Ron Paul - “Obama Is Not A Socialist; He’s a Corporatist! Republicans Are Too!”

Iamaman got one fact right!!! He needs your help in finding more.

THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT?

Obama is effectively carrying out Bush's policies....

Thus why he isn't effective, Shank ol' buddy. ZING!

I'm sure that President Obama is still "teaching" constitutional law somewhere. It's just not in this country.

better than ron paul!

free market economy my ass!!!

YOU'RE RIGHT! We've never had a free market economy....

but keep blaming your statist society's problems on Freedom.... it's getting quite old.

Then stay away.

Perhaps it is you who is in need of some understanding.

I am not operating under some sort of insane delusion when I assert that individual freedom and self-ownership are fundamentally important for human existence.

Nor am I pleasuring my ego when I wish to discuss alternatives to a blatantly corrupt governmental system.

Not once have I professed an ideology of hate, racial intolerance or defamation.

Not once have I resorted to the use of ad hominems or red herrings in my arguments.

Not once have I threatened another user on this thread with violence or insult.

...and yet I am wrong?

Great facts.... (sarcasm)

We're not the ones pointing the guns at people....YOU ARE. You're the one breaking natural law, not us. You are the one using threats of violence and force on peaceful people.

What you are doing is wrong, Freedom is not wrong.

i've noticed a pattern with some of the most ardent anti-libertarians on this site. they constantly deflect from the original topic or current post and usually end up resorting to childish ridicule, name calling, or charges of racism when they are unable to defend their own supposed philosophy in relation to libertarian ideals. freedom stands on it's own merits.

people fought for thousands of years for freedom. and then over many years it was gradually taken from us. ("Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny." ~Thomas Jefferson ---- ol' TJ knows what's up) the very meaning of the word freedom was perverted and distorted, and then used to destroy it. people were led to believe that a return to the old ways, a return to slavery/serfdom/servitude was our salvation, all under the guise of freedom and wrapped in the flag. freedom made this country great. the loss of freedom is why this country is in decline. freedom is a good thing. i will continue to embrace the philosophy of liberty and condemn the ancient ways of servitude. i own my own life. take your tyranny elsewhere.

I think you're quoting (or should I say paraphrasing) a few of history's great dictators. Keep up the good work.

somehow, i already knew that.

You can't really call it anything until it breaks at least 500 comments. That's when it really get's ridiculous.

You speak truth afloyd60...I thank god that you are on this website to share your perspective.

wow, thanks jubal. i always look forward to your posts as well. more often than not i find myself clicking the little up arrow on your comments. take care and happy independence day!

You have to hand it to the Marxists. They're damned good at spotting flaws in capitalist systems. The problem exists in their solutions.

I hope you watched the entire video.....cause the solution to the capitalistic problem is at our finger tips. Democratic Socialism!

Nicely said scottyt, I appreciate your comment. I think we probably will see a blend of ideas coming from this mess and the Banksters are truly the criminals in this whole mess.
I am extremely pissed that only Bernie Madoff is the only one found guilty so far. Many people down the food chain are dying as a result of this run away un-checked capitalism. People are killing themselves at record numbers with drinking and drugging and the root of their own demise is not in the fact that they are mentally deficient but have been led to believe they are losers in the capitalism game. I think the commons can be something everyone can get behind and help bring us all together leaving nobody behind.

I love that Carlin bit, the man taught me a lot. You see I have always been a comedian, and only in my later years have I become very serious with a flair for comedy. I really like the part about the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. I like Ron Paul for saying what he says cause it makes sense but the belief's he has as not paying attention to the commons and the people that fall through the cracks is insane. Together we shall over come, and people only believing in themselves is more of the same crap that has gotten us into this mess in the first place. scottyt it is real easy for a man to become a pig but it takes a heart to help his fellow man.

