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Jordan Augustine Arroyo

Professor Josh Gold
US Government and Politics
18 April 2014
Summary/Critique Paper
The article Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies was written by Glen Greenwald and
published Saturday, December 31, 2011. Glenn is a political journalist, lawyer, blogger and an
author. He was also a columnist for Guardian US from August 2012 to October 2013. This
article points out the problem with progressives that declare that Paul has heinous views that
upset them and that they feel that he should not be allowed to win presidency. Despite this
however, they still support Obama who has done some equally horrible things while in office
such as slaughtering innocent Muslims.
Glenn asserts in his article that president Barack Obama since election has vigorously
prosecuted the cruel and supremely racist War on Drugs (Glenn). Glenn continues to state that
Obama had vowed during his campaign to relinquish this war, which devastates minority
communities and converts huge numbers of minority youth into felons for no good reason.
Obama has also promoted thieving bankers through the Wall Street Bailout, shielded mortgage
defrauders from prosecution, and brought the entire nation into a Cold War and a covert hot war
with Iran. The author clearly states which side of the argument he is on, and encourages the
reader to realize these details of Obama before jumping to conclusions on Ron Paul.
The author also brings to attention that the national security state of America, its
surveillance state, and the posture of endless war is more vigorous than it has ever been before.
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Glenn references a national journals Michael Hirsh, stating that Obamas romance with the CIA
is causing the nation to suffer. The Washington Post has dubbed what has been created by
Obama as a vast drone/killing operation (Washington Post, Glenn). In other words, an
impenetrable wall of secrecy with no hope for an oversight.
Glenn suggests that progressives are supporting a candidate who has done all of these
horrendous things that liberals have long believed to be dangerous and harmful, especially to
ones moral character. His opinion on progressives is that they think of themselves as the faction
that stands for peace, opposes wars, doesnt trust the military, and supports candidates who are
for individual rights and economic equality. Glenn feels that this is a contradiction, as these
actions taken by Obama negate that desired self-perception. According to the author, this is a
perfect demonstration that the leaders of the progressives work in opposition to their values and
will empower yet again.
Glenn asserts that it is indisputably true that Ron Paul is the only political figure who has
a national platform from either party, and is the only one who has views on the issues that
liberals and progressives both have claimed to be crucial and very compelling. And conversely,
Obama has views on the issues that both liberals and progressives have found to be repellent and
evil. Obama has even gone as far as to taking actions on these issues.
Matt Stoller, who is a background in financial journalism, is referenced in this article for
his essay on the history of progressivism and the Democratic Party. He argues that the anger that
Paul inspires comes from the tensions that American liberals bear in their own worldview, and
not from his position. He references Ron Pauls candidacy as a mirror held up in front of the
face of Americas Democratic Party and its progressive wing, and the image that is reflected is
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an ugly one (Stoller). This reflection is said to be so horrible because it conflicts violently with
their desired self-perception.
Glenn asserts that there is an undeniable fact that these heinous views and actions taken
by president Barack Obama have been heavily opposed by Ron Paul, who is also the only GOP
candidate who does oppose these views. The author feels that this is going to force progressives
into facing the horrendous actions and positions of their preferred candidate that they want to
elect for another four years. It is also stated by Glenn that if Ron Paul was not running for office,
none of these issues would be publicly addressed or even brought to attention as all other GOP
candidates either agree with Obama or have even worse views then he does.
Glenn feels that progressives would feel a lot more confident about their party and
themselves if their desired candidate only had to run against Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann.
The reasoning behind this is that the standard GOP candidates agree with Obama on many
issues, and have many worse other ideas and beliefs, and this would easily make progressives
feel more comfortable about themselves voting for Obama. Paul scrambles the comfortable
ideological and partisan categories, which puts force upon progressives to confront and account
for policies that they are working so hard to protect. With the election of Paul, it would be the
republican and not the democrat that would be anti-war, anti-fed, and an anti-drug war advocate.
Typically it is the democrat who falls under these standards.
In conclusion, Glenn does a fair job at assessing the wrongs done by Obama to counter
argue the negative views and criticisms help against Ron Paul for his beliefs and thoughts. One
argument is that Obama has been prosecuting an unfair war against drugs which turns many
young adults and teenagers into felons for no good reason. Obama has also helped lead into the
impenetrable wall of secrecy and violation of security. These examples are provided to show the
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flaws and errors made by President Barack Obama, and to demonstrate the differences between
the two. These differences would make Paul a better candidate for the nation in the views of
Glenn.