Why I support… Ron Paul

I support Ron Paul because he is a patriot if there ever was one. He is running on the Republican ticket, yet he agrees with the overwhelming majority that the war in Iraq is not being won and the time to come home is now.

Paul says he would never go to war unless Congress approves it. That might seem strange, but that is what our Constitution says. This is so the whole country can rally together if we want to go to war.

Paul does not agree with the PATRIOT Act. He isn’t letting fear determine his stance unlike other candidates. Paul says we can be free and still stay safe if we quit patrolling the world. Maybe that’s why the military overwhelmingly donates to Paul over other Republicans.

Republicans say we need to continue to fight terror especially in Iraq, and the Democrats say we should pull out and just not talk to our enemies and both think war is an option with Iran. Paul says maybe we should find out why they want to attack us so we can stop it.

We have been intervening in countries for over the last 100 years telling them what they can and can’t do. If these countries don’t do what we say then we either bomb them or topple the government so we can have a U.S. supporter there.

Why then are we surprised to see that some of these people don’t like us? Paul wants to overhaul the U.S. foreign policy so we don’t get involved in these undeclared wars. He also wants to get rid of the income tax and replace it with . nothing.

How would that work, you ask? Remember all the billions of dollars that we spent on the wars in the Middle East of late? There you go. We get rid of wasteful spending on government programs that try to regulate us and then you won’t need the income tax, which will mean more money when we graduate and get a job. Paul doesn’t want to run our lives, and we are desperately seeking someone that understands that we, the American people, don’t want to be treated like a day care. I know people are afraid of the terrorists but don’t think that our government needs to take away our rights to protect us.

As they say in “V for Vendetta,” “People should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people.” Ron Paul is hope for America. He wants the government to protect our rights, liberties and privacy, not take them away, and that is why I support him.

Jacob Braunger is a junior in political science from Sioux City.