This is an Americo-centric poll but anyone can answer.

Who will get your vote?

Choices can be either in the primary or general elections?

Also, which presidential candidate will most likely support Academic freedom in the United States?

(10-11-2011, 12:49 PM)Virtual Bison Wrote: Also, which presidential candidate will most likely support Academic freedom in the United States?

This is an excerpt from a much longer article by Tom McClintock, but I think it addresses that issue. Government is not the answer, it is the problem. Cain and Bachmann are the candidates who best seem to understand that.

Quote:California, the Example of What the Nation Could Become
October 10, 2011 By Tom McClintock

...When my parents came to California in the 1960’s looking for a better future, they found it here. The state government consumed about half of what it does today after adjusting for both inflation and population. HALF. We had the finest highway system in the world and the finest public school system in the country. California offered a FREE university education to every Californian who wanted one. We produced water and electricity so cheaply that some communities didn’t bother to meter the stuff. Our unemployment rate consistently ran well below the national rate and our diversified economy was nearly recession-proof.

One thing – and one thing only – changed in those years: public policy. The political Left gradually gained dominance over California’s government and has imposed a disastrous agenda of radical and retrograde policies that have destroyed the quality of life that Californians once took for granted.

The Census bureau has reported for the better part of the decade that California is undergoing the biggest population exodus in its history, with many fleeing to such garden spots as Nevada, Arizona and Texas. Think about that. California is blessed with the most equitable climate in the entire Western Hemisphere; it has the most bountiful resources anywhere in the continental United States; it is poised on the Pacific Rim in a position to dominate world trade for the next century, and yet people are finding a better place to live and work and raise their families in the middle of the Nevada Nuclear Test Range.

I submit to you that no conceivable act of God could wreak such devastation. Only acts of government can do that. And they have.

We conservatives espouse principles of individual liberty, free markets, constitutionally limited government, fiscal responsibility, the protection of natural rights – not out of some slavish devotion to ideology, but because all human experience has shown these principles to be the most certain means to achieve a prosperous and happy society. If you want to see the opposite of that – come to California.

James Madison said the trickiest question the Constitutional convention confronted was how to oblige a government to control itself. History records not a single example of a nation that spent, borrowed and taxed its way to prosperity; but it offers us many, many examples of nations that spent and borrowed and taxed their way to economic ruin and bankruptcy. And history is screaming this warning at us: that nations that bankrupt themselves aren’t around very long, because before you can provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty – you have to be able to pay for it. ...

(10-11-2011, 04:16 PM)Armando Ramos Wrote: Government is not the answer, it is the problem. Cain and Bachmann are the candidates who best seem to understand that.

That sounds like something Ron Paul would say. Paul interests me a great deal though I am not 100% in support of everything he stands for.

Survey says...
51% Don't Want Second Term For President Obama

Perry is weak on immigration and Romney is a socialized medicine guy, so that leaves Cain and Bachmann as the true conservatives.

Paul is an isolationist on foreign policy, or as he puts it, a "non-interventionist." Whatever you call it, this is a problem when the country is being attacked by foreign terrorists. There's a difference between "avoiding foreign entanglements" and protecting yourself.

Palin would win if she ran, which is why the socialists fear her the most. The convention is still a ways off, so if a clear consensus isn't reached she might be back.

(10-12-2011, 02:13 AM)WilliamW Wrote: Perry is weak on immigration...

True. On the other hand, Obummer is running the illegal alien welcome wagon. Compare and contrast: Perry and O, age 22....

Is that diverse enough for you?
Come on...do away with the cobwebs and spin some good old WWII propaganda yarn, will ya?

(10-12-2011, 02:13 AM)WilliamW Wrote: Paul is an isolationist on foreign policy, or as he puts it, a "non-interventionist." Whatever you call it, this is a problem when the country is being attacked by foreign terrorists. There's a difference between "avoiding foreign entanglements" and protecting yourself.

Ron will never get the nomination. He is too much against the status quo. Keep in mind that he is opposed to the military industrial complex, the "war" on drugs and the existing corporate power structure which has contaminated government on all levels. I would dare say that he is the most libertarian of all candidates including Obama.

This is why the elite will never let him get the nomination. I would guarantee that once he pulls ahead the corporate media will do their best to destroy him the way they did with Howard Dean.


I would like to get back to the second part of my question, which is to say what candidate would best support academic freedom. In this respect I would say that Ron Paul seems to be the most opposed to the concept of uber government.

I would like to mention something else about Ron Paul. I believe that he just might be the only Republican who can get support among voters from all segments of American society. Consider that his anti-militaristic policies as well as his support of basic civil liberties will appeal to progressives, whereas his economic policies are rock solid conservative in nature. This may be why he joined with Dennis Kucinich in demanding the audit of the FED. It may also be why he is the only Republican candidate for US President demanding an immediate withdraw from Afghanistan.

And Arch-Conservative pundit, Pat Buchanan described him as being "200 Proof" on conservative issues.

I only like Paul because he seems to be most dedicated to the cause of individual liberties. I believe that he would undoubtedly support the cause of academic freedom, including the rights of non-traditional education institutions to exist.