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Glenn Greenwald praises Ron Paul

Glenn Greenwald has just gone off the deep end by putting up a long post in praise of Ron Paul`s “principled positions” and his understanding the deep Constitutional mess we`re in.

http://www.salon.com/src/pass/sitepass/spon/sitepass.html?http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/06/paul/

Surprisingly, Greenwald even included in his post this Ron Paul camapign video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA


Greenwald made the following points:


Regardless of how much attention the media pays, the explosion of support for the Paul campaign yesterday is much more than a one-time event. The Paul campaign is now a bona fide phenomenon of real significance, and it is difficult to see this as anything other than a very positive development. Paul, of course, is not only in favor of immediate withdrawal from Iraq, but also emphatically opposes the crux of America’s bipartisan foreign policy consensus. He reserves his greatest scorn for America’s hegemonic rule of the world through superior military force, i.e., its acting as an empire in order to prop up its entangling alliances and enduring conflicts — what George Washington lamented as “permanent, inveterate antipathies against particular nations, and passionate attachments for others.”

And Paul is as vigilant a defender of America’s constitutional freedoms — and as faithful an observer of the constitutional limitations on government power designed to preserve those freedoms — as any national political figure in some time.

While Barack Obama toys with the rhetoric of challenging conventional wisdom, Paul’s campaign — for better or worse — actually does so, and does so in an extremely serious, thoughtful and coherent way. And there are a lot of people who, more than any specific policy positions, are hungry for a political movement which operates outside of our rotted political establishment and which fearlessly rejects its pieties, even if they disagree with some or even many of its particulars. Regardless of one’s ideology, there is simply no denying certain attributes of Paul’s campaign which are highly laudable. There have been few serious campaigns that are more substantive — just purely focused on analyzing and solving the most vital political issues. There have been few candidates who more steadfastly avoid superficial gimmicks, cynical stunts, and manipulative tactics. There have been few candidates who espouse a more coherent, thoughtful, consistent ideology of politics, grounded in genuine convictions and crystal clear political values.

Perhaps most importantly, Paul is the only serious candidate aggressively challenging America’s addiction to ruling the world through superior military force and acting as an empire — not by contesting specific policies (such as the Iraq War) but by calling into question the unexamined root premises of these policies, the ideology that is defining our role in the world. By itself, the ability of Paul’s campaign to compel a desperately needed debate over the devastation which America’s imperial rule wreaks on every level — economic, moral, security, liberty — makes his success worth applauding.


Additionally, the establishment’s reaction to both candidacies [Ron Paul`s and Howard Dean`s 2004 campaign] is similar. Even though they both were espousing ideas more substantive and thoughtful on vital issues than any other candidates, both of them were depicted as radical, fringe losers not to be taken seriously. This, despite the fact that they are both eminently rational medical doctors repeatedly re-elected by the people who know them best — their constituents. But the Beltway political and media elite protect their prerogatives by demonizing anyone who challenges them as an unserious loser, and that is how they depicted Dean (until he joined them) and how they now depict Paul. I don’t want to push the Dean/Paul analogy too far. There are obviously very major differences between them and what fueled each of their candidacies. But the hallmark of both was that they tapped into the widespread and intense scorn for the rancid establishment governing the Beltway, and anything that does so is something to be cheered.


While not an endorsement of Ron Paul, Greenwald does skate rather close. 


Has Greenwald become a libertarian wingnut/Paultard/Rondroid?  Does he simply share some of Paul’s concerns and think that Paul’s anti-big government, pro-liberty message is important?  And is he hoping to influence the Democratic presidence race in some way?  (Does either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama fall within the “rancid establishment”?)  Inquiring minds want to know.


[Note:  slightly reworked from original.]

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