Dege Legg

Ron Paul added to the Louisiana presidential ballot

by Dege Legg

Congressman Ron Paul, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, has been added to the Louisiana ballot as presidential candidate for the Louisiana Taxpayers Party ticket with Barry Goldwater Jr.

Why is it that in the United States, with the largest national economy in the world and the third largest population, we only have two major presidential candidates from which to choose? Democrat or Republican. Left or Right. Red or Blue. That’s it. That’s all you get -- plus a one-way ticket to reconciling yourself with the lesser of two evils for the next four years.

Well, chalk one up for what’s left of democracy in the United States -- and Louisiana. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination, has been added to the Louisiana ballot as presidential candidate for the Louisiana Taxpayers Party ticket with Barry Goldwater Jr., son of the late Barry Goldwater and a former Republican congressman from California. Paul, who received only fraction of the press coverage of his competitors, garnered a huge grass roots following during his bid by advocating a noninterventionist foreign policy, abolishing the Federal Reserve, pledging never to raise taxes, and opposing the Patriot Act as well as gun regulation.

Montana is the only other state where voters will be able to choose Paul for president.