporations as much liberty as it does regular people.
GA: But that is actually already the case, but perhaps even worse. Right now the government is in bed with big business to such a degree that it actually constitutes the textbook definition on “fascism.” Banks and telecom companies essentially run our lives right now and most people don’t even think about it, though that is somewhat of a tangent here I suppose.
KB: No, it’s not really. The amount of corporate influence is already staggering. And we certainly aren’t likely to see a candidate from a major party break loose of much of it.
GA: I hear a lot of people confuse the issues of free markets, the private sector, etc when discussing Ron Paul. He is truly a classic republican, not one of these neo-conservative vultures we have come to know as supposedly Republican. When the federal government stops giving corporate handouts, then private business owners actually have more of a chance in a free market economy.
KB: That would be helpful, for sure.
Where do you see most of the Ron Paul support coming from? I’m wondering if most of his supporters will vote for a Libertarian candidate if he doesn’t win, or how many will go back to the Republican party.
GA: Being here in Austin I can see the very broad base of Ron Paul supporters. They come from every age group, every ethnicity, all income levels, and all walks of life. The unifying concept is quite simply “liberty.”
If Paul doesn’t win, I suspect a large majority of people probably won’t even bother voting at all, since it is quite clear so many primary elections have already been rigged. Some may go for a libertarian candidate, others may even go for some one like Obama (that whole lesser of evils thing). I sincerely doubt however that ANYONE who is supporting Ron Paul right now would ever dare vote for anyone else currently running as Republican right now. That would simply be foolish. Paul’s supporters understand what is really at stake here. This is not just some dog and pony show.
KB: What about you? What will you do?
Personally, I would at that point ignore presidential elections for good. They have increasingly become a farce, giving the masses a figurehead to praise or blame accordingly. Ron Paul is one chance of potentially effecting REAL change, on very deep fundamental level. And win or lose, his message will still be resonating throughout the country (or the world even). Presuming a loss for Paul, I would personally then just turn my focus to local and state initiatives.
KB: Do you think this movement is about Ron Paul or about something more than Ron Paul?
GA: It’s something WAY bigger than Ron Paul. It is about opposing the creeping tyranny arising in the name of security with this so-called war on terror. It is about the states running things for themselves, and about individuals retaining every right to live their lives as they see fit without government interference of any kind. It’s even about things as ugly as our dying economy that is based on nothing but paper money printed out of thin air.
All these issues and many more will continue to come up long after Ron Paul has won or lost, and these issues will now be in the forefront BECAUSE of Ron Paul. I’ve heard the term “velvet revolution” applied in the context of this.
KB: The other thing that I see drawing a lot of support for Ron Paul is his views on the “war on drugs.”
GA: BIG TIME! How many people do any of us know who have been thrown in prison just over a dime bag of weed? How ridiculous is that?! His idea of releasing non-violent drug offenders is brilliant in my opinion. It’s a perfect example of what his campaign is all about.
His stances on virtually everything are pretty amazing to me, be it property rights, the income tax, or even health care. He lines it all out pretty well on his campaign website.
KB: Have you done any campaigning/volunteering?
GA: No. I’m more useful in spreading the word through my radio misadventures and day to day conversations. I attend many of the rallies held here in the Austin area, slap Ron Paul stickers virtually everywhere, and so on…. I’m more of a guerilla tactics kinda guy.
KB: That seems to be the way of it, though. I see Ron Paul stickers and signs everywhere.
GA: Yeah, you simply do not see that kind of passion and enthusiasm for other candidates.
KB: Certainly not for the rest of the Republicans.
GA: The rest are all in the pockets of big corporations and seek to subvert our rights through all their war-mongering. It’s absurd to me to think anyone with more than an 8th grade education would even consider any of the other (fake) Republicans.
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