Freedom of Speech

For the first time in my life, I sent an unsolicited mass email to friends and family introducing a political candidate, and respectfully requesting that they consider supporting his candidacy:

Friends and Family — Some of you may have heard of Rep. Ron Paul, a fellow Duke Med alum (obstetrician, class of 1961) who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG2PUZoukfA

While sharing a medical school with a presidential candidate is an interesting coincidence, my support for Dr. Paul stems from his consistent commitment to restoring the Constitution and rule of law to our federal government over a twenty year congressional career.

I’ve grown into a strong supporter of Congressman Paul over the past six months, after over a decade of cynicism and political apathy. In fact, he’s the first candidate I’ve ever volunteered to support with either money or time. I’ve grown increasingly concerned with our national trajectory over the past few years, and believe that our current path of a government that continues growing without bounds leads to an extremely unhappy place. We likely share many of the same concerns regarding the social and economic issues that increasingly divide our country, and for the first time we’re blessed with a candidate that actually acknowledges the problems that we face, and supports a consistent platform to address those challenges based upon the Constitution.

I’ve never before felt comfortable discussing politics in an unsolicited manner with friends and colleagues. However, I’m increasingly convinced that such reluctance is no longer justified, and in fact contributes to the continued decline of our nation. I respectfully ask that you take a look at Congressman Paul. My supporting Rep. Paul grew from weeks of studying and fact-checking his writings at http://www.ronpaullibrary.org — this amazing Web site catalogs all of his writings (speeches, constituent communications) from the last ten years of his Congressional career.

If you are inclined to support Rep. Paul’s candidacy, I’d encourage you to visit the official campaign Web site to register — http://www.ronpaul2008.com — and to locate a local grassroots “Meetup” group at http://ronpaul.meetup.com . Finally, the grassroots organization is organizing the largest one-day online fundraising event in history tomorrow, November 5th. It will be a historic day for a historic campaign, and donations should be made through the official campaign Web site:

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate

Why have I been so reluctant to “talk politics”, debate, and share opinions with folks before? I struggled with that question as I wrote this letter, and came to the following conclusion:

I’ve always been reluctant because I’ve never had a principled candidate with a platform that I could honestly endorse and debate. It’s always been the lesser of two evils… and what might be a decent candidate based upon one issue could be an abomination based upon another.

Historically, I’ve never been able to describe myself using the typical labels that divide our nation: I’ve been a registered Republican, fiscally conservative, but personally strive for generosity. I consider myself “tough on crime” to the extent crime is defined as one person intentionally hurting another person, but with my medical background I’ve never understood why we criminalize and incarcerate people with addictions who only hurt themselves. I’m very much in favor of a strong defense and appropriate use of force, but pre-emptive war and nation building in developing nations doesn’t sound all that defensive to me. I understand that my household budget demands certain discipline, and I’ve never been comfortable pretending that we can borrow as much money as we want from foreign investors and our own Federal Reserve. While I and my family strive for moral ideals based upon our Christian faith and resulting understanding of desirable behavior, we understand that our role is to encourage and not stand in judgment of others.

So what am I? Republican? Democrat? Liberal? Conservative? Gun-toting peace-loving hippie? Libertarian Jesus freak? Free market gold bug?

You see, these words we use to describe schools of thought are exceedingly dangerous. The confuse instead of enlighten, and divide instead of unite. At worst, people stop thinking entirely. That’s when you hear the dismissive and ignorant comment, “He’s crazy.”

Frankly, I think it’s fear of not fitting neatly into a box and being labeled “crazy” that keeps us from talking with each other as much as we should. I should know — just this past week, someone deduced my support for Rep. Paul and felt moved enough to leave an anonymous note on car windshield that said exactly that: “He’s crazy and has ZERO chance of winning.” While I admire the person’s willingness to exercise free speech even to the point of mildly infringing on my private property rights, I was unimpressed with such an ignorant drive-by attack. At least say you disagree on an issue, and please, leave your email so we can continue the conversation!

The greatest thing about Rep. Paul’s candidacy is that he has a foundation based upon our founding documents — the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Agree or disagree, they are simple documents that make for substantial discussions. And confidence in having those discussions as Americans (forget all the other labels!) should encourage each of us to ask questions, learn, and speak freely.

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