Despite the fact that I did not agree with them, Republicans just seemed to be more of an annoyance than a threat to my basic humanity for a long time, but then a man named Ron Paul came along. Old Ron won the CPAC straw poll not once, but twice in a row. In case you're wondering, CPAC is the largest gathering of conservatives and conservative thinkers in the country. It is said that if you want to be a Republican Presidential candidate, you must win the CPAC straw poll at least once, and those who win seem to determine the Republican party's goals and future for a long time afterwards. That being said, I would like to remind people of what Ron Paul's goals are, and why his winning CPAC frightens me.
One of his goals is to overturn Roe v. Wade, which guarantees a woman's legal right to get an abortion if she wishes. He also wants to overturn the Americans With Disabilities Act, enacted by fellow Republican George Bush, Sr., in 1990, which guarantees wheelchair ramps and other forms of accesibility to public buildings, thus granting access to people with disabilities.
But to Ron Paul, that's just too much damn government intervention. Who cares if the founders would have approved of it, if it's not in that gosh darn Constitution, Ron Paul says NO! This is not to say that I am anti-Constitution. It is only to call into question Ron Paul's strict constructionist conception of that document. To put it bluntly, Ron Paul's winning the straw poll could lead to the Republicans creating a sort of apartheid state, where your access to public buildings is not contigent upon your being an American citizen with the same rights as everyone else, but rather upon your ability to walk, your status as a totally able-bodied person.
Excuse me, is this high school gym class, or is this America?
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