It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps America’s greatest civil rights leader and one of its most trusted moral compasses, who once spoke out against America’s penchant for dictating the affairs of other nations through military and other interventions. 

“Don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world…,” he said in his landmark speech, ‘Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam’ in 1967. 

Paul’s consistency in defending civil liberties and candid anti-war stances make him worthy of your vote in Tuesday’s primary.  PHOTO: REUTERS

More than four decades later, longtime Texas Congressman Ron Paul, 76, has gained a loyal following, even among scores of youth voters, in large part because of his own interpretation of that philosophy. Paul has gained notoriety by cautioning against the consequences of the United States’ role as “policeman of the world” several times on the Republican campaign circuit while emphasizing the need for military spending and foreign aid cuts at a time when our money is needed at home more than ever. 

A return to true diplomacy with the likes of Iran and other nations deemed to be threats is the answer, the Air Force veteran Paul defiantly persists as he has for years in Congressional hearings, not continued policies of sanctions and interventions that cripple civilian populations along with hostile rhetoric and condemnations that often only serve as the pretext to more wars serving financial elites, part of the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ former president Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against. 

Despite these noble stances, Paul is often cast aside by the mainstream media and many staunch conservative voters in large part because of his foreign policy positions. 

The Arab American News, however, sees Dr. Paul’s refreshing, forthright foreign policy philosophy as one of his greatest strengths at a time when the specter of a potentially catastrophic war looms over festering, misunderstood and misreported conflicts in the Middle East. His positions are perhaps the best hope for even a remotely balanced policy in the troubled region that we’ve seen in decades. 

Paul has also been the only major Republican candidate to resist the type of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant demonization, fear-mongering and pandering to ultra-conservative voters in his party that has become pervasive in the post-9/11 climate, despite continued studies showing that terror threats posed by such groups have been greatly exaggerated coming to light along with polls reaffirming the groups’ affinity for American ideals and patriotism. 

Speaking of American ideals, Paul is the candidate with the most appreciation for the Constitution in matters such as the requirement for Congress to authorize war, the protection from illegal searches by the TSA, which he believes is a rogue agency that should be abolished, and the power and right of the government to issue its own currency instead of relying on the private, interest-charging Federal Reserve banking corporation. 

Paul introduced a bill to audit the Fed in 2009 and also has courageously fought and spoke out against the nefarious National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was passed under the cover of near-secrecy from the mainstream media on New Year’s Eve and authorizes the indefinite detention of American citizens without trial. He introduced a bill to repeal those provisions and has spoken out against other violations of civil liberties such as the myriad proposed Internet censorship bills and the extension of the PATRIOT Act, in line with the positions of major civil rights organizations like the ACLU. 

Other candidates vying for the Republican Party nomination including Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich continue to use the rallying cry of “American exceptionalism” to score cheap political points at debates that have been described by many as shallow, divisive and at times cringe-worthy, all the while turning their backs on the values of liberty and justice for all that made America so exceptional in the first place. 

In an interview with The Arab American News this past November prior to a debate about the economy at Oakland University, Paul reaffirmed his positions on many of the above issues while reiterating his plans to make significant, honest and much-needed cuts in military overspending later that evening. 

That’s not to say there aren’t concerns surrounding Paul, ranging from his age to the hypothetical difficulties of making major policy transitions to the potentially Earth-shaking proposed eliminations of five  government departments including the Department of Education and Department of Housing. 

But Paul’s consistent voice and unwavering commitment to restoring American ideals at a time when telling the truth to power has indeed become a revolutionary act makes him a voice worthy of our support in this Tuesday’s Michigan primary election. With so few dynamic, true public servants in Washington like Paul in this increasingly fascist era of corporations-as-people, we must support those that remain with all of our political fervor going forward. 

On Tuesday, February 28th we recommend  that you give your vote to Ron Paul. 

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