Barak Obama - Ron Paul '08 - America's 'Dream Ticket'?

Dream Ticket 2008Could a Barack Obama - Ron Paul ticket just be the magic bullet to get us out of this mess we are in and into a saner world? Before you brush me off as just another of those lunatics that can blog, hear me out:

First of all, let's face it - Americans are not exactly the most intelligent of people, when it comes to making poltical choices. By 'intelligence', I don't mean some silly math ability or some worthless IQ score - I'm talking about the basic ability to see things for what they are worth. Otherwise life around us would be different, we wouldn't be stuck in this quagmire called Iraq, we would have gone after the real terrorists behind 9/11, the world would be different, our TV shows would be different - you know what I'm talking about. If there had been a sufficient number of people who are capable of and willing to face reality and take action, Ron Paul should have been nominated as the presidential candidate of his party. He decided to run as a Republican candidate (so far), for historical reasons, or reasons of his own, even when it's clear that it's the policies of the present government and the previous Congress that got us into this mess. I have no idea how he was planning to appeal to the very same voters who voted a second term for George Bush and yet talking about a complete turnaround of policies. May be he was banking on the possibility (rightly so?) that a majority of those who voted for George Bush would have had a change of heart of some sorts? Again, I have no idea.

The US Constitution is one of the most well thought-out documents. It's even more amazing, considering that it has pretty much stood the test of time in terms of its logic and fairness, having been put together by real men of integrity and forethought, not to mention intelligence. So it's a reasonable approach to base one's political choices on the basis of this document. And that's what Ron Paul seems to do, by and large. However, by ignoring the ground reality - which has been created by people of a different mental make-up than those of the founding fathers - Ron Paul seems to put too much faith on the Constitution alone to get us out of the present mess. It just might, but his biggest challenge is to get the majority to see it that way. Because, it's not just the document you see - it also depends on your own understanding and interpretation of this document - which, in the ultimate analysis, comes from your own nature as a human being. So, there you have it - much as the US Constitution may be a superb document, almost like a divinely inspired thing, like most 'inspired' (or 'revealed'?) texts, it is subject to various interpretations, and yes, misue and abuse. What you get out of the Constitution is not dissimilar to what you get out of the Bible or any other religious text - ultimately it depends on the individual nature. If you don't agree, just look at what happened in America in the years that followed the adoption of this great Constitution - it took nearly 200 years to get to some sort of equality in practice, whereas even the Preamble talks about justice and domestic tranquility.

So, the Constitution may be a great piece of work, Ron Paul may be great guy - but there's something missing here: an appeal to those who feel they have been let down, or worse, victimized by the system that is supposedly based on this very document - and that is where Barack Obama comes in. At the time of writing this, John Edwards is out of the race (unless Obama picks him as his running mate). He is one guy who repeatedly talked about taking on the 'system' and doing something about changing it. But he couldn't even get his party nomination. Anyway, the fact is that America is made of all kinds of people - so it's always been a percentage game. But, remember our original objective? It was the search for "the magic bullet to get us out of this mess we are in and into a saner world". If you don't do that search, then as usual you end up making a compromise by voting for the lesser of the evils in your own opinion. OK, back to Obama: by and large, he seems to be a decent chap, well-meaning, articulate and all that. Is he ambitious? You bet he is - but Americans don't find ambition to be a bad thing, necessarily.

It's clear thar Barak Obama has maanged to mobilize all sorts of people, many of whom might not have taken an active interest in politics in earlier elections. It's also clear that there is a tinge of hope and expectation that goes along with this interest - the times as they are, and the way things are headed, I think there is a place for hope, along with clear-headed thinking. Really, in the present time, I don't see how we can sort through the mess with just one of these factors - namely hope or clear thinking. Barak Obama may have as good an understanding of the issues and as good a grasp on the fundamentals as Ron Paul has. If he does have them, he hasn't shown it as clearly - certainly not as well as he has projected his message of hope. However, being young and of mixed race, he has done well to not let the attention focus on his age or his race. That is a commendable thing in itself.

