Paul Broun for Congress?

The Candidate

Whenever the neocons at Red State sends me an Action Alert (or whatever they call it) and I see their logo at the top of the email with the name “Red State” in red with gray letters, I can’t help but think of Communism--not just because of the name, but also because they are ardent supporters of George W. Bush, John McCain and of all those other socialist, NWO traitors in the Republican Party. So I was somewhat surprised to find that one of the candidates they urged me to support is also on Ron Paul’s official list of endorsements for Congress. In this “alert” they said that Broun would legalize drugs, but also warned about how Broun’s other two opponents in the Republican primary would be worse because they were so liberal and self-seeking. They said Broun was “like Ron Paul without the crazy”. So what is the “without the crazy”?

Speaking of our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Broun says, “…I support them and their mission.” (He doesn’t say what that mission is and I’m still waiting for these neocons to give me a satisfactory definition and exit strategy of the mission in Iraq.) He is against an “arbitrary timetable for withdrawal”.

Broun does favor getting rid of the IRS, but unlike Ron Paul, he would replace it with a Fair Tax. Ron Paul is wise in saying that income taxes are the worst way to tax Americans, but this Fair Tax also has obvious drawbacks. The Fair Tax is basically a 23% national sales tax. This would give people strong incentives to barter rather than buying. Corporations would also take this tack and would be more successful at it. Therefore, more of the tax burden would be shifted to hardworking families. The Fair Tax would also give people and corporations incentives to make purchases under the table to avoid paying such a high tax. This would be hard to enforce against without imposing a police state. It would also give the feds more incentives to crackdown on honest people like children running a lemonade stand or your neighbor having a yard sale. Evidence of this can be seen in states which have high cigarette taxes and have to deal with people selling illegal untaxed cigarettes. There just isn’t any substitute for less spending, and the $1+ trillion dollar war in Iraq is a big part of the problem.

However, there are plenty of good things to say about Paul Broun.

He introduced legislation in the Congress to define life as beginning at fertilization. Ron Paul cosponsored this bill.

He would impose heavy fines on corporations which employ illegal aliens, make English the official language of the United States, strengthen border security, and end birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

Paul Broun recognizes that the United States was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, such as the Ten Commandments. He also recognizes that Congress has the constitutional authority to overrule the federal judiciary (Article III section 2).

He supports the right to bear arms.

The Opposition

His opponent, liberal Bobby Saxon, believes that abortion should be legal within the first trimester and when the pregnancy resulted from incest or rape. He supports federal funding the use of new embryonic stem cell lines in research.

Bobby Saxon supports McCain-Feingold-like, free speech limiting campaign financing legislation, which has already passed but the portion which restricted ads containing candidates' names was struck down by the Supreme Court.

He supports hate crime legislation and would include sexual orientation in federal anti-discrimination laws.

Saxon compromises on the war Iraq, saying “We should begin a responsible reduction of troops in the quickest, safest way possible. We cannot advertise withdrawal dates, but we must bring our soldiers home as swiftly as the conditions allow. We should maintain a small force to provide security to the Iraqi government, train the Iraqi Army & Police force, and to provide logistical support to the Iraqi military. We must demand that the Iraqi Government show steady and sustainable success in return for our protection and our support.” He doesn’t say what “steady and sustainable success” is, nor does he say exactly what he would do if they don’t show it. He answered yes to the question, “Do you support pre-emptive military strikes against countries deemed to be a threat to United States national security?” No real peace candidate here either.

The Conclusion

Being against the war in Iraq, who would I vote for, then? I am not going to vote for someone just because Ron Paul endorses him, and certainly not just because he is a Republican. But I don’t have to decide that, because I don’t live in Georgia's Tenth Congressional District. Since there are a lot of other congressional candidates who are in closer agreement with my views, I will financially support them over Broun. I leave it up to you to decide for yourself if this is a candidate that you think is worth supporting.