Letters to the Editor
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‘Ron Paul Can’t Buy Respect’
The modern day conservative movement’s founding father, the late Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater would have said that principle over pragmatism would trump “Ron Paul Can’t Buy Respect” concerning the Presidential candidacy of Texas GOP Congressmember Ron Paul [National, December 21, 2007].
Goldwater believed that what consenting adults consume, inhale, perform, read or view in the privacy of their own home or private social club isn’t the concern of government.
Individual economic and civil liberties prosper best when government stays out of both the bedroom and marketplace. Limited government meant that taxpayers dollars should be spent prudently with the least amount of confiscatory taxation accompanied by real balanced budgets, no deficits and actual surpluses.
He would never support the massive deficit spending that has resulted in today’s nine trillion dollar longterm debt. He would have also opposed the thousands of Congressional earmarks supporting tens of billions of dollars in pork barrel spending each year. He was no fan of corporate welfare or spending billions on useless weapons systems supported by Congress but not requested by the Pentagon.
Remember Goldwater’s stand concerning gays in the military? He said, “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.”
If Goldwater were alive today, he might say, “In your heart, you know Dr. Ron Paul is right!”
LAWRENCE PENNER
Great Neck, N.Y.
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