A real constitutionalist, anyone?
I am a libertarian and a Republican, and I won't vote for Ron Paul. It's not because he claims to be a libertarian, because I claim that moniker, myself. It's not that I think he's a racist, because I agree with Charlton Heston that talking about race doesn't make you a racist. It's not even that he is the least electable candidate from the two major parties (a categorization that is true, regardless of what his well-meaning supporters want to believe). I will admit that his views on international relations have always looked a little too isolationist to me, as evidenced by his apparent fear over NAFTA, but that's not even the reason why I won't vote for him. The reason I won't vote for him is that I don't agree with his understanding of the U.S. Constitution.
Yes, I know, his supporters will savage me for daring to suggest that Ron Paul doesn't understand the constitution, since he is one of the only Members of Congress who regularly bases his votes on what the constitution says. I think he is to be commended for that, and we woudl all be better off if more Members of Congress did the same. My problem is not with his devotion to the constitution, which is absolutely laudable, but with his interpretation of the constitution as a libertarian document. In fairness, I have yet to figure out if any of the other candidates even care about the constitution.
Thompson and McCain don't seem to care about free speech, as two of the biggest supporters of the worst restriction on political speech since the Anti-Sedition Laws in the days of Jefferson and Adams. Romney's comments regarding an assault weapons ban seems to indicate a disturbing lack of understanding about the Second Amendment. Guliani seems to follow the "fudamental liberties from the 9th amendment" crowd, which allows the government to do whatever it wants under the Commerce Clause, unless it violates some unwritten "fundamental liberties" covered, supposedly, by the 9th amendment, which basically allow the courts to strike down any law they personally disagree with. The other candidates may be better than the front-runners at abiding by the meaning of the constitution, but they don't talk about it, so I have no way of knowing, for sure.
As a libertarian and a Republican, I would love to see the Republican party nominate another candidate like Ronald Reagan, who would have the guts to say that government is the problem, not the answer. However, I just don't believe that Ron Paul is that candidate.
