Lawrence O'Donnell Calls Ron Paul a Fake Libertarian

This is a bit unsettling, yet I find Lawrence' flawed logic resembling of many anti-Paul people.

He starts it off with a straw man --- all Ron Paul supporters are drug addicts that only care about his anti-prohibition stance & nothing else. He proceeds to say Paul's stance on abortion is anti-liberty.... yet Paul's libertarian philosophy actually backs his moral conviction that life should be protected; and he views even a fetus as a life. There will of course be lines in the sand, and differing viewpoints; he says that's it's the moral fabric of society that typically guides the law in these cases. Leaving it up the states, how is that anti-liberty?

Finally, apparently --- Paul's view that birth control is immoral (which I disagree with), is also anti-libertarian?..... yet that's clearly his personal view. He specifically says that it's up to the morals of the people, i.e he won't take away their liberty to choose the morning after pill, etc.

Lawrence got it wrong here.
He can have his own opinion about the matter...what matters is how his personal views will influence his policymaking decisions.

I do think Paul could have stated the subject better though. Pills don't make people immoral. immorality makes people immoral..a pill is just a neutral tool used by both the moral and immoral (is how I would have phrased it).

Taking the pill away will only contribute to more pregnancies, which will contribute to more abortions, broken homes, etc. That's just how it is.

The whole subject is retarded though. I have no clue why they are going on about plan B. Ricky is sinking his entire party and the whole right wing into some 1950s retardland with this subject...showing himself to be potentially the most out of touch man in western civilization.

Ron Paul IS a fake.

He's been a fake Republican, a fake Libertarian, a supposedly fake racist, a fake Representative, and his campaign promises are as fake and empty as every Presidential hopeful.

Originally posted by DaTroof
Ron Paul IS a fake.

He's been a fake Republican, a fake Libertarian, a supposedly fake racist, a fake Representative, and his campaign promises are as fake and empty as every Presidential hopeful.

Oh yeah? Got anything to back that up? It's ok to disagree with Ron Paul, it's another thing to take commentary from an extremely liberal show from the MSM and spin it to make your hatred for Ron Paul seem justified. Why don't you ask Lawrence O'Donnell what he thinks of your "God sent" Santorum? You'd talk about how big of a "Satan" he is in that case.

Originally posted by Raelsatu
Leaving it up the states, how is that anti-liberty?

Leaving it up to the states isn't the anti-liberty part. Passing his Sanctity of Life Act, which states that life begins at conception and takes away federal protection from women wanting an abortion, then giving the states the right to protect life by making abortion illegal IS anti-liberty. Ron Paul considers the rights of a fetus from conception, but never once considers the rights of the woman, whose body this fetus is totally dependent on.

This is the issue that LOST my Ron Paul vote.

He specifically says that it's up to the morals of the people, i.e he won't take away their liberty to choose the morning after pill, etc.

Making a federal law that life begins at conception and then giving states the right to protect that life... that's taking away liberties. He's just being sneaky about it.

I agree with Lawrence. People who don't want to hear it aren't going to hear it. But Ron Paul has tried to pass the Sanctity of Life Act every session. He's not giving up. And the way the country is acting these days, with all the fretting over a woman's choice, I'm not willing to put this man in office.

Rick Santorum is a homophobic, ultra-religious nut job who wants to put women in the kitchen, pregnant and barefoot. That's REAL. Santorum is REAL. We know what we're getting with him. Ron's a little smarter and he has people fooled into thinking that he's a Libertarian. He may look like one when compared to the GOP field we have to choose from, but as far as a REAL Libertarian? No. He's not. Else he would be protecting women's rights. I wouldn't say he's a fake, because he's running on the GOP ticket. He fits right in. If he was running as a Libertarian, then I'd say he's fake. But he's a Republican, complete with the disrespect of women and minorities they all have.

reply to post by Raelsatu


My issue with this is the fact that a portion of Libertarians are pro-life. While I suspect the percentage of Libertarians that believe this is small, it's idiotic to pretend that there is a universal stance on this issue. The matter simply boils down to the moment at which you believe life to start. To say Paul is fake over this matter is like saying bald people are fake because most people have hair. It's bullocks.

O'Donnell is a biased, untrustworthy reporter. I've seen him dismiss Paul several times on MSNBC. I believe he once said that Paul was entirely irrelevant. Does that mean all of his supporters and their viewpoints are irrelevant as well? O'Donnell may as well be on the DNC's payroll, and he lets his views severely hinder his reporting of events.