Ron Paul delivers farewell address to Congress

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You can find the video here and the transcript here.

Of note:
A grand, but never mentioned, bipartisan agreement allows for the well-kept secret that keeps the spending going. One side doesn’t give up one penny on military spending, the other side doesn’t give up one penny on welfare spending, while both sides support the bailouts and subsidies for the banking and corporate elite. And the spending continues as the economy weakens and the downward spiral continues.
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The crisis arrived because the illusion that wealth and prosperity would last forever has ended. Since it was based on debt and a pretense that debt can be papered over by an out-of-control fiat monetary system, it was doomed to fail. We have ended up with a system that doesn’t produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends.
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American now suffers from a culture of violence.
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Aaaaaaand, my favorite:
The Founders were convinced that a free society could not exist without a moral people. Just writing rules won’t work if the people choose to ignore them. Today the rule of law written in the Constitution has little meaning for most Americans, especially those who work in Washington DC.
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Benjamin Franklin claimed “only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.” John Adams concurred: “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
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I’m going to miss Congressman Paul being in the house.
 
I will not miss his ability to fragment the conservative party. Heave ho!
 
I’ll miss parts of Ron Paul, but not his supporters and not his “do-nothing, blame-everyone” attitude in Congress.

I am however excited to see what the future holds for Rand Paul…Presidency? 😃
 
austenbosten said:
I’ll miss parts of Ron Paul, but not his supporters and not his “do-nothing, blame-everyone” attitude in Congress.

I am however excited to see what the future holds for Rand Paul…Presidency? 😃
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I believe Rand Paul has even moderated his stance on immigration - its quite possible that he is gearing up for a presidential run in 2016.

Ishii
 
Text of the speech
“Our Constitution, which was intended to limit government power and abuse, has failed,” Paul said. “The Founders warned that a free society depends on a virtuous and moral people. The current crisis reflects that their concerns were justified.”
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For the retiring Republican, 77, the “current crisis” isn’t quite what it is for other members of Congress, who routinely use that word to describe the economic recession that followed the 2008 financial crash. To the Texas Republican, that’s part of it, but the causes are deeper, and it’s also a crisis of governmental authoritarianism and the vanishing of personal liberty.
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“If it’s not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis, we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties,” said Paul, an obstetrician-gynecologist by training.
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The problem isn’t just government’s size, but its use of force, both in starting preemptive wars and as it coerces U.S. citizens with police power. To Paul, this is the fault of Americans who no longer prioritize liberty, and it will lead to the unraveling of orderly society unless people change.
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“Restraining aggressive behavior is one thing, but legalizing a government monopoly for initiating aggression can only lead to exhausting liberty associated with chaos, anger and the breakdown of civil society,” Paul said. “We now have a standing army of armed bureaucrats in the TSA, CIA, FBI, Fish and Wildlife, FEMA, IRS, Corp of Engineers, etc., numbering over 100,000 civil society.”
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More than coercive, to Paul the government is also corrupt: “All branches of our government today are controlled by individuals who use their power to undermine liberty and enhance the welfare/warfare state-and frequently their own wealth and power,” he said.
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Throughout his speech, Paul questioned not only the fundamental health of America’s social compact, but specifics like fiat money, the power of the Federal Reserve, the PATRIOT Act, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act modifications, undeclared war, the illegalization of medical marijuana, mandatory sentencing requirements for drug crimes, the illegalization of hemp, TSA searches, federal debt and borrowing, the White House’s authority to assassinate those it declares terrorists, the legalization of detaining U.S. citizens for national-security purposes, the political power of AIPAC, and the regulation of light bulbs and toilets in people’s homes.
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For Paul, the list of grievances is long, and he might not have accomplished much in Congress: “In many ways, according to conventional wisdom, my off-and-on career in Congress, from 1976 to 2012, accomplished very little,” he said. “No named legislation, no named federal buildings or highways, thank goodness. In spite of my efforts, the government has grown exponentially, taxes remain excessive, and the prolific increase of incomprehensible regulations continues. Wars are constant and pursued without congressional declaration.”
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In thinking about the champions of liberty, his lesson is a bitter one: “History has shown that the masses have been quite receptive to the promises of authoritarians which are rarely if ever fulfilled,” but his prescription is hopeful.
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Paul left the podium, for the last time, offering an “answer” to all of these problems: that people should choose liberty and limit government, and seek change within themselves.
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“The number one responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow,” Paul said, urging an end to two motives that have hindered U.S. society: envy and intolerance.
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“I have come to one firm conviction after these many years of trying to figure out the plain truth of things. The best chance for achieving peace and prosperity, for the maximum number of people worldwide, is to pursue the cause of liberty. If you find this to be a worthwhile message, spread it throughout the land.”
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HansTrappist said:
Translation: Ron Paul is correct but you don’t like it so you resort to a dirty, fallacious ad hominem.
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Do you think Ron Paul was right to vote against a bill banning abortion for sex selection purposes?

