Ron Paul only "No" Vote in Congress on condemning China for crackdown on Tibetan Protestors
by Eric Dondero & Andrew Murphy
Ron Paul famously told a Fox News debate audience last May that the War in Iraq was a failure and that there was no valid reason for rescuing the Iraqi people from the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Later on in his quixotic Presidential effort he came out against efforts to oppose the dictatorship of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, stated in another debate that the "Vietnamese Communists were now our friends," and more recently, said that the US had no interests in overthrowing Castro in Cuba.
Now CNN reports that Texas Congressman Ron Paul was the only "no" vote on a House Resolution condeming China for squelching Tibetan protests for greater sovereignty and free speech rights.
All Libertarian Republicans serving in the House voted for the Resolution including Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of California, Cong. Tom Feeney of Florida, and Congressmen John Shadegg and Jeff Flake of Arizona.
From CNN:
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution Wednesday calling on China to end its crackdown on Tibet and release Tibetans imprisoned for "nonviolent" demonstrations.
The vote was 413-1. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas... was the lone congressman voting against it.
The resolution passed just hours before runners were to carry the Olympic torch on a six-mile route around San Francisco Bay.
This appears to be a turnaround for Congressman Paul. He's quoted as saying the following:
November 10, 1997
"Each year the people of the United States write a check to subsidize China, one of the most brutal, anti-American regimes in the world. It has been in vogue of late for everyone in Washington, it seems, to eagerly denounce the egregious abuses of the Chinese people at the hands of the communist dictators. Yet no one in our federal government has been willing to take China on in any meaningful way"
*Note - Eric Dondero is a former 6-year Senior Aide to US Congressman Ron Paul, and Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus. Andrew Murphy lives in Knoxville, Tennessee and served in the 1990s as the TN RLC Chairman, and as an RLC Executive Board member.
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Eric Dondero is a US Navy Veteran, former Libertarian Party National Committeeman, Founder of the Republican Liberty Caucus and fmr. Senior Aide to US Congressman Ron Paul R-TX. He is now a national Republican Political Consultant based in Houston, Texas.
Mr. Dondero, how about the real reason for your anger against Ron Paul? It is difficult to imagine it to be "objective" -- seems on the order of a personal dislike. Paul's "No" vote is perfectly compatible with his policy: let foreign nations settle their own affairs without Uncle Sam leaving home and sorting out fights in the neighborhood. Libertarian Motto: "You don't bother me, I don't bother you".
ReplyDeleteYou know, being a former staffer why he voted that way. Is is not out of not caring for the Chinese and you know it. Taking China on in a meaningful way would be to stop borrowing billions of dollars from them daily and putting higher import taxes on their goods (like they do ours), ending unfair government regulated trade deals with them and making it more profitable for US businesses to stay in the US.
ReplyDeleteThis resolution is a slap in the face to all thinking people who have been calling for the US to get out of China's panties for a very long time.
Also what he meant about Vietnam was that they are managing to incorporate (slowly) freedoms into their culture since we left. Look at North Korea, we are still there and they are just as bad as ever.
Would you have the US write a resolution and commit our troops to every part of the world where there is injustice? Sorry America first.