Ron Paul speaks against SOPA

The point isn't that people who are poor get fucked, but that the federal government shouldn't be the ones bailing them out, especially because under Paul's regime, the federal government would be much much smaller, and wouldn't be able to afford to.

Instead of paying federal taxes to the federal government, for which states could then petition to get some of it back, states would levy the taxes they saw necessary to operate and maintain their own infrastructure without help from the federal government.

This means that moneys spent on infrastructure would be spent more efficiently, as the overhead on managing the money would be significantly lessened.

Ron Paul: States Rights, unless its something I'm against.

Just like any politician I guess.

To get to the meat of your question: why Paul now. Paul has always been a solid choice for people dissatisfied with the traditional Republican party. Many of his libertarian views speak to often ignored American ideals, and he is willing to tell it how he sees it, not the political-speak whitewash heard from everyone else. His supporters even include voters who don't normally support the GOP (hes the Republican with the most significant youth following and I've met many people who would vote Democrat-or-Ron-Paul). Hes showing strong now because the electorate has started to feel (like Paul supporters do) that the rest of the GOP field right now is in pretty bad shape.

There has been a sense of inevitability to Romney picking up the nomination, hes been near the top of all the polls since he entered the race, but it seems voters don't want to be stuck with him. They've been scrambling around and sending a long line of candidates to the front of the polls, and inevitably once they get the spotlight they make an ass of themselves. Then the voters send someone else to the top of the polls. Right now is Paul's turn there (at least in Iowa). It remains to be seen if he can stay there and defeat Romney, or if once voters get to know him better his numbers will start falling.

edit: Or is Iowa special? It is to Iowans, and any pundits who want to act like Iowa will be a bellweather of the country. Really, they just go first. The next races will be in different states, and after more time, and more news cycles so Iowa is not necessarily indicative of anything but the current opinions in Iowa.

  That's why we should flag political articles and leave them to other sites.

But if all scientists, techies and reasonable people stay out of politics and common people are distracted by media, how can we expect things to change? If readers of HN cannot discuss political beliefs in a rational manner, I wonder who can.

No wonder legislation like SOPA has reached to the doorsteps of congress in US.