I couldn't agree with you more with regards to the fact that any pig can make money and that it takes a person with real heart to help his fellow man. Moreover, I don't enjoy reading peoples' comments that people are homeless or hurting because they're lazy or incompetent. You're right in your assertion that that's just more of the same shit that has got us to the brink of economic ruin.

Nothing breaks my heart more than to see people getting kicked out of their homes and losing their jobs as a result of this phony system that is passed off as a free market economy--it is not. It is a system that is so corrupt and tilted against the average person of average means. And it's going to require a genuine paradigm shift to get power back in the hands of everyday people.

But I say, not out of avarice or contempt of others, that helping people is a voluntary act. People need the freedom to choose to help others. It is the only way a person can see the meaningfulness of his or her action. Such voluntariness brings people together. Coercion through the force of government only serves to divide people. Worse yet is the reality that any money the government takes from people, under the guise of helping them, gets used to fund illegal wars, build prisons, and bail out shit corporations. We're just left to fight over the crumbs they throw us.

More importantly is the idea that my property, albeit not all that much, is mine. I earned it. I can do whatever I want with it so long as it is not to cause harm to others. Nobody has a higher claim to my property than me just as nobody has a higher claim to your property than you. To believe otherwise is to believe that others have a higher claim to your life and livelihood than you. What could be more corrupt, dare I say evil, than the belief that certain people have a higher right over other peoples' lives?

A true revolution will come about when people realize that they have the power to end this cycle of debt enslavement and poverty--not through their government, but through their own volition. People have ideas. People have ambition and the ability to see their ideas achieved. That is where I place my faith--in people and not politicians. This true revolution will start when people stop giving power to their oppressors, for the politicians who continuously claim to be acting on our behalf will only bleed us for more and give back less and less.

One of my favorite things I've heard in the way to describe the current corrupt financial schemes is how the pack of financial thieves have set a system of rakes placed on ones lawn so you accidentally step on one and wham your financial well being is gone. That my friend is where government need be the referee and enforcer. Alan Greenspan in saying he could not foresee the human instinct of greed in this financial collapse is pure criminal. He is as corrupt as any of the banksters for not seeing what would develop.

awesome, spot on!

"Freedom!!!" tell like it is Kenny!

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/funnyquotes/a/george-carlin.htm

"Have you ever wondered why Republicans are so interested in encouraging people to volunteer in their communities? It’s because volunteers work for no pay. Republicans have been trying to get people to work for no pay for a long time."

"Once you leave the womb, conservatives don't care about you until you reach military age. Then you’re just what they’re looking for. Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers."

you said, "scottyt it is real easy for a man to become a pig but it takes a heart to help his fellow man."

thank you!

stop blaming the innocent!

You think the banks are innocent?

You can bet on it!

Sounds to me like you like telling like it is as well! Go get em buddy.

Well thanks!

Gotta love the Carlin quotes. As far as a political satirist, he was one of the best. May he rest in peace.

It's all about forced collectivism and failed central planning by bureaucrats and politicians. These people don't care about individual rights and Freedom, they just want to control everything, they are brainwashed into believing that slavery is long-run prosperous.....and obviously don't understand the definition of capitalism.

They don't even bring up central banking nor the Federal Reserve's low interest rates and the moral hazard and malinvestment it creates. Heck, just the existence of a central bank is an indicator that there is no free markets. Central banks are anti-free markets, anti-peace, and anti-capitalism.

"Regulators asleep at the switch"?!?!?!? That's what he thinks? So he doesn't realize that regulators are a joke in the first place, they are employed by the government corporation. Remember, corporations do not exist in free market capitalism, only individuals that have businesses (HUGE DIFFERENCE that most economic enslavers don't realize).....of course, all of this gives him the idea that we need MORE regulators...except for GLOBAL tyrants to control us (as if that's worked out so well for poorer countries where it only spreads more fascism - big business in bed with government).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rZgJKnSXAc

This is referred to as crony corporatism, which has NOTHING to do with capitalism and everything to do with coercive slavery!

