FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT RON PAUL AT INDEPENDENCE MALL
1. There were a LOT of people there. Upwards of 5,000, making it the BIGGEST Ron Paul rally to date. And it was not just the usual suspects — i.e., the angry loners Libertarians invariably attract, and the Ex-Deaniac Don Quixotes tilting at the latest maverick truth-teller on a political suicide mission — but women, children, families. People you see at Eagles games. Veterans, mechanics, Daily News readers. Ordinary, walking around people, desperate for someone to look them in the eye and tell them the truth.
2. His position on Iraq is this: If you can pick any old day to START an ill-advised war — and history certainly proves you can — then you can pick any old day to STOP an ill-advised war. Because once again, history proves you can. And by gawd, the war in Iraq will end the day Ron Paul becomes president.
3. His position on the War On Drugs is this: It is a cruel and useless enterprise that criminalizes the populace, fills the prisons beyond capacity with non-violent offenders, necessitates the building of EVEN MORE prisons, and expands police powers beyond Constitutionality while never even addressing the ravages of drug abuse on people or society nor directing the necessary resources to enable recovery. And the War On Drugs will end the day Ron Paul is elected president.
4. He says 9/11 would have never happened if lawful citizens were allowed to carry guns on airplanes. Hmmm. If only you could gene splice him with Dennis Kucinich and put it all in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body. Then we’d have a candidate.
5. There are two kinds of Americans these days: The scared and the fed up. Used to be that the former outnumbered the latter. But the balance has finally shifted and this much is clear: There is a massive anti-war mandate hovering over America right now. If the Dems don’t start paying it more than lip service it will go somewhere else. Even to a maverick Republican from Texas.
TEXT BY JONATHAN VALANIA/PHOTOS BY VIC SUEDE
NEW YORK TIMES: The Web Finds Ron Paul, Takes Him For A Ride
PREVIOUSLY: Ron ‘I Will End The War In Iraq’ Paul’s $10 Million Dollar Boston Tea Party Comes To Town
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PLEASE STANDBY: The Phawker TV News crew was there today, we will get the footage up as soon possible…