Do you think we should allow anyone to use whatever drugs regardless of the consequences?
 
One must be far right to avoid stern criticisms on these forums.

I will wonder what his changes of the status quo would have amounted too. He walked it, like he talked it. In 2007, he was the only candidate that physically attended the Right to Life Rally in Washington, D.C. I for one don’t think he was a bad man, at least not as some are trying to paint him, for partisan reasons.
 
Prodigal_Son1 said:
I for one don’t think he was a bad man, at least not as some are trying to paint him, for partisan reasons.
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I don’t think he was a bad man, either. He was deeply principled, and paid a political price for that. Of the 600+ pieces of legislation he sponsored in the US Congress, only one of them passed. That bill allowed for the sale of a customhouse in Galveston, Texas.
 
He should have run for president as a candidate of the Libertarian Party, since that was his ideological home. And I guess he did at least once.
 
HansTrappist said:
Translation: Ron Paul is correct but you don’t like it so you resort to a dirty, fallacious ad hominem.
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Ron Paul’s racism and antisemitism are gravely sinful by Catholic standards. If you are involved in such evil, you should repent.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
Ron Paul’s racism and antisemitism are gravely sinful by Catholic standards. If you are involved in such evil, you should repent.
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He was not a racist, or antisemitic. That was far right spin to assure the promotion of far right issues. Sometimes it was used as an ad hominem against his supporters. :rolleyes:
 
One of the very few members of Congress or the Senate who actually believed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and who didn’t believe it should be sacrificed to the so called “War On Terror”.
 
PaulfromIowa said:
Ron Paul’s racism and antisemitism are gravely sinful by Catholic standards. If you are involved in such evil, you should repent.
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I think you are referring to the news reports that racist and anti-Semitic comments appeared in various Ron Paul newsletters 20-30 years ago.
It’s the biggest setback to hit Ron Paul’s candidacy for president: publicity about racially charged statements and other controversial comments in newsletters published in Mr. Paul’s name in the 1980s and 1990s.
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He apologized for the comments as far back as 2001, saying he wasn’t the author.
“I could never say this in the campaign, but those words weren’t really written by me,” Paul said, according to Texas Monthly. “It wasn’t my language at all. Other people help me with my newsletter as I travel around. I think the one on Barbara Jordan was the saddest thing, because Barbara and I served together and actually she was a delightful lady.”
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csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2011/1229/Racist-newsletter-timeline-What-Ron-Paul-has-said

Last year, his campaign manager repeated the explanation:
The Houston Chronicle Tuesday quoted Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton saying that the newsletters were written by a ghostwriter in Paul’s name. Mr. Benton acknowledged the point made by many critics of the candidate: that Paul “should have better policed” the newsletters that went out under his name.
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“Dr. Paul has assumed responsibility, apologized for his lack of oversight and disavowed the offensive material,” said Benton.
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csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/President/2011/1229/Racist-newsletter-timeline-What-Ron-Paul-has-said

Certainly it raises questions about Paul’s managerial skills and his choice of associates during that time period.
 
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