From Alan Bock in New Hampshire
Ron Paul has just begun to speak at the closing ceremony of the Free State Project’s Liberty Forum. There are about 700 seats in this auditorium and almost all of them are full, and pretty much everybody is an enthusiastic supporter. Barry Goldwater Jr. (former Congressman) is traveling with him, along with 2 of his 5 children and half a dozen of his 18 grandchildren.
He mentions that in 1964 he was on temporary duty in Pakistan with the Air Force, and the people there said those people in the mountains in the northwest wanted to be left alone and had never been conquered or governed by anybody. “It seems like we never learn anything.”
He stresses what has been a fascinating aspect of the campaign, that it has attracted a remarkable number of young people. “They’re not supporting me because they want a free student grant but because they want to live in a freer country.”
He makes the connection between monetary policy and liberty explicit in a more detailed way than he is able to do in debates or in TV appearances. He starts by explaining that the price of oil and the price of gold rise and fall in tandem, so if we had a gold standard the price of oil would be the same as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Today’s high prices really reflect the devaluation of the dollar or inflation brought on by the Federal Reserve.
(Rats!!! The connection at the hotel went haywire just as I was about to publish this and I lost a good bit of it, so I’ll have to finish from memory and more briefly.)
He talks about the need to consier transitional steps rather than simply talking about the final goal of a fully free society. For example, it might not be politically possible to get rid of the Federal Reserve, but why not follow the constitution and make gold and silver legal tender? He might not be able to repeal thePatriot Act or the military commissions act, but if he’s elected president nothing says he has to enforce unconstitutional laws.
He argues that the most hopeful way to save money is to change our foreign policy, which costs $1 trillion a year, keeping all those troops overseas, etc. He says that if he announced that we were bringing troops home from Iraq and told Pakistan and Afghanistan that we had no desire to micromanage their countries (and people believed it), the dollar would strengthen somewhat and the price of oil would fall.
He also touches on federal arrogance when the feds try to nullify the medical marijuana laws in California and other states. What kind of “compassionate conservatism” is it to arrest sick people or people trying to provide them medicine? Then he moves on to the broader drug war, arguing that individual people have the right to decide what to ingest “and if they get into big trouble, suffer the consequences themselves.”
He closes by reminding libertarians that freedom carries a responsibility to support and promote virtue and excellence, which thrive best in a free society and are necessary for a society to remain or become free. This election is starting to be noticed in the rest of the country and the rest of the world, so the more votes he gets the better for the day when a freer society becomes a reality.
I can’t begin to describe the enthusiasm of this admittedly libertarian audience, which leapt to its feet at least a dozen times during the speech Afterward most of them left to attend a rally to protest Fox News’ exclusion of Ron Paul from the debate this evening or to walk precincts.
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Ron Paul does not come across as the wack-job of most Libertarian candidates but one must remember that he is running for the Republican nomination not Libertarian. He makes many good points but I can only recall 2 presidents who have seriously threatened to take power from the the Federal Reserve or the IRS & they were Ronald Reagan & John Kennedy who were actually shot & hit. Coincidence? Maybe, but if Mr. Paul maintains his position on illegal alien matters & stays in the running, I will vote for him & hope for his election & survival.