I have often stated how little I like either party in our current political system. I have also mentioned, although only once, the idea of term limits. I have accused both parties of showing us the reality that the two parties aren’t really that different. They both support war, they both give money away they don’t have and must steal and both parties avoid telling us how truly dangerous the threat of monetary collapse is. There are always exceptions which is why I am not very supportive of the term limit idea. Once we find a politician who is truly working for the people and the country it would be a shame to kick them out. The populations of the 14th and 22nd District of Texas have provided us with such a politician, Ron Paul.
I rarely find a politician worth supporting publicly. In fact, I don’t think there is another current politician that I would support publicly. I gained an addiction to CSPAN several years ago and the habit has grown to the point where most of the time I recognize the members of Congress just by hearing their voice. While most people call me a bit weird, odd and sometimes pathetic for such an interest, I maintain that Congress is the most important news of each day. They control what laws the courts interpret. They continually pass authority to the executive branch against the Constitution. They authorize every dime spent, or at least those spent constitutionally. If the President involves us militarily without Congressional approval then you can’t hold the House responsible for those dollars, just the support (even by silence) of the unconstitutional act of war. No federal program can be funded without passing through the House of Representatives. No federal judge can be appointed without Senate approval. Almost everything our federal government does either directly or indirectly needs to go before Congress. Considering that the elections for Senate and House members occur on a local level, I believe the Congress has the ability to show the will of the people more effectively than a national election of the President. Far too often the presidential election turns into a farce which never truly provides answers to the true issues of the day. While Congressional elections often follow the same path, at least the members of the district or State have more knowledge about the candidates. Even if I am wrong and people don’t follow these elections, I still maintain it would be easier to do so, therefore if enlightenment takes place; this is where any revolution of ideas takes place most effectively.
Over the past few years I have watched Ron Paul stick to the ideas of individual liberty much to the angst of his own party. I have provided a link to his voting record below and invite you to peruse his record of consistency. Ron Paul has been shunned and shut out of his own party’s presidential nomination debates. His supporters have been accused of rigging polls because he constantly wins them against the wishes of the right wing media. Sean Hannity provided us with a great example of this when he berated Mr. Paul after he crushed the other candidates according to a viewer’s poll. (link provided below) Ron Paul had the highest support among military members and he led the party in small donations, meaning he isn’t funded by big business but instead by the common man. The success of his revolution during the 2008 campaign surprised even him. This is a man who gains supporters anytime he is heard. His supporters cross political lines because what he supports isn’t a party but a nation and its people. He is Christian, but doesn’t care if you are. He is white, but doesn’t believe in categorizing anyone by such measures. He is a politician but wants to limit his own power and influence. He isn’t bought by big oil; even thought petrochemical companies are in his district. In fact, according to him, the only reason he got into politics was based on the abandonment of our last tie to sound money. Ron Paul first ran for election in the 22nd District during a special election to replace Robert Casey (D-TX) when he was appointed to run the Federal Maritime Commission in 1976. With regards to the abolishment of sound money and how it affected his decision he was quoted as saying, “After that day, all money would be political money rather than money of real value. I was astounded.” Some say he won a typically Democrat district due to his influence among women since he was an OBGYN doctor previously and if he didn’t deliver their baby then his partner did. I would say that this interaction allowed him to tell people what he really though without the filtering of the media. I would also point out that his career as a doctor gave him a platform to show who is was before he became a politician. Regardless, the fact that Texas still sends him to Washington shows that not only was this message one which resonated with the people but also that he hasn’t shifted with the winds of political change like most politicians. I have yet to see anyone hold a vote against him in a debate. I have yet to see him accurately accused of flip-flopping on an issue. The Constitution and a search for individual liberty guide his votes, not party alliances or political friends. If you want a candidate that actually supports freedom and the principles which provide it, Ron Paul is your politician. During the 2008 campaign I was shocked at how much right wing outlets such as Fox rallied against him. It seemed that every time he was allowed to speak without a media filter, he gained support. His message is one of social freedom, financial freedom, individual liberty and limited government.
