A Revolutionary Read
I have to admit that when Ron Paul formally declared his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination back in March 2007, I had no clue who this guy was or how much of a sensation he was going to be. My impression of the Congressman from Texas was that he was a relatively minor sensation who had no chance of winning the nomination. Though I was right about him not winning the nomination, I was very wrong about him being a minor sensation. By the fall of 2007, Congressman Paul became an internet sensation as well as being a popular subject on YouTube. At the close of 2007, he raised over an estimated $28 million dollars in funds for his campaign, a sum totaling more than his Republican rivals. His grassroots campaigning style made him a popular candidate for a wide variety of people, such as Republicans, Democrats, Greens, Independents, whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans, anti-war activists, religious conservatives, and freethinkers. With such a broad political, philosophical, and class spectrum of individuals behind him, one is left to wonder: “Who exactly is this guy?”
Ron Paul offers his answer in his latest book The Revolution: A Manifesto. Debuting this past April, it became an instant best seller, ranking number one on the New York Times Bestseller’s list as well as on Amazon. The relatively brief book has been described by Barry Goldwater, Jr. as “the real truth about Liberty. This book takes a wrecking ball to the political establishment…It’s The Conscience of a Conservative for the twenty-first century.” The contents include a brief preface, seven chapters, and a reading list of books that have influenced the Congressman over the years.
The first chapter opens with what Congressman Paul considers the “false choices of American politics.” He feels that American voters are frustrated and left with no choose between voting for a Democratic candidate or a Republican candidate, both of whom have strayed away from their traditional roots. Paul cites examples of such illustrating how the Republican Party has become a party for big government while the Democratic Party is being branded as the “do nothing party” based on the lack of accomplishments in Congress. What Congressman Paul desires is a party based on freedom and individual rights, an idea he attributes to the late Republican Senator Robert A. Taft of Ohio, who defined liberty as “the [ability] of the individual to think his own thoughts and live his own life.” While championing the freedom and liberties of the individual, Paul also advocates for limited government, constitutionalism, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. Having gained momentum during his campaigning, Paul was told that his ideas and the message he was spreading was considered a “revolution.” He merely sees this as the peaceful continuation of the message the Founding Fathers created at the beginning of the country.
In chapters two through seven, Paul expands on his message of a non-interventionist foreign policy, constitutionalism, civil liberties and personal freedom, as well as explaining his approach to the economy and money by way of libertarianism. He has often been labeled as an “isolationist” based on his views of foreign policy, yet he has declared he is for free trade, diplomacy, and the freedom to travel. While I tend to agree with most of Ron Paul’s political ideology, I consider the notion of a non-interventionist foreign policy is not the best of options for the United States in an age of globalism. Though he cites that it was the wish of the Founding Fathers to keep out of international affairs and even quotes Thomas Jefferson who called for “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” However, it was also Thomas Jefferson who declared war on the nations that supported the Barbary Pirates who raided American merchant ships. While free trade, diplomacy, and the freedom to travel may be espoused by America, it is not a universal concept excepted by all nations. It is clear that if America is to prosper in an age where state sanctioned terrorism, cyber crime, counterfeiting, and money-laundering occurs while nothing is to be done, then it damages the very policy we try to implement.
While Ron Paul addresses his concerns mostly to George W. Bush’s successor, I doubt he will follow Congressman Paul’s advice. His treatise is meant for the people, the same people who are sovereign and are the ones who give the government the power and authority to rule. If there is an appropriate line to quote from the book it would be the last paragraph: “One is not a fated existence, for nowhere is our destiny etched in stone. In the final analysis, the last line of defense in support of freedom and the Constitution consists of the people themselves. If the people want to be free, if they want to lift themselves out from underneath a state apparatus that threatens their liberties, squanders their resources on a needless wars, destroys the value of the dollar, and spews forth endless propaganda about how indispensable it is and how lost we would all be without it, there is no force that can stop them. If freedom is what we want, it is ours for the taking, Let the revolution begin.”
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