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This is the Life: Is there a cure in the prescription?

As we drove through Bonners Ferry on Friday evening, we ran a thin gauntlet of perhaps a dozen people enthusiastically waiving signs...

As we drove through Bonners Ferry on Friday evening, we ran a thin gauntlet of perhaps a dozen people enthusiastically waiving signs promoting their choice for the U.S. presidency. Dr. Ron Paul is the man with the plan, at last in the eyes of a very keen minority of Americans.

For years we have driven through northern Idaho, wondering about a man who inspires people to display his campaign signs even when it isn’t election time. Is he a prophet, patiently waiting to lead his country from the wilderness it increasingly finds itself in, I wondered? Or a quack who lines his ball cap with tin foil to ward off the electromagnetic waves emitted by aliens or, worse, the federal government?

The perennial presidential campaigner is a polarizing character, if nothing else, and his obsession with upholding the U.S. Constitution (a document whose supporters treat like it was delivered in the same shipment of tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain), keeping Americans armed and dangerous, building security barriers around the country’s borders and making sweeping financial reforms that include elimination of the “unconstitutional” (it’s a common thread in Paul’s literature) Federal Reserve holds great appeal for the rough and ready independents found in large numbers in Idaho, and even eastern Washington (Spokane is one of his key constituencies).

Paul is a man who can sound like the smartest guy on the planet, or a danger to us all, depending on which side of the political fence you stand on, or which topic he is addressing. About a year ago, I turned on a CBC Radio program in midstream, and listened to an American waxing passionately about getting American troops out of foreign wars and the need for the United States to stop playing a policing role in countries around the world. Only at the end of the program did I learn that the voice was that of Ron Paul. On that subject, he sounded like a breath of fresh air.

His detractors portray Paul as a racist, an accusation he vehemently denies, and there doesn’t seem to be much evidence against him.

While we sat for a morning coffee in Spokane on Sunday, I read a newspaper that asked readers to comment on Ron Paul. One woman said she was glad that Ron Paul supporters all seem to keep his campaign signs in their yards year-round. “That’s good, because I know where all the crazies live,” she said.

As I read through Paul’s website information, I was struck by the number of times I found myself in agreement with his views, and by the about equal number of times that I thought he might be certifiably insane. He would repeal Obamacare, not surprisingly, and offer all kinds of tax reductions for people who need medical care, but I didn’t see any explanation about how a minimum wage cancer patient was going to afford treatment by not having to pay income tax.

I suppose Paul is to the political right what Ralph Nader was to the left side of the spectrum a few decades ago. Both were thorns in the side of the status quo, totally dedicated to their personal beliefs, fully aware that their chances of sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office is pretty much non-existent. But through sheer determination, Paul and Nader both serve as reminders about just how entrenched the status quo is, and how fearful most of us are of radical change.

The American system is broken and it is an empire in decline, a trend that seems irreversible given the influence that big business is now guaranteed thanks to a Supreme Court ruling that allows it to spend enormous sums to support the candidates it favours. While I’m pretty sure that Ron Paul isn’t the answer to American problems, I have no doubt that those with passionate and independent points of view are really the only hope for real change. They are the ones who at least get people talking about issues of great importance. We could use a few of those voices here in our own country.

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.