You can either be a frank politician who addresses all questions honestly, or you can be a politician who wins elections.
You can either be a frank politician who addresses all questions honestly, or you can be a politician who wins elections.
Well, if its good enough for TED, why not Reddit?
http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/2012/03/best-of-ted-20...
Hands down, the best [TED] talk this year was from Bryan Stevenson on injustice in the US criminal legal system. For example, the number of prisoners in the last 40 years has grown from 300,000 to 2.3 million (primarily, I believe, due to non-violent drug infractions). One third of young African American men are in prison, on probation or on parole. Ours is the only country in the world that gives life sentences to 13 year olds. As for the death penalty, one out of nine defendants sentenced to death have been exonerated. in California a billion dollars will be spent defending and executing the death penalty in the next 5 years, although a referendum is on its way to re-direct those funds to police enforcement budgets.
What made the talk great was Stevenson's ability to weave in his personal stories, recounting memories of what it was like to grow up among activists like Rosa Parks. There was so much enthusiasm for Stevenson and his cause that TED Curator Chris Andersen jumped on the occasion to solicit donations for Stevenson's private foundation. Right there many of us stood up and, in aggregate, pledged close to a million dollars!
Ron Paul doesn't suffer from this problem. He's not trying (or able) to win the White House; he's trying to bring issues to the forefront of the public consciousness and raise awareness of libertarian positions. Ron Paul can afford to address the issues that would lose real candidates elections, as he's not about to win any elections outside of his House seat.
No, he's trying to make money from campaign donations. He always succeeds.
As far as I am concerned, the United States of America, as conceived by Thomas Jefferson, no longer exists. That is why I choose to reside outside the USA.
If any possibility arises of a shooting revolution, I will be back with a gun, and willing to give my life for freedom.
All I see on Google is other folks saying he would support de-criminalization of marijuana (and AG Holder actually de-prioritized drug offenses for awhile before the DEA basically decided to ignore them and still continue their busts).