With the New Hampshire primary just weeks away, the GOP candidates are pulling out all the stops. And yet, for all of their efforts to undercut each other and President Obama, the solutions of all but one candidate are woefully inadequate. That’s why I’m voting for Representative Ron Paul for president.
As every American knows, this country has serious problems. We’re $15 trillion in debt and show few signs of being able to balance our budget. The official unemployment rate is slightly under 9%, but it’s clear that the real unemployment rate is somewhere in the double digits. Over one million abortions take place each year. Our education system is allowing our young people to fall behind their international peers in the classroom. Overseas, we are throwing our military at every problem, regardless of the human and financial costs.
And yet most of the Republican candidates are offering platitudes as solutions to these problems.
President Obama is even worse. Overwhelmed by the challenges he’s facing and unable to overcome them with inspirational rhetoric, he’s desperately seeking re-election. This man wants to force everyone to buy health insurance. He wants to help overthrow nations and install governments that may soon be threatening us. He truly believes that government can and must be the solution to most of humanity’s problems, despite the mounting evidence of government’s failures.
It’s possible to solve our many problems. But the solutions won’t be bureaucratic. Removing a few tax loopholes or eliminating a couple of EPA regulations won’t do the trick. We need the kind of change that President Obama so confidently promised but failed to deliver.
The only candidate proposing a serious overhaul of our federal system is Ron Paul. You might have heard of him, though probably not from the major media outlets. He’s the longtime congressman who has never voted for an unbalanced budget. He’s been warning of the dangers of being the “world’s policeman” since the 1980s and wants America to pursue a less interventionist foreign policy. He doesn’t just want to cut the deficit; he wants to cut the debt itself. He wants drugs to be legal. He wants to get rid of the Federal Reserve. He’s pro-life but wants to leave abortion policy to the states.
I don’t agree with all of these views, and there’s not enough space here to discuss each of these points in any depth. But consider this: When was the last time you heard a candidate tell people things they didn’t want to hear? Haven’t the American people always claimed that character is paramount? JFK’s lauded (and probably ghostwritten) book “Profiles in Courage” was about exactly that. All Ron Paul really wants to do is restrict the federal government’s authority to what is enumerated in the Constitution.
I’m a 25-year-old small business owner with one ulterior motive: getting our country back on track. I don’t work for any campaign and have donated to none. Ron Paul, for all his faults, is the only candidate who is offering a completely different vision — a vision that says, “Let’s avoid disaster entirely, and let the people have their freedom.” It may work or it may be too late, but with so much on the line, we can’t afford to support a lesser candidate.
Charlie Siggins is a New Hampshire native and the owner of On-Time Construction in Whitefield, New Hampshire.