Ron Paul has done the same thing - motivate and mobilize all sorts of people - not so much with a message of hope, but with a clear articulation of the need to fix the fundamentals. Hope or no hope, there is no escaping from reality, and the sooner we face up to it, the better off we would be. If there were to be an honest and fairly-moderated debate, I can't see any of the other candidates from either party winning against Ron Paul's argument for fixing the fundamentals. There's just no way!

What Obama and Ron Paul have in common in this campaign is that they have managed to get a broad range of folks excited and motivated - as seen from their broad-based campaign fundraising. Both have also raised the largest amounts of funds from the US troops in their respective parties - now that should say something about how these guys are perceived by those who are doing the actual fighting (I was going to say 'doing the dirty work') and why any doubt on their suitability to be commander-in-chief is just plain ridiculous.

The way I see it, Barak Obama appeals to the heart, but not necessarily in a sentimental way. He is sort of an intellectual person himself. And, Ron Paul, on the other hand, appeals mostly to the head - no one understands and articulates the real issues, the real problems and the logical way to go about solving them better - in either party. But Ron Paul is not without feeling either - anyone who has followed his campaign and his utterances over the years would know that he does care for people - but his thinking seems so darned straight, that he doesn't do much verbal gimmicks. It's easy to see why he might scare some people off - especially those who have been let down or victimized by the system - he doesn't talk about their pain directly - instead he wants to fix the system that has hurt them. But not everyone is Ron Paul - people do need to be reassured that they are not going to be left to fend for themselves if Ron Paul does what he says - to get the government out of the way. For a whole generation, it might be hard to see what things might look like if the government does get out of the way. Will they be better off, or worse off? It's hard to imagine. It does take a giant leap of faith to imagine that a truly captialistic and a truly free market system would function differently, efficiently and beneficially. After all, however great the Constitution may be, what good is it if it's not going protect me from those who might want to grab what I have in the name of free market competition? When there is not a level playing field, it is hard to imagine that a truly capitalist system would somehow benefit those at the bottom of the scale. Here is one of Ron Paul's failings - while trying to appeal to the Republican voters, he hasn't shown enough material that would appeal to a typical Democratic voter, whereas the frontrunners in both parties have been pretty careful about what they say, so that once the nomination is over, they would have some appeal to those in the other party as well.

So, there you have it - one appealing primarily to the heart, but is somewhat of an intellectual himself. The other clearly appeals to all thinking and serious minds - but has enough compassion and decency at a personal level. One talks about brining people together - the other knows the games that are played only too well and wants to enforce the rules that are already in place. One talks of helping people and means it, while the other has the same idea, but talks differently about how he plans to do it. One is a bit careful not to offend too many people, while the other is not afraid to speak the truth. One has to admit and explain his experiments with drug use in his younger days, while the other says he wouldn't mind legalizing drugs - because he wants individuals to take responsibiity for their actions, though personally he wouldn't use drugs and would do his best to bring up his children the same way. One wants to work with the system, apparently, to bring about changes, while the other doesn't seem to mind shaking things up a bit. To truly bring about fundamental changes for the better, you are going to need both attributes - and hence my proposal for a Barak Obama - Ron Paul ticket!

It's quite likely that this idea won't fly. And, if I want to argue against this idea, may be I can find a few points myself. If Ron Paul has to work with someone from the Democratic party, why not go with Dennis Kucinich? After all, they are both friends at a personal level. But that is too much of a risk - because the media has been extremely unfair to both Paul and Kucinich - it is just too damned unfair to sideline these guys. So a ticket with both of them on it as independents is probably not going to get much coverage either.

If you think all of this is nonsense, so be it. I came across something real scary - some people are proposing Condoleeza Rice to be John McCain's running mate. If that happens and if McCain wins, then God help America! If Barak Obama manages to win his party's nomination and if real politics prevents him to take someone like Ron Paul as his running mate, then the next best thing would be to invite him to be a part of his cabinet - may be as Secretary of State!