Ron Paul speaks against SOPA • Hacker News Board

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#11

Post by yellowbkpk » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 1:53 PM UTC

narag wrote: post #6

Ron Paul currently leads the majority of Iowa polls. IIRC Mr. Paul was a minoritary candidate in last elections. Please, people from the USA, Could you tell what has changed? Or is Iowa special?

When people are asked which republican candidate they'd vote for, most of them say "none of the above". Of the people that have decided on someone, Ron Paul seems to get the majority.

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#12

Post by Angostura » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 1:58 PM UTC

waffle_ss wrote: post #9

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

He says "no" a lot because the federal gov't has become way too bloated. There already is a free market solution to your scenario - it's called "insurance".

I'm intrigued. Who should have taken out insurance in the case of Katrina, for example?

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#13

Post by llambda » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 1:59 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

naz wrote: post #3

This is unsurprising. Ron Paul is generally against new legislation.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

It's interesting to think about consistency as something that is necessarily valued. I think the naive rationale goes something like this, "Well a politician should be consistent because they must represent the will of the constituency which elected them, thereby enfranchising those people and validating the institution of democracy." However, that said, consistency can be a burden. Imagine this applied to the startup world. I shudder to think of a founder who is unwavering in their convictions about their business model, i.e. wholly uncompromising. Today things like lean are popular methods that advocate quick iteration as your data changes, nearly the opposite of holding one and only one consistent position. But being dynamic and changing your product as new data are available is arguably a key strategy to avoiding waste and more importantly, producing something people actually want. I suppose then you could argue it really isn't the same as someone like Paul who is advocating for constitutional consistency. But on the other hand the constitution was written over three hundred years ago, although I think it's paramount to protect the rights as allotted in the Bill of Rights I don't necessarily think that the constitution insomuch as it exists as a legally-binding document, needs to be adhered to without the consideration that iteration may need to be made on the intent of the original authors with respect to the ever-changing world. That is to say that the document was written with a certain intent, so long as we respect that essence we should be able to work within that as a framework that isn't wholly limiting to the literal wording; in fact the constitution has already been amended, if that's what it takes to convince purists then maybe that's what should happen. Ron Paul is saying, quite literally, that he wants to limit the govt to do nothing but what is legally provisioned in the constitution, i.e. most federal programs should be stopped as they are "illegal".

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#14

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 1:59 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

naz wrote: post #3

This is unsurprising. Ron Paul is generally against new legislation.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

[deleted]

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#15

Post by Duff » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 2:01 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

naz wrote: post #3

This is unsurprising. Ron Paul is generally against new legislation.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

He says things that politicians don't typically say. The average American politician chants "create jobs" when he orders breakfast.

Paul says things that sound insightful and refreshing on the surface, when heard in terms of a soundbite. Most of his fans don't dig much deeper.

He would be a horrific president, but he's having a positive impact. By speaking his mind and talking about things that don't make it out of the PR machine of the mainstream political parties, he's giving air to important issues.

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#16

Post by toyg » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 2:01 PM UTC

waffle_ss wrote: post #9

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

He says "no" a lot because the federal gov't has become way too bloated. There already is a free market solution to your scenario - it's called "insurance".

Except insurance against "acts of God" is extremely hard (and expensive) to get. The free market has spoken: when emergency strikes, f*ck the poor people.

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#17

Post by joshuahedlund » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 2:03 PM UTC

narag wrote: post #6

Ron Paul currently leads the majority of Iowa polls. IIRC Mr. Paul was a minoritary candidate in last elections. Please, people from the USA, Could you tell what has changed? Or is Iowa special?

To simplify things, Iowa is basically the first state to start voting for candidates. Four years ago Mr. Paul was generally getting like 5% nationally and with a concentrated effort on Iowa ended up with 10% of the vote. This year he's getting like 10-12% nationally and 20+% in Iowa. Paul actually leading several polls in Iowa is something that was not even fathomable four years ago.

A vote for Paul can be taken to mean many different thing; I wish that - regardless of what one thinks about his electability or desirability as president - such votes would be interpreted as a measure of support for basic civil liberties that no other candidates (including Obama) seem to care about. But that's probably hoping for too much!

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#18

Post by llambda » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 2:03 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #7

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

[deleted]

After Katrina he made remarks[1], and here I'm paraphrasing, that amounted to saying that neighboring states shouldn't have to pay for the misfortune of other states, i.e. through FEMA.

[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07...

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#19

Post by makmanalp » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 2:04 PM UTC

dkhenry wrote: post #4

What is great about Ron Paul's stance is that I am confident based on his continual display of principled politics that if elected he would stand by this. Who cares what the other candidates are tickling our ears with. Paul is the only one who I feel would actually stand up to the Movie Industry.

I used to be interested in what he had to say until I saw this: http://murphysbride.tumblr.com/post/14876601176/bacon-beer-a...

I don't know how credible this is but it leaves me doubtful.

Re: Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

#20

Post by toyg » Fri, Dec 30, 2011, 2:04 PM UTC

jiggy2011 wrote: post #5

naz wrote: post #3

This is unsurprising. Ron Paul is generally against new legislation.

As a British person I don't know much about American politics but I often see this Ron Paul guy turn up in discussions about politics in general. He seems to a hero to many people including those who aren't the stereotypical republican voters. I have to admit I don't quite understand his appeal, his position seems to always just be to oppose any new legislation on government involvement in anything. His position alwa…

Among other things, he'd spend his time enacting anti-abortion laws.