Should Paul Cite Declaration Rather Than Constitution?
Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul is well known for his support of the U.S. Constitution as a solution to many of America's ills. One of his most frequent comments is that the country should "just go back to the U.S. Constitution."
But is the Constitution the right document to which we must return?
Not according to Tibor Machan, the R.C. Hoiles Professor of Business Ethics and Free Enterprise at Chapman University and a Hoover Institution research fellow. Machan is a Paul supporter, although he disagrees with him on some of his foreign policy statements. He writes in his column "Orange Grove" in the Orange County Register that he believes that Paul "is the only candidate today who firmly and consistently advocates limited government." But Machan also believes the document that Paul should use as a touch stone is the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.
"The Declaration, which is a prelegal, philosophical document, is nearly flawless and would really be very good to go back to - or, rather, to move ahead toward since America never did full justice to it, and it is high time we begin to do so. It is the ideas of the Declaration that have inspired millions of people to head toward America's shores because of its position in the world as the beacon of liberty."
Machan doesn't think that Paul will either win the Republican nomination, or if he ran in independent campaign, the presidency. But he writes that Paul could "spawn a serious political movement and influence the country's direction henceforth" ...
... Also, Day to Day today interviewed Paul's 2008 campaign manager Jesse Benton about a series of newsletters that appeared under Paul's name in the 80s and 90s that contained racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic comments.
"He did not approve what went out and he was very very shocked and very saddened to see what came out years later," says Benton. "He has assumed moral responsibility and says he should have been much more attentive regarding what was going on under his name."
Among other inflammatory comment, the newsletter charged that Dr. Martin Luther King was a pedophile.
"He was not aware that such small-minded things were going on - he was traveling around the country speaking about personal freedom," Benton says.
2:51 PM ET | 01-14-2008 | permalink
