A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted Saturday. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
Listen to the show here:
Read a transcript of the show, including links to further information regarding the topics discussed, here:
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity welcomes you to Five Minutes Five Issues.
Starting in five four three two one.
Hello, I am Adam Dick, a Ron Paul Institute senior fellow.
Let’s start.
Issue one.
Many neoconservatives are not happy about businessman Donald Trump being the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Among them is pundit Bill Kristol who wants National Review writer David French to enter the race as an independent candidate. However, even if French enters the race, we may see many neoconservatives throw their support elsewhere as election day approaches.
Last month, Ron Paul, who is the chairman of the Ron Paul Institute, predicted in a Fox Business interview that the neoconservatives, including Kristol, will ultimately support former Senator Hillary Clinton. “Hillary is a Wall Street person, she’s a neocon, and she wants to spend money on the military,” Paul elaborated.
Paul’s prediction lines up with The National Interest Editor Jacob Heilbrunn’s July of 2014 editorial in the New York Times regarding Clinton’s appeal to neoconservatives. Heilbrunn explains some of the reasons neocons would choose Clinton. Writes Heilbrunn, “Mrs. Clinton voted for the Iraq war; supported sending arms to Syrian rebels; likened Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to Adolf Hitler; wholeheartedly backs Israel; and stresses the importance of promoting democracy.”
Issue two.
Here comes the speculation about the Libertarian Party’s newly nominated Gary Johnson and Bill Weld presidential ticket potentially “spoiling” the election for the Republicans or Democrats. At least Albert R. Hunt, in his Tuesday Bloomberg editorial, admits “it’s not clear whether the casualty would be Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.”
Indeed, the Libertarian ticket may not affect the outcome of the race.
Hunt suggests that the claim that “never have the two presumptive major party nominees been so unpopular” is an argument for the Libertarian ticket potentially winning more votes in 2016 than in 2012. Johnson was the 2012 presidential nominee as well. However, many people’s votes are motivated by a desire to prevent somebody bad from winning. Might the unpopularity of the Republican and Democratic candidates encourage voters to choose between those candidates instead of choosing a third-party option? Might this especially be the case if the third-party alternative does not boldly present a coherent alternative philosophy that excites potential voters and convinces them that the third-party vote is meaningful instead of wasted?
Issue three.
Long-time marijuana prohibition supporter Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) has a history of opposing legal medical marijuana use. But, last month she voted in the United States House of Representatives for an amendment allowing Department of Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients in states that have legalized medical marijuana.
In addition to being a member of the House of Representatives, Wasserman Schultz is chair of the Democratic National Committee.
What caused a break in Wasserman Schultz’s anti-marijuana voting record?
Amy Sherman writes at the Miami Herald that, while Wasserman Schultz previously “faced no political repercussions at the ballot box for taking a position out of step with her constituents,” she now faces in the Democratic primary well-funded challenger Tim Canova who supports medical marijuana. In fact, Canova goes much further than supporting legalizing medical marijuana. On his campaign website, Canova promotes ending the US government’s war on drugs.
Issue four.
Texas state Rep. David Simpson (R-Longview) lost a Republican primary runoff last week, ending his run for the state senate.
I have written at the Ron Paul Institute regarding Simpson’s legislative efforts to end the state’s marriage licensing, make Transportation Security Administration (TSA) friskings of travelers punishable as assault, and legalize marijuana so it is treated the same as tomatoes.
Issue five.
At Hillary Clinton’s Thursday foreign policy speech in San Diego, California, she stood at a podium with 15 American flags behind her, plus an additional four American flags hung to her left and right. In response to the over-the-top flags display, journalist Glenn Greenwald joked “More flags, please.”
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That’s a wrap.
Transcripts of Five Minutes Five Issues episodes, including links to related information, are at the Ron Paul Institute blog.
Five four three two one.
Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.