Congressman: The Legend of Ron Paul-gundy

EDITOR'S NOTE: I actually started this post a couple months ago, but the Democratic National Convention and the inevitable Republican National Convention got me pining for my favorite political [super]hero. So here's the venture that ensued on that one early-summer afternoon.

Today was a fun day. It got off with a bang--a storm hit central KY, the substation feeding our humble little TV station was knocked out, so there went our transmitter (and control board/switcher). Meaning for two hours, we were in black, and even after that we had to put together a newscast using popsicle sticks and glue. Although to the average viewer, nothing was out of the ordinary. To us that were dicking around with said sticks and glue, it was hell on wheels (or frames). When I got home, I checked around the house to make sure everything was ok--most importantly, my new $20 Wal-Mart grill (which is still a proud and delicious member of the family). That's when it became time to sink into a real lazy groove and just kind of turn my brain off through some idle chatter on Yahoo or other sinful pleasures one might find on the internet. Unfortunately, the clip from Family Guy with Peter as Indy and Stewie as Short Round was nowhere to be found on Youtube, so I went to the Relevant Forums.

There, I got sucked into a post about the economy, by the forum's resident-financial-pessimist. It was some article by some Londoner about some eggs, chickens, oil, money, inflation, and a case of Negra (or did I only imagine the last part?). Surprisingly enough, with that long read, I withstood that pointless bombardment of woes and gloom and finished the damn thing. Although, by the end, I felt enlightened. The only thing to do from there was to go to Wikipedia and find out just what the hell kind of wisdom I'd incurred. Now, most of you readers will probably be able to relate that Wikipedia is a force to be reckoned with. It's a black hole for ignorance. There's no safe way to skirt around the edges if you're feeling just the least bit curious about any given topic. Without knowledge to weigh you down and resist the intellectual gravity of Wiki, you'll be sucked deep within and rescue nor escape is possible for hours.

So I started at inflation. Inflation led to the price of gold. Price of gold led to reading about stock market trends. Stock market trends led to stagflation. Stagflation led to Keynesian. Keynesian led to monetarism. Monetarism was a bit of a dead end, because now I was starting to form some kind of knowledge base for my awareness of the economical goings-on of the great US of A. Whether it has any bearing on the Kingdom of God or not...I figure it might do well to be aware of one's surroundings. Is the US gov't to be trusted? Is it in line with the human race bettering itself? Is it closer to uprighting a fallen humanity? One person that I seemed to recall having a rather polarizing word to say about all this was Ron Paul and I'd recently watched Youtube video of him "schooling" Fed chairman Ben Bernanke on sound economics. So I was wondering where that wise old sage fell on the issues and concepts and institutions I was reading about. Although, rather than being that focused, I just read about Ron Paul: the man, the myth, the underground poker champion. I'd read his wiki page a while back, but had forgotten a lot of the fringe details. Here lately when I've tried spreading his gospel, I've forgotten a lot of his views. I'd be like, "Well, he's really awesome. Umm...he's really into that 'don't ask-don't tell' policy for gays in the military. Yeah...just a lot of cool ideas like that." Really great selling point, that. Thankfully, I re-read the wiki page and discovered just how sad it is that a brilliant man such as him was passed up for the nomination to the highest political office in the country.

Lately, I've been delving into the mind of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. The man, for the most part, seemed to be rather pessimistic when it came to the future of his country. So was my sociology professor in college, Tomas Moore. Both men have been shaping my perception of the world, and more specifically, American politics. Up until yesterday, I held the same pessimistic view that America was a corrupt, sluggish, and lazy slob of a country, carelessly throwing its weight around the world, stirring up foes around the globe who hate us and attack us for meddling in affairs other than our own. Then I read about Ron Paul and realized that there is hope. He's the inside man who thinks the same way we do. The only difference is that he's an optimistabout the situation. In one man, you have not just the optimism that America can be fixed, but he's actually in the position to do it. He's not just some pundit or college student or burned-out druggie/journo going off on Washington. He's in Washington, on the inside. Granted, I doubt he'll ever get very far unless some major corporations like the cut of his jib, but maybe someday people will get behind him. He's probably close to retiring, so we can only hope someone else stands waiting to take up his crusade to make America a pretty decent place again, with a government to boot.