Only one candidate will uphold Constitution

Those who will be voting in the Jan. 31 Florida Republican primary should think before they vote — I mean really think.

If Newt Gingrich wins the Republican nomination, the era of big government will likely continue. A Gingrich nomination would virtually guarantee we’ll be stuck with Barack Obama or Gingrich to choose from — which isn’t much of a choice at all, in my book. Neither one of them seems likely to get our military out of the Middle East. Obamacare has a mandate to buy health insurance in it; Gingrich has a history of favoring a health insurance mandate of one kind or another. (He reinforced that position as recently as May 2011.) Gingrich has since come out against the mandate, but what took him so long?

Granted, Obama is well to the left of Gingrich, but all too often Gingrich proposes big-government solutions to things when he should be advocating putting government back in its proper place.

Fortunately, there is a candidate who favors putting government back in its proper, constitutionally limited place: Ron Paul.

Many of the men and women in our military favor Paul for president. In fact, members of our military have collectively given more money to the Paul campaign than to all the other Republican candidates’ campaigns combined. Paul has also surged well ahead of Obama, in terms of contributions from our troops. Many of our troops are weary of fighting unnecessary wars in the Middle East — they want to defend our country and our Constitution.

I think we should give them the commander-in-chief they want and deserve. Our troops don’t deserve a commander-in-chief who is going to keep them deployed in this unending “War against Terror” on the other side of the planet. (I highly recommend watching a 4½- minute video on YouTube called “URGENT MESSAGE From the Troops” at http://youtu.be/FYxPkKGeVKI.)

Paul is the only viable candidate who can be trusted to bring our troops home from all of the Middle East conflicts. Paul is also squarely opposed to any mandate to buy health insurance. And some polls show that Paul can beat Obama in the general election. Gingrich — in part because of his “baggage” — could end up losing to Obama. Four more years of Obama would probably do further harm to the economy (and that’s putting it mildly).

In sharp contrast to what Obama turned out to be, Paul represents real change for the better. He understands our economic problems better than any other presidential candidate. In 2003, Paul accurately predicted that the housing market would eventually collapse — which finally happened in 2008. He has also been trying for years to get the Federal Reserve and its reckless monetary policies under control. As president, Paul would be an advocate for sound monetary policy.

Paul’s economic knowledge makes him the best man to lead in turning the economy around. His non-interventionist foreign policy is not only an economic necessity, but it is also the higher moral ground that we as a nation should aspire to. We need a principled man like Paul in the White House at this critical moment in our nation’s history.

So, how about it, registered Republicans — will you give your country a real choice in the general election in November? Ron Paul is a candidate who will genuinely uphold the Constitution. Can we trust any of the others to do that?

On Inauguration Day in 2013, I would like to see a president-elect who isn’t lying through his teeth when he swears to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Shouldn’t we all want that?

MIKE ZIX
Panama City Beach