Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Phil Valentine Show, and Why I Won't Vote for Ron Paul at the Convention


This business of being a delegate to the Republican National Convention, free to vote for whomever I choose, is going to be fun for another couple weeks, at least until Senator McCain wins a few more primaries and mathematically locks down the nomination without the aid of the eight of us who are Romney delegates from Tennessee.

Not wanting to squander my 15 minutes, I called one of the producers of the Phil Valentine Show, a very good, very conservative Nashville based syndicated radio talk show host and told him I wanted to get advice from Phil and his listeners on how to vote.

The next day, the producer called me (it was "the Round Mound", Phil's regular sidekick Johnny B. apparently being on vacation), and in about two minutes I was on the air with "Uncle Phil" himself. Phil advised me to hold Senator McCain's feet to the fire, and secure three pledges from him:

1. Opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens
2. Support in making the Bush tax cuts permanent
3. Abandonment of his support for legislation that supposedly addresses global warming

I also gave Phil my email address, and asked his listeners to email me with their advice.

30 of them did just that.

10 listeneers emailed me and echoed Phil's advice, with most of them advising me not to vote for McCain if he didn't make those three promises. (Note to these folks -- He's on the record that he supports permanent tax cuts, but the other two issues are a little less clear).

20 listeners emailed to advise me to vote for Ron Paul instead.

All 20 of these emails were lengthy and filled with passion.

And all 20 were unpersuasive.

Here's why:

Straight from Ron Paul's official website comes the following position on Iraq:

On my first day as commander-in-chief, I will direct the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our commanders on the ground to devise and execute a plan to immediately withdraw our troops in the safest manner possible.

Those who caution that leaving Iraq would be a disaster are the same ones who promised the conflict would be a “cake-walk.” It is impossible to tell how long we will have to stay and how many lives we will have to lose if we wait for political factions that have been at war for centuries to come together.

As long as we occupy Iraq, the violence against our troops will continue, and the Iraqi government will become more dependent on us. It is in the best interests of the Iraqi people that we return their country to them immediately. Indeed, violence has already gone down in the areas that are not as heavily occupied.


An immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be an unnecessary concession to an enemy whom we are finally beating, and beating fairly soundly at the moment. It would embolden the chastened and retreating Islamic jihadists to attack other countries, leading inevitably to further attacks on American soil.

Such an action would significantly increase the likelihood that we would experience an American Hiroshima in our lifetime at the hands of this enemy.

As Abraham Lincoln demonstrated by his strong and wise actions a century and a half ago, the single most important responsibility of the President is to preserve and protect the Union. And Ron Paul's policy on Iraq would do exactly the opposite.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wheee!!....an uncommitted delegate. I imagine it is an exciting feeling.

I commend you for taking the time to hear views from the listeners of the radio show. Apparently there was an overwhelming majority asking for support of Dr. Ron Paul. Sure, if Mc Cain would change his stance on the issues he would have my support, but I would have a difficult time placing any confidence in a candidate that will change his view on issues for a vote.

I do happen to agree with Ron Paul on the unjustified/unconstitutional aspect of the Iraqi occupation. We have the capability to shoot an out of commission satellite out of the sky yet worry about the Iraqis? I cant believe so many have bought into the fear of Iraq. The Soviets, with all their resources and power, didnt harm us after all those years (except for all the monetary support we sent to Afghanistan trying to stop their occupation). Much like Vietnam, the United States are across the ocean trying to change another countries government into something we think is more ideal. Meanwhile, our southern borders are unprotected and our economy is bleeding. I worry about THIS country and OUR borders.

The US finally retreated from Vietnam and turns out the threat was not all it was "sold" to be. The Jihadists will not cripple us and dictate our troop actions; our economy will.

If you can find time, pick a book by Michael Scheuer, former CIA bin Laden task force leader. He understands first hand the "blowback" consequences of meddling in other countries affairs. Baffling to me, is that Americans cannot put themselves in the shoes of citizens of other countries and understand what occupation feels like. I wish some other country could earn their independence the way our republic did; on our own.

I apologize if this has been disjointed, but wanted to voice my opinion. Thank you for your time and for being active in the process.

Anonymous said...

I apologize for the follow-up to myself, but I would also like to point out that Ron Paul has received more money from those serving than ANY other candidate and more than all the other Republican candidates combined. His top three donors are from the US Army, US Navy, and US Air Force. Last I saw Department of Defense was around number sixteen. None of these were in McCain's top twenty. These men and women serving are the ones who know what is going on and have seen Iraq first hand. Thank you again for allowing me to post my comments.

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry that you have bought into the politics of fear sold by our government.

I will not advise you how to vote as you have already made up your mind. You will not realize your mistake until it is too late.

I hope you have no children who will have to suffer for your lack of rationale and wisdom.

Good luck and sleep well. I know where my vote will go. I choose Liberty, peace, security, and sound government.

Anonymous said...

I hope my other two responses made it. I am not familiar with these blogs. Here is a link to a three minute interview from Fox News last night. http://factbeat.com/get_story.php?id=266

Luke