Giving Thanks to Doctor Ron Paul for a Lifetime of Service
November 22nd, 2012
Four years ago the grass roots slogan of the Ron Paul Revolution, from DailyPaul.com to the multitudes of decentralized Meet-Up groups was, “Who is Ron Paul?” or “Google Ron Paul” because a lot of people simply didn’t know. Today he is impossible to ignore. Ron Paul may never have had a fair shot at the presidency, but it cannot be denied that he has radically changed the political discourse in this country. And despite being mocked and marginalized by the political establishment, his words will reverberate throughout the culture for generations to come.
Ron Paul has been our Rebel of the Week, and he became our unofficial spokesman when he waved a Silver Circle Rebel Round in Ben Bernanke’s face, but I would like to thank him for his entire life’s work of public and poignant rebellion against the State. It’s hard to imagine a liberty activist anywhere who wasn’t shaped in part by him. Now, it seems, that the good doctor is retiring from politics, but I suspect, as I have before, that this will be the beginning of something new from the former representative of Texas.
Ron Paul’s Congressional Farewell Speech – C-SPAN 11/14/2012
We few fringe radicals have long observed that Ron Paul occasionally let’s slip signs of more radical leanings. He has described himself as a “Voluntaryist” in interviews with both Pete Eyre and Adam Kokesh, which we all recognized as a hat tip to those who advocate complete liberty without the State. At a campaign rally in 2007 he told a crowd of supporters “The message of liberty unites us. There are liberals here and conservatives. There may even be an anarchist or two.” And the crowd roared. When the sociocrats sport their red and blue gang color ties Ron Paul often wears a black and gold tie, which are the colors of the market-anarchist flag.
These are the subtle clues left by a man running for political office and being very judicious with his comments, but if Ron Paul’s farewell speech on the floor of Congress last week is any indication, we are entering an era of much more explicit Doctor No.
It’s a 49 minute speech, and it’s well worth your full attention. But here’s some highlights.
“Looking at the State-sponsored killing, by nearly every government during the 20th Century, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions, it’s time to reconsider this grant of authority to the State.”
“No good has ever come from granting monopoly power to the state to use aggression against the people to arbitrarily mold human behavior.”
“Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government. It is the tool for telling the people how to live, what to eat and drink, what to read and how to spend their money. To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.”
“Neither the government nor individuals have the moral right to initiate violence against another.”
“Initiating violence for humanitarian reasons is still violence. Good intentions are no excuse and are just as harmful as when people use force with bad intentions. The results are always negative.”
“The problem we have faced over the years has been that economic interventionists are swayed by envy, whereas social interventionists are swayed by intolerance of habits and lifestyles… Both sides use force to deal with these misplaced emotions. Both are authoritarians. Neither endorses voluntarism. Both views ought to be rejected.”
There’s that word again… “Voluntaryism.” I suspect that this is not the end of Ron Paul’s mission, but that we’re just now seeing the gloves come off.
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