"Too many people bought into Hayek"?!?!? Hayek wasn't even known about by many until after the Bush/Obama elections! How can he really think that Freedom played any part of this slavery?!? He is blind to the nature of economics....great video creator though....

Lula also stated that it had to do with skin color (Lula is a racist)!

Lula wants the same IMF that has backed up some of the most brutal 3rd world dictators to get MORE involved?!? He has no idea what he's talking about when it comes to economics nor International corruption!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Monetary...

This guy doesn't care about your Freedom or prosperity. He feels that savings and capital accumulation is the problem, which is not true...
He also puts capitalism on the Monopoly board?!? Monopoly is more socialistic than anything, it doesn't allow for voluntary transactions and is based around central planning with victimless crimes and fines imposed in the game. It is more statist and corporatist than capitalist.

Capitalism doesn't "discipline labor", it leaves people alone. REAL Capitalism is live and let live, unlike statism which is pointing guns at peaceful people. This guy is clueless to the read world.

Capitalists don't have control over labor, corporatism has control over labor, a HUGE DIFFERENCE. Statism is what controls things, capitalism allows for market pressures on the rich, capitalism doesn't allow taxloopholes nor does capitalism do anything to labor. Capitalism is simply the act of NOT monopolizing through a centralized coercive monopoly(government) and allowing the People to have control over their own lives and choices. Capitalism is anti-war on drugs, PRO-individual uniqueness and personal choice. Mainstream ideals of capitalism are watered down with statism, which means it has nothing to do with capitalism....

Besides, nobody hates the unions because they're "greedy", we simply understand their inefficiencies and how they have hurt the worker in the long-run through propped up prices which lower demand in their own countries...thereby driving out investment

Speaking of housing, he doesn't even mention how institutions like Freddie and Fannie were Government Sponsored Enterprises nor does he mention the fact that they were implicitly backed. Now explicitly backed since conservatorship in 2008, which means the taxpayers are placed directly on the line. We're already in debt over 94% of our annual GDP and he wants to mandate higher wage controls? Ludacris. He never mentions how the government and politicians on both sides of the aisle tried to push for loosing lending standards so they could boast about high homeownership rates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DIaNHPTVJU

He once again states we have capitalism, when no one in the world has true capitalism and peace. How can capitalism be the problem when nobody has capitalism?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism

"Capitalism has a number of barriers and a number of limits."
That is not true, capitalism's only limit is that you cannot harm another person and that no one has the right to harm you and your property. STATISM and government are the barrier and limit creators, Freedom's (capitalism's) only limit is the use of fraud, force, and theft. Capitalism rejects coercion and threats of violence, statism is war and infliction.

How does investment get to the right place at the right time? It's called profit signals, where there are industries with high profits, competitiors will try to rush in to fill the demand, where profits are low in an industry, investors will invest elsewhere where profit signals show a strong need for supply to answer the consumer demand. People VOLUNTARILY invest money where they want to and that is how money gets invested, he believes in FORCED central planning where people with guns can come in your house and arrest you if you don't pay them for their reckless spending behavior. This guy is clueless because he believes that the bankers are bad, but then turns around and acts like more of what we've been getting from the central bankers (that he ignores) will make the situation better!

Another thing, greed has been around since the beginning of time. It's not like an explosion of greed just occurred, it's an explosion of violence and coercion and loose fiscal and monetary policy from statist systems that are the roots of our problems. We now have a government that is 6 times the size of our government just 100 years ago. The socialists and statists and fascists just want more central banking powers. Look at Bush and Obama, they continually give the Fed central bank more and more power, with very little transparency. Obama is just proof that skin color doesn't matter.... all races have their evil people that will take advantage of the world.

Statism rules the world, managed trade (not free trade), war on drugs,(not personal choice), WAR (just another government program...with a mix of corporatist contractors - has NOTHING to do with Freedom and Capitalism

Statism created the wars, not Freedom/Capitalism. Statism creates the overflowing jails, not Freedom. Statism created our problems, not Freedom! Until people wake up to the slave system they live in, our world will only continue it's violent decline.

