Liberty Maven

It is now Ralph Nader’s turn to be viewed through the Ron Paul colored glasses of the Paul-O-Meter. The Paul-O-Meter rates the candidates on how closely they resemble Ron Paul on the issues. For a complete description and methodology of the Paul-O-Meter please see this article. Thus far we have rated Barack Obama, John McCain, Bob Barr, and Chuck Baldwin.

You can join in the rating fun by using our web based Paul-O-Meter application here. Feel free to check it out and submit your own ratings for all the Presidential candidates.

Find our own ratings for Ralph Nader below.

1. Liberty-based Voting Record – Nader doesn’t have a voting record so per the guidelines he gets a 3. Score: 3
2. The Federal Reserve and Monetary Policy – Nader wants to reform the Federal Reserve to become more transparent, but he doesn’t support competing currencies nor the gold standard. Score: 2
3. Foreign Policy and Iraq – Nader is quite close to Ron Paul here. He advocates a swift withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and regularly speaks out against a preemptive war strategy. He also advocates for closing military bases overseas. Score: 5
4. Taxes – Nader loves taxes it seems. He advocates for a progressive tax and would like to add a bunch of new taxes to our existing ones. This is nothing like Ron Paul’s anti-tax position. Score: 0
5. Government Spending – Nader is quite opposite from Ron Paul on government spending. He wants to create many new government programs and increase spending domestically. He does however agree with Ron Paul on one thing: Reducing the military budget in many areas, especially overseas. Score: 1
6. Privacy and Civil Liberties – Nader is against Real ID, the Patriot Act, and FISA. He is not for leaving same sex marriage to the states though. Score: 4
7. Immigration – Nader has stated support for specific provisions that could be termed amnesty. He also has said that immigrants do not come here for welfare, which is the opposite of Ron Paul. They do agree on one point though: The border fence is a bad idea. Score: 1
8. Gun Control and Second Amendment – Nader supports the Brady Bill, trigger locks, banning certain weapons, and the strict enforcement of existing gun laws. You can’t get more unlike Ron Paul than that. Score: 0
9. Internet Regulation – Nader has called for instituting a UN like organization for regulating the Internet in an effort to “protect” consumers. Ron Paul’s position could not be further away. Score: 0
10. Adherence To The Constitution – Nader’s new programs rarely meet the Constitutional test. Score: 0
11. Religion vs. Public Policy – Nader rarely if ever mixes religion with his rhetoric and policies. Score: 5
12. Environment – Nader and Paul are on opposing sides on this issue. Nader believes the Kyoto treaty doesn’t go far enough. He supports higher taxes for environmental abusers rather than letting the free market and court system weed polluters out. Score: 0
13. Energy Policy – Nader is against more drilling of our own natural resources. He is also against building more nuclear power plants. Score: 0
14. U.S. Sovereignty – We could find nothing suggesting Nader is against the North American Union nor if he ever even mentioned it. Score: 0
15. War On Drugs – Nader is almost exactly like Ron Paul here. He supports ending the war on drugs, freeing non-violent drug offenders from prison, and decriminalizing marijuana. Unfortunately, he also advocates for new federal programs for prevention so we can only give him a 4. Score: 4
16. Education – Nader supports more federal intervention in education, not less like Ron Paul. Score: 0
17. Welfare Programs – Nader is the opposite of Ron Paul on federal welfare programs. Score: 0
18. Abortion – Nader is pro-choice, unlike Dr. Paul. He is also expressly against leaving abortion to the states. Score: 0
19. Health Care – Nader advocates for a socialized national health care system. Score: 0
20. Ability To Spread The Liberty Message – Nader does not have a proper liberty message equal to Ron Paul, but he does almost own one on a few select issues. He also tends to get an decent share of media attention when compared to the other third party/independent candidates. Score: 1

Ralph Naders final Paul-O-Meter score: 26 out of a possible 99 points

The final rating surprised one of our raters because the score was higher than John McCain’s score of 25. Another one of us thought Nader’s score would be up in the 30’s. As it turns out Ralph Nader is quite supportive of many new government programs and is about as anti-business as they come. In our opinion his policies would be horrible for the one issue that is shaping up to be the most important of this election: the economy. Ralph Nader is no Ron Paul, that is for sure.

Tune in next time when we rate our final Presidential candidate, Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney. We can barely contain our excitement.