A Ron Paul Primer

By Daniel Miessler on May 7th, 2007: Tagged as Activism | America | Philosophy | Politics | Ron Paul

Many have been hearing a lot about Ron Paul lately — have heard some things they like — but aren’t sure exactly where he stands on the issues. Here’s a collection of some of the main points of interest about him and his beliefs.

  • He’s a conservative libertarian who’s running as a traditional republican, i.e. he’s for small federal government, individual liberty, and states rights.
  • He voted against the Patriot Act.
  • He’s for re-implementing the gold standard so that our money actually means something again.
  • He’s a medical doctor (M.D.), served as a flight surgeon in the Air Force, and is an active congressman from Texas.
  • He’s known for impeccable honesty and for not flip-flopping on issues.
  • He is pro-life, but doesn’t think the federal government should have any say in legalizing or banning abortion.
  • He doesn’t believe gay marriage is a Federal issue either, and thinks they should stay out of it.
  • He’s also against capital punishment for the same reason he’s pro-life (he’s pro-life).
  • He’s for lowering taxes.
  • He introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.
  • Supports the medical use of cannabis (marijuana).
  • Believes in allowing the hemp industry to thrive.
  • Doesn’t believe in the effectiveness of a “war on drugs”.
  • He doesn’t participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
  • He wants to get out of other peoples’ business and focus on our own problems.
  • He is against the Iraq war, and always was. He wants us to come home as soon as possible.
  • He’s serious about fixing the immigration problem.
  • He believes in, and has voted consistently for, an open and free Internet.
  • He strongly supports the concepts of privacy and personal freedom laid out by the forefathers of this country, and would rigorously defend Habeus Corpus.
  • He’s strongly pro-second-ammendment.
  • He also supports property rights and the eminent domain, meaning the government shouldn’t be allowed to simply confiscate people’s land and homes out of greed.
My point to those of you reading this is simple — get involved this time around. 2008 is the year for you to participate, and the best way you can do that is by weilding the Internet to share ideas.

There are so many of us out there who bitch and moan and don’t do anything about it. We have representation in congress and in the senate, but we don’t contact them. Many of us don’t even vote. Well it’s time to get involved. There is momentum behind the little guys with big ideas this time. Let’s not waste it.

If Ron Paul is the type of candidate that actually inspires within you a glimmer of hope in our democracy, the way he does in me and many others, I ask you to please pass this link, the sources below, his videos on YouTube, etc. on to others. Watch the debates, learn about the candidates, get involved.

If we fail, we fail. But at least we will have tried. We can’t complain about a failed democracy in which we never participated. Please participate.

References:

Ron Paul Website http://www.ronpaul2008.com/html/Issues_fx.html

The Political Positions of Ron Paul http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PoliticalpositionsofRonPaul

Austrian Economic Theory http://www.mises.org/

The Ron Paul Archives http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul-arch.html

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Viewing 8 Comments

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    Ron Paul is the next President of the United States.
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    Good list! I'd like to see links of the important legislation he's introduced. I've been meaning to look it up myself, but it'd be a good thing to put here.

    I'd kind of be curious on his views on net neutrality at the state level as well. Obviously he's for less government regulation, but the only network players in a vast majority of areas are state-endorsed monopolies. (The Ma Bell monopoly was broken up years ago only to reform like the T1000)

    I'd love to see a Ron Paul/Barak Obama ticket (in that order). hehe
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    Ron Paul is a proponent of the Austrian School of economics. (So named because it started in Austria, it is now centered in Alabama.) The Austrian school teaches that government should not help or hinder any business enterprise. Rather, each business should succeed or fail entirely on its own merits. This means no regulations aimed at keeping people out of a particular business (e.g. cable TV or telephone monopolies) but it also means no corporate welfare.
    For more information on what guides Ron Paul's ideas in economics, go to the source:

    http://www.mises.org

    Also go to:

    http://www.lewrockwell.com

    and check out the Ron Paul archive located there. It is a collection of articles written by Dr. Paul. You can get a really good idea of what he believes and why by reading those articles.
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    We must target and diffuse offensive websites like this one:

    http://www.amconmag.com/2007/2007_05_07/article...

    Write to them please!

    letters@amconmag.com
    • ^
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    I have to say that my mind is still not made up. One problem is that i have one candidate from each of the two major parties that interests me. Dem: Barack Obama, Rep: Ron Paul. I am far from making my concrete decision, but I can say that I am not a fan of any of the other candidates so far (in either party). I am keeping up with as much as possible so that I can make the most informed decision possible. I am also confident that if everyone doesn't research candidates thoroughly, we will continue on our current downward path. Thanks for the links, everyone, as that will give me more information on which to base my decision.
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    I would like to add that Dr. Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate in either party to denounce and comitt to stopping the North American Union, which is on its way to materializing. (Their goal to have everything in place is 2009.)

    Protecting the sovereignty of our country as well as the Constitution were my first criteria for a candidate.

    To date, Ron Paul is the only one who has come to the plate.
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    Country B4 Party:

    I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that Dennis Kucinich had also opposed the North American Union, albeit for fairly different reasons than Dr. Paul.

    Brad Wolf:

    I am glad to hear you picking the two candidates that come across as the most sincere. I am not the sort to try to convince you one way or the other, but I did want to help you gather information by expressing my distaste with Obama on the issue of Iran.

    I also disagree with the domestic/economic direction he'd like to take this country. He is openly on the side of socialism, and in my personal opinion that is a mistake. But in that regard he seems sincere, even if I disagree with him.

    No my big complaint with Obama is that he is being just as arrogant about Iran, unwilling to make the simple promise that we wont NUKE them. In my humble opinion, there is NO good reason ever to use a nuke.

    Swift, tactical regime change is one thing, but nukes inevitably kill innocent people. I'm not endorsing regime change either, but I can at least see the philosphy behind it...

    -Chad
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    That's a nice list Daniel.

    Like Dan said, Ron Paul "inspires within you a glimmer of hope". Real hope, like I was 20 again and wanted to do something about this place we live on without care for consequnces.

    He's got of inspiring ideas. But so far there is one idea that are so new to me, I am scared. I do not know if he thought it through. Maybe some of you who have read his essays can put up a few links to shed light on this issues.

    In one of his speech he talked about getting rid of income tax. 0 income tax. It sounds great. Then he talks about getting rid of federal reserve, stop printing more money, hence make savings mean something to people again. I like the implication. However, can U.S. really afford to be without fiscal policy? How many recessions have we avoided with fiscal policy in place? with Alan Greenspan? Does Ron Paul has feasible alternative ways to stabilize the economy if federal reserve is gone?

    At this stage, I like alot of Ron Paul's ideas. I hope he also have feasible plans to realize those ideas, or have plans to find and implement feasible plans for his ideas. Because it's not going to be easy. Hopefully he would inspire enough people to actually make it easy once he's elected.
 

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