Ron Paul only ran as a republican to get media attention because 3rd parties don't get attention.

Obama doesn't care about you.... give me a break. He is a warmonger and debt enslaver. He arrests people for victimless crimes and is pro-war on drugs. Obama is your enemy, just like the neocon republicans....

Shanklin's correct on this one HatFella. President Obama is no better than the corporate puppet that preceded him. You just feel better about having this one in office. You see, this nation is already dominated by minorities--you know, the big bankers, oil companies, defense corporations and the like.

Forget about the politicians you endear. They're just there to keep you under the impression that you actually have a voice in all of this. News flash: you don't. They're just as bought and sold as the food you eat and the gasoline you put in your car. No, they're not the KKK (thank goodness), but they'll sell their integrity to the highest bidder as was evinced with your dear leader's signing of the Iran Sanctions Act into law and a spineless House of Representatives' appropriation of another $60B to be pissed away in Afghanistan.

Show me some real change HatFella. At least a libertarian government would bring some.

Many libertarians, like myself, believe in open borders and aren't going to waste our time, or your money, attempting to keep people from trying to pursue a better life regardless of where that life may be. People are free to come and go as they choose. They also have the right to spend their time and money as they choose as well.

Libertarians certainly don't advocate violence against our neighbors--whether those neighbors be on our block or farther away. Nor do we advocate jailing people for the private decisions they make so long as they do not cause harm to others.

Therefore, you might want to reserve your reactionary comments for people that profess the ideologies that you chastise.

Obama is the best politician America has to offer?...we're fucked

ron paul does not stand for anything but anarchy!

If that is so, then why does he have such reverence for our Constitution? I dare you to find some smear job insinuating that he wants to get rid of that.

Yeah, he likes the constitution! He just wants to get rid of the Americans With Disabilities Act, The Civil Rights Act, The FDA, FBI, USDA, FTC, SEC, EPA, Hell I think he even dislikes the coast gaurd.

That's a whole lot of YES!!!! However, the Coast Guard is part of the Department of the Navy. Please refer to Art. I, Sec. 8 of our Constitution.

I have never heard that before, thanks Racebannon.

fuck you

If a libertarian laid me it would be the first useful thing they'd have done.

Aw, c'mon.....

I just don't see it, jubal. I work for the government and all I need for motivation is cereal and coffee in the morning.

Of course you don't see it because you are on the inside feeding at the trough.

Oh, don't be sore, in fact, we've got room for skilled workers, and plenty of silage. Don't hesitate to join us.

anarchists are in favor of both as long as it is not them.

social contract? A contract needs four tenants, offer, acceptance, capacity, and consideration.

You've obviously offered, I know I at least have the capacity, the consideration is negligible, by the offer is rejected. That means there is no contract. Contracts are voluntary, not forced or imposed on people. The whole point is, nobody ones you, and when you give someone the right to own you, it only gets corrupted.

A free society is not juvenile nor is it irrational. What's irrational is believing that threats of violence and force is long-run sustainable and prosperous.

Peace unimatrix.

Yep. I would consider libertarianism to be quite juvenile in comparison to the divine right of kings or the rule of mystics. Yet look how far humanity has advanced in the time since Locke's Second Treatise was written.

The idea of popular sovereignty and self ownership is very new to the human experience, and people are continuously waking up to this notion. Hooray for freedom!

Even Rousseau's "Social Contract" (written less than 250 years ago) unleashed the idea of freedom on a people living under absolutist rule: "Man was born free, and everywhere he is in chains." And I say that man shall remain in chains so long as there are those who somehow see themselves as having rights superior to those of their fellow human beings--those who use the force of government to enslave the people they purportedly serve.

It wasn't nihilism that has affirmed man's basic rights to life, liberty and property. To the contrary, Unimatrix. It was the idea of liberty--the idea that mankind can live for themselves and not for the sake of others.

