Squirt wrote:
Rob Paul looks interesting, although I'm not sure if he really has any chance. Whilst I might not agree with many of his opinions, he does appear to be someone who votes in an unpopular manner if his principles lead him that way, rather than towing the party line. I'm not sure if withdrawing from NATO and the UN, phasing out the Federal Reserve and granting Letters of Marque instead of military action are good ideas, but at least when he says he for "smaller government" he really means it.
The US was originally always sceptical about the merits of entangling itself in foreign alliances - I think it was Washington's Farewell address that warned about this.
As for small government, remember that the US is a federal system, and the constitution sets out the powers of the federal government vis-a-vis the states. It's only 5,000 or so words long, and well-worth reading (guess which thing the original text hinted at but never mentioned directly!) if you've never done so (
here's one). Whilst it is clear it some parts, it is ambiguous in others: much of the power of the Congress comes from it having the right to regulate commerce between the states. These days, almost anything related to government can be squeezed into that category .
Of course, those who tend to want power taken away from the federal government also don't really want the state governments to take on the roles either.