Ron Paul only Republican to attend Arab-American Institute National Leadership Conference

First of all I would like to introduce myself. I am new to the dedicated blogging world. Previously I posted at my personal myspace. Now onto the reason for this post.

The Arab American National Leadership Conference is being held in Dearborn, Michigan this weekend. They will gather to discuss issues and topics regarding the upcoming election and in the process determine who they will be supporting for President. Ron Paul, along with a couple of the democratic Presidential candidates will be addressing the conference at different times throughout the weekend. This got me thinking about dialogue, and the lack their of between certain Presidential candidates and different groups, specifically ethnic groups.

Back a month or more ago there was a Republican debate at Morgan State University (a primarily African-American school) hosted By Tavis Smiley. It was sad to see the lack of presence by the mainstream media’s “Front runners” including Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani, John Mccain, and Fred Thompson. For far too long there has been an unspoken tension between the Republican party and the majority of the African American community, and the action or “lack of action” by these candidates is doing nothing but making tensions worse.

So moving along to the AAI national conference we see the lack of literally ALL Presidential candidates, save a few good men, such as Ron Paul. The Mainstream media as well as the front runners from both parties like to refer to Dr. Paul as an isolationist, which is incorrect. An isolationist essentially desires to cut their given country off from the rest of the world. No talking with, no travel, no trade, and not much of anything with other countries. Ron Paul is a non-interventionist. He believes in free trade, and discussions, and friendships, and travel between America and other countries. He believes talking gets more accomplished than bombing the crap out of a country.

I must end with this question, WHO ARE THE REAL ISOLATIONISTS? The ones unwilling to have discussions with ethnic groups, or countries? I should think so. Those that believe that we need to “stay the course” in the Middle East, and give Arabs an endless list of reasons to keep hating us. Those that are “too busy” to discuss how we handle our relationships with Arab Americans. Non-intervention allows us to stop being defensive and stop nation building, and gives us the chance to form lasting friendships with nations that we previously thought were “evil” or unfeasible, and take the time to rebuild our own nation.

Maybe it is time we listen to Dr. Paul, and take a good hard look at America’s flawed and elitist foreign policy.