And a contract is void if it is the product of fraud, duress or undue influence.

no man can truly live alone. the constitution preserves the right for every American to have a government that is "for the people and by the people!"

That is definitely the basic tenet of a republican (note the lower case "r") form of government. Make no mistake, I am not an anarchist. I believe in government--albeit substantially limited.

Nor is it my goal to truly live alone. I like to think that I get along quite well with my neighbors and community at large because I show them the respect that they deserve--I don't lie to them, I don't steal from them, and I try to help them out if they need a hand. Because this is so, I like to believe that they return my respect in kind.

It's only when some stranger comes into my neighborhood promising me this or promising my neighbor that in exchange for our votes where things get a little shaky.

then all shareholders in enron and worldcom should get their money back from wall street?

I will admit my ignorance of the totality of facts involving the whole Enron debacle. I can only tell you about my former employer--a haz-mat trucker that hauled oil to refineries. His company was bought by Enron. I think he's about 65 now, and doesn't have a retirement account thanks to that whole swindle.

Enron misrepresented their financial condition to buy out smaller companies. Enron, in turn, raided those smaller corporations pension funds and savings to represent as future capital in buying out even more corporations. In turn, they did offer shares of stock as an alternative to pension accounts. Moreover, the boards of the corporations that Enron bought out probably got some pretty fat paychecks out of the deal too. (I do not know if any of those directors were sued for breach of fiduciary duty or not--I'm not a securities attorney anyway)

Needless to say, the people who were bought out by Enron, like my former employer, thought it was a good deal at the time and bought in. They, just like their bosses, got suckered in by the lure of bigger money.

Also understand, that Enron was able to operate with impunity with the full blessings of both federal and state government officials. I need not mention the GWB connections, do I?

Their little ponzi scheme imploded though, and it left a huge number of employees holding worthless stock that was promised to serve as their retirement accounts.

Because of this misrepresentation, I believe the contracts between Enron and the companies they purchased should have been declared void. (If I'm not mistaken, that was the result in a number of cases).

However, when it was all said and done, Enron's stock was worthless--and the Wall Street traders that pumped and dumped their stock got away with millions. That's how Wall Street works, and it would serve you well to consider such situations if you hold publicly traded stock.

Sadly, people like Kenneth Lay did not live long enough to see their assets seized and redistributed.

The government is corrupt and the social order is suffering because of that corruption.

There has to be a balance. To say no man holds rights above another sounds like equal protection under the law not total avoidance of law. The idea that the only currency in a Democratic Republica is the consent of the governed is too a worthy thought.

Uni, while I believe that the concept of the "social contract" is somewhat antiquated (after all, Hobbes initially promulgated the concept to justify the power of absolute monarchies -- while later philosophers attempted to bootstrap the concept to cover representational democracies, the fit was uneasy at best...), I concur that libertarianism as a philosophy and as a political movement tends to be both naive and devoid of compassion.

While the leading "thinkers" in the movement have attempted to apply their philosophy to a broad range of issues, their thinking tends to be an inch deep (i.e., two dimensional), the greatest weakness being a lack of appreciation for the full consequences of their proposals.

well said.

Because Milton Friedman was wrong.
Greed is not a good thing for society.

Industry requires regulation.
Otherwise, you would see no workers' rights, monopolies, more environmental disasters, etc.

Corporations are too powerful now for the invisible hand to have any effect. That's why the government has to step in and regulate it.

It's scary because it means people have to WORK and actually do something for themselves, other than let the gov't take care of them. People can form their own power if they just work together... Oh lordy, i've said a great atrocity, i must be racist or something...

Ok, so Chileans can claim credit... Good for them, does that really refute any of Ron Pauls arguments? Or anything he's said in this video? Or... Is this more non-sense off topic red-herring bullshit that gives you a hard-on.

I think i see a tent.

neither is coercion...