Liberty Maven

This is an excellent interview with Ron Paul on NPR Radio’s “Talk Of The Nation” show. Ron Paul even used a little humor which is somewhat unlike his normal “serious talk” on the campaign trail

Listen the 34 minute interview at NPR.

George Bush recently said he gave up golf in 2003 because it wouldn’t “look right” while we are at war to have the President playing golf.

In an interview with the political newspaper Politico and Yahoo News, Bush also said he gave up golf in 2003 out of respect for U.S. soldiers killed in the war, which has now lasted more than five years.

“I didn’t want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf,” he said. “I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.”

Continuing a perpetual war while more and more American soldiers die kind of sends the wrong signal too Mr. Bush. Take a lesson from Ron Paul and bring them home. At least then you can play golf with a clear conscience. No wonder John McCain wants Bush as far away from his campaign as possible.

Here is Ron Paul discussing the the Federal Reserve and responding to recent Ben Bernanke statements that run counter to Ron Paul’s economics. Ron Paul doesn’t mince words. I believe he mentions the word “fraud” at least 3 times.

Bob Barr has officially entered the presidential race vying for the Libertarian Party’s nomination. I’ve written supportive articles of Bob Barr in the past and if he is the Libertarian nominee I’d happily vote for him. He certainly doesn’t have the unblemished record of a Ron Paul, but few do. Ron Paul is in a class to himself. So he’s no Ron Paul, but he now is a viable candidate running for President on the Ron Paul message. See his video message officially announcing his run for Prez below. He sounds like a Ron Paul clone.

In this month’s issue of Reason magazine is a gem of an article by Gene Healy, author of “The Cult of the Presidency: America’s Dangerous Devotion to Executive Power”, on which the article is based. Healy has many quotable passages. My favorite section:

The chief executive of the United States is no longer a mere constitutional officer charged with faithful execution of the laws. He is a soul nourisher, a hope giver, a living American talisman against hurricanes, terrorism, economic downturns, and spiritual malaise. He—or she—is the one who answers the phone at 3 a.m. to keep our children safe from harm. The modern president is America’s shrink, a social worker, our very own national talk show host. He’s also the Supreme Warlord of the Earth.

This messianic campaign rhetoric merely reflects what the office has evolved into after decades of public clamoring. The vision of the president as national guardian and spiritual redeemer is so ubiquitous it goes virtually unnoticed. Americans, left, right, and other, think of the “commander in chief” as a superhero, responsible for swooping to the rescue when danger strikes. And with great responsibility comes great power.

It’s difficult for 21st-century Americans to imagine things any other way. The United States appears stuck with an imperial presidency, an office that concentrates enormous power in the hands of whichever professional politician manages to claw his way to the top. Americans appear deeply ambivalent about the results, alternately cursing the king and pining for Camelot. But executive power will continue to grow, and threats to civil liberties increase, until citizens reconsider the incentives we have given to a post that started out so humble.

Read the full article.

Browsing the issues pages of all the presidential candidates last year revealed a glaring omission. Sure there were taxes, foreign policy, Iraq war, health care, immigration, and a slew of others, but probably the most important was not listed. “Has a chance to win” is the unmentionable issue yet it is the response many give as to the reason they chose not to vote for Ron Paul. “I’d vote for him, but he doesn’t have a chance,” goes the mantra. It trumps, “He’s crazy”, or “His views are too extreme.” Indeed, if “has a chance” never was, then Ron Paul would be the Republican nominee.

Of course, there is no way to necessarily prove this assertion, but the larger question is why “has a chance” is even an issue in the first place? In most other areas people love the underdog, but in politics the underdog is usually treated unfairly by the establishment (especially in primary contests) and belittled as “unelectable” by the media and therefore the masses.

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Readers of Liberty Maven know by now how much we adore Ron Paul and his message of freedom, prosperity, and peace. That does not mean we can’t be critical of him when circumstances call for it. Anyone who views the list of candidates Ron Paul has endorsed for office should notice something missing. He hasn’t endorsed a single candidate who is running against an incumbent Republican in a primary.

As a Ron Paul supporter of all the liberty minded candidates it greatly concerns me that Ron Paul has not endorsed some candidates who are close to 100% in line with his platform. A perfect example of this is the race in Virginia’s 10th District between Vern McKinley and incumbent Frank Wolf. Vern McKinley is about 90% aligned with Paul on the issues. Frank Wolf is an Iraq war supporter, who voted for both SCHIP and minimum wage increases along with the Democrats. Wolf voted against repealing the DC gun ban. Wolf voted for Bush’s prescription drug plan. Wolf just had a bill that he sponsored signed into law by President Bush that will make property rights advocates vomit.

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The purity of Ron Paul has ruined my opinion of politicians. Frank Wolf, the current incumbent in Virginia’s 10th congressional district is a perfect example. The man has been in office for 28 years. If we could plot his conservative voting record on a graph over those 28 years it would look like this:

Yet for some strange reason many conservative minded voters in his district (my district) think he walks in the shoes of Ronald Reagan. The simple truth is that many voters in this district just aren’t paying attention. A perfect example appeared today in the editorial section of the Great Falls Connection newspaper.

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I cannot be impartial when reviewing Ron Paul’s new book “The Revolution: A Manifesto“. I’ve spent over one year of my life thinking “Ron Paul” in almost every waking moment. More accurately I’ve thought about the potential for true liberty in my lifetime.

As a Libertarian voter since 1996 I’ve grown accustomed to losing elections. For me that did not matter. All that mattered was that I was voting for the person I believed would best uphold and defend the Constitution. Hope for winning was never an option. Then Ron Paul came along.

I knew of Ron Paul and was ecstatic to learn he was going to run for President. I liked that he was going to run as a Republican. That fact alone gave me hope. I didn’t realize just how hopeful I would become. Early in the campaign I did not have much hope. I said that he is the one with the right message but is the wrong messenger. I never expected for him to raise so much money and win the hearts of Constitutionalists everywhere.

In the sound bite world of TV news and politics Ron Paul sometimes comes off as extreme. He normally shines like a founding father in the longer more in depth segments, such as the interview he did on PBS with Bill Moyers. Then came his book. It demonstrates his expansive knowledge of history, the Constitution, the rule of law, and political psychology.

For someone who has studied Ron Paul for a year like a graduate course in liberty, the book started with the same principled Ron Paul. As the book developed it got better and more enjoyable. In the end it left me smiling on the inside, happy to be a member of the rEVOLution.

Many will likely see the book as the end of Ron Paul’s upstart campaign for President. Those of us who have been paying attention know better than that. In fact, the last words in the book demonstrate that this is only the beginning. There are Ron Paul supporters registering as delegates all over the country. The Meetup Groups are still meeting and strategizing. Ron Paul influenced candidates are running in states from Florida to Alaska.

The Republican Party is slowly being transformed back into the party of the “old right” in the name of Ron Paul. No one is aiming to crash the Party. The desire is only to blow out the candles of warmongering neo-conservatism and rekindle the flame of liberty. We owe it to ourselves, our children, and the founders.

Ron Paul’s “Manifesto” manifests uncompromising liberty. It is the bible of human freedom. It is up to each of us individually to spread this message. We must take action now so that one day in the future our children will not dust off a yellowing copy of the book and ask “Why didn’t we listen to this guy?”

Ron Paul is interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on The Situation Room today. Ron goes a bit crazy and endorses John McCain in this clip. Oh wait… no he doesn’t. We all know better than that. He does choose Obama as the lesser of three evils on foreign policy.