The roughly 1.2 million people that populate the 14th and 22nd districts in Texas have provided us with the opportunity to hear this man. They have voted for him because he does what he says and nothing more. He has not supported the wars of late; he has not supported the invasion of privacy founded in the Patriot Act. He did not vote for the bank bailout. He wants to repeal the existence of the Department of Homeland Security. He doesn’t support federal control of education or agriculture. Above and beyond anything else, he doesn’t support the existence of the Federal Reserve and led the charge against it before it was popular. When politicians jumped on the band wagon during the financial crisis against the Fed, it was Ron Paul who had built and was driving the wagon they jumped on. Here is a politician that would rather not tell you what to do. Here is a politician that doesn’t want to control you. Here is a man that would rather influence the world through diplomacy and economic relations instead of sending our sons and daughters to kill and to die. It doesn’t matter what you believe, if you support Ron Paul he will work to allow you to keep those beliefs whether they are mainstream or revolutionary. He is the only candidate that speaks in terms of common sense and actually answers questions instead of giving stump speeches. Ron Paul is the only person within the parties that doesn’t just talk about the constitution, but instead lives it through his service in Washington. There have been many times in the past few years where I have become a fan of other politicians, in both parties, only to watch them later vote for bills that cost them my support. Ron Paul doesn’t abandon the ideas of freedom and individual liberty founded in our Constitution.
Please take a few moments to watch a couple of the videos below and see if what he says matches your idea of common sense solutions. No matter what party you support, give him a moment to show you what a real patriotic politician can do for our nation.
The link below shows his entire voting history. When was the last time your favorite poltician was willing to back up EVERY vote they have ever taken. (With the exception of Obama, it isn’t hard to back them up when you mainly vote “present” and don’t accomplish anything you can be tied to.)
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress/members/P000583/votes/
Here are a couple of short clips of his debates during 2008, deliverying the same message he started with in 1976. The first of which shows Hannity berating Paul.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7d_e9lrcZ8&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peBGJwE9NXo&feature=relmfu
Ron Paul on the Tonight Show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LZyHoAPL3M&feature=relmfu
Ron Paul questioning fromer Fed Chairmen Ben Bernanke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gldETRlhiXk&feature=related
An appearance on CNN (addresses why he is a Republican and not running Libertarian anymore)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWMDF92ZE7c&feature=related
If you want more information on Ron Paul check out his books written for the common man in plain language.
End the Fed
The Revolution: A Manifesto
Liberty Defined
The Case for Gold
A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce and Honest Friendship
Pillars of Prosperity
Books suggested by Ron Paul:
Armentano, Dominick – Antitrust and Monopoly: Anatomy of a Policy Failure
Bacevich, Andrew J. – The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War
Bamford, James – A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies
Bovard, James – Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil
DiLorezno, Thomas J. – The Real Lincoln
Engdahl, F. William – A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order
Fleming, Thomas – The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I
- The New Dealers’ War: FDR and the War Within World War II
Flynn, John T. – As We Go Marching
Folsom, Burton W. – They Myth of the Robber Barons: A New Look at the Rise of Big Business in America
Garrett, Garet – The People’s Pottage
Gibbon, Edward – The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Griffin, G. Edward – The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve
Hayek, Friedrich A. – The Road to Serfdom
Hazlitt, Henry – Economics in One Lesson
Hoffer, Eric – The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
Holzer, Henry Mark – The Gold Clause: What It Is and How to Use It Profitably
Jastram, Roy William – The Golden Constant: The English and American Experience
Johnson, Chalmers – Blowback: The Cost and Consequences of American Empire
Kwitny, Jonathan – Endless Enemies: America’s Worldwide War Against Its Own Best Interests
Lane, Rose Wilder – The Discovery of Freedom
MacKay, Charles – Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
Mises, Ludwig von – Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
Mueller, John – Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them.
Napolitano, Andrew P – What Happens When the Government Breaks Its Own Laws
- A Nation of Sheep
Palyi, Melchior – The Twilight of Gold
Pape, Robert – Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism
Pasternak, Boris – Doctor Zhivago
Paterson, Isabel – The God of the Machine
Powell, Jim – Wilson’s War
Rand Ayn – Atlas Shrugged
Read, Leonard E. – The Love of Liberty
Rees-Moog, William – The Reigning Error: The Crisis of World Inflation
Roberts, Paul Craig – The Tyranny of Good Intentions: How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Tramping the Constitution in the Name of Justice
Rockwell, Llewellyn H. – Speaking of Liberty
Rothbard, Murray N. – America’s Great Depression
- What Has Government Done to Our Money?
Rueff, Jacques – The Monetary Sin of the West
Scheuer, Michael – Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror
- Through Our Enemies Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America
Sennholz, Hans F. – Age of Inflation
Solomon, Norman – War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
Stern, Jessica – Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill
Tansill, Charles Callan – Back Door to War: The Roosevelt Foreign Policy
Tocqueville, Alexis De – Democracy in America
Tuchman, Barbara J. – The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
Weaver, Henry Grady – The Mainspring of Human Progress
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