The Pavlina 2012 Republican Presidential Primary Election

[givejonadollar]

Who do you, the faithful readers of Steve Pavlina.com, choose to be the 2012 opponent to incumbent Barack Obama?

[Gabo]

The one candidate who believes in voluntary association and not in the use of force to get people to do what we want.

[scorpio1980]

Ron Paul for me. Even if I have to write his name in he is the only 1 who gets my vote period.

The American Circus- The 2012 Elections - YouTube

[mainstreetcm]

I voted for Paul. My reasons are my own.

[Curtis2011]

Honestly none of the candidates fully satisfy me. I like Ron Paul's focus on spending cuts and smaller government for his economic plan, but there are some other things I disagree with him on.

Another thing I can't understand is why so many of the Republicans are advocating a flat tax as their economic plan, as if our tax system had anything to do with causing the 2008 recession in the first place. It's just stupid really, whether you are looking at it just as a policy or as a platform upon which they will attempt to defeat Barack Obama. The country is coming out of a recession, and most people can easily understand that a flat tax helps wealthier people more than it helps poorer people, and frankly "let's help out the rich folks" is a ridiculously moronic economic platform for any candidate to run on during poor economic times such as today.

Up next comes the defense spending. I hate Republicans who blindly refuse to cut defense spending, as if we actually need to spend more than $750B per year on "defense" aka "offense" in order to keep our country safe. And this is while members of Congress say it would "cost too much" to fully secure our border with Mexico, which is where any terrorists are going to enter our country in the first place if they try to smuggle a bomb in or any other dangerous substance.

Another issue that has come up is foreign aid, which is such a small part of government expense that even a dumbass of a President couldn't ruin our country with it (thank God). IMO foreign aid can act as a strategic tool to influence other countries' actions, and should be treated as such. This is one point where I disagree with Ron Paul's statement that we should discontinue all foreign aid because the Constitution doesn't allow it. Whether or not it is Constitutional, there are probably some cases where giving foreign aid to other countries is in the best interest of the United States; where the benefits of influencing others countries' behaviors outweigh the cost in dollars that we spend on the aid given to those countries.

I guess I could outline more points but instead I'll just summarize by saying that I'm disappointed in the overall selection of candidates.

[JSB]

Agreed. Obama's re-election campaign slogan can be: "I know I'm incompetent and a complete pushover, but look at THESE guys!"

The Republican candidates this year appear to be little better than a random collection of committed mental patients.

I can't remember the last time I've seen a group of "leaders" so disconnected from how policies and structures actually affect the real world, yet convinced that their contrived, rigid ideological stances are an accurate reflection of reality. Scratch that; I do remember -- it was the leadership of the Soviet Union.

Paul is the only one up there who has my respect and admiration, yet I think that even his policies would have a great deal of negative unintended consequences.

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

I guess I could outline more points but instead I'll just summarize by saying that I'm disappointed in the overall selection of candidates.

[Beingist]

Originally Posted by scorpio1980

Ron Paul for me. Even if I have to write his name in he is the only 1 who gets my vote period.

Yup. Same here.