Two Sides of the Political Coin: Presidential Candidates Ron Paul and Mike Gravel

When pundits look at American politics, they often use smart aleck remarks and facial gestures to get their points across. Most of them are transparent in their left or right point of view. I would suppose that many try to have a balanced approach to our political landscape. But, is this what America really wants?

Let's look at one of the best ways that Americans decide what might be best for America by looking at one extreme to the left, and one extreme to the right. Ron Paul and Mike Gravel.

Anyone who witnessed the recent Republican and Democratic presidential debates had to see the extreme ideals of Ron Paul and Mike Gravel in all its transparency. Mike Gravel, many said, provided comic relief to the Democratic debates, while Ron Paul's ideology is seen as so libertarian that not even those who call themselves libertarian won't agree with him.

However, these two candidates provide one of the tools that is unsurpassed in American politics. That is a total extreme viewpoint that highlights and brings to task those candidates who are talking out of both sides of their mouths. It forces Americans to clarify where they really stand, and enables more diplomatic candidates to courageously step forward with a stance that they may not have taken before.

In America, change has always taken place when extreme movements display what is the most atrocious component of an issue. The civil rights movement brought into America's living rooms the ungodly treatment of African-Americans in the streets of the south. The woman's movement gave voice to the clear facts that women in America did not have the basic rights that all human beings should have. Women burned their bras in the sixties and change took place. Extreme, you betcha!

Our young people of the sixties marched on Washington, turned college campuses into bedlam, and fought their parents because the Vietnam War should not, and could not be tolerated. Things changed, because America took to the streets. And people died, not only in war, but here too, to force change by showing extreme action in the face of wrong.

Today, those politicians like Ron Paul, and Mike Gravel, will probably never be president, but their purpose is a necessary part of American politics and America itself.

A closer look at Mike Gravel shows a career in line with his spoken beliefs. Because he spent a significant amount of time in the Congress during the Vietnam War, he was a part of an important filibuster that angered the Nixon Administration and worked to change the American involvement in that was. There experiences were given voice during the last Democratic debate and the other candidates were struck dumb as his imploring appeals to stop the Iraq War.

In the last Republican debate, another debate brewed before the debate took place. Many do not believe that Ron Paul should be allowed to take part in the Republican debate. Why? Because many believe he is not a Republican, but a Libertarian. His is the only platform is again the war in Iraq. Why? Because he is wholly at odds with the foreign policy of the current administration. While Republican candidates on the whole are still trying to act as if the war in Iraq is a good idea, Ron Paul steps away from the pack, and clearly shows that a Republican, who some say is not a Republican, can stand up for the beliefs of the majority of the American people.

Here we have two American politicians both known for their party affiliation who have the courage of their convictions and give a wide berth for dialogue within their parties. Ron Paul and Mike Gravel also allow Americans to begin an exchange of ideas between each other, to clarify opposing views.

This is the American political system at its best.