From the preface of Ron Paul’s new book, due out in April (it reached as high as #3 on Amazon’s bestseller list over the weekend, and currently sits at #18):
Every election cycle we are treated to candidates who promise us “change,” and 2008 has been no different. But in the American political lexicon, “change” always means more of the same: more government, more looting of Americans, more inflation, more police-state measures, more unnecessary war, and more centralization of power.
Real change would mean something like the opposite of those things. It might even involve following our Constitution. And that’s the one option Americans are never permitted to hear….
With national bankruptcy looming, politicians from both parties continue to make multi-trillion dollar promises of “free” goods from the government, and hardly a soul wonders if we can still afford to have troops in - this is not a misprint - 130 countries around the world. All of this is going to come to an end sooner or later, because financial reality is going to make itself felt in very uncomfortable ways. But instead of thinking about what this means for how we conduct our foreign and domestic affairs, our chattering classes seem incapable of speaking in anything but the emptiest platitudes, when they can be bothered to address serious issues at all. Fundamental questions like this, and countless others besides, are off the table in our mainstream media, which focuses our attention on trivialities and phony debates as we march toward oblivion.
This is the deadening consensus that crosses party lines, that dominates our major media, and that is strangling the liberty and prosperity that were once the birthright of Americans. Dissenters who tell their fellow citizens what is really going on are subject to smear campaigns that, like clockwork, are aimed at the political heretic. Truth is treason in the empire of lies.
There is an alternative to national bankruptcy, a bigger police state, trillion-dollar wars, and a government that draws ever more parasitically on the productive energies of the American people. It’s called freedom. But as we’ve learned through hard experience, we are not going to hear a word in its favor if our political and media establishments have anything to say about it.
If we want to live in a free society, we need to break free from these artificial limitations on free debate and start asking serious questions once again. I am happy that my campaign for the presidency has finally raised some of them. But this is a long-term project that will persist far into the future. These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America.
That is why I wrote this book.
~ Ron Paul
6 responses
Hi Sean,
My webstats have been lit up recently by members of the white supremacist forum, Stormfront. (I called them out on their racism and they started calling me names) They also have the RP evolution banner on their site. My guess is that they would not be publicly supporting RP if they did not believe that he would somehow advance their horrible ideals.
I was wondering if you have read anything regarding RP’s past, especially some publications that he was connected to?
I’m sincerely curious, since it appears that you’re an RP supporter and probably have a better line on his background than I do…
Cheers.
ps: what’s your comments rss feed…?
I read about it a few months ago, and it was really difficult to digest. For me (and this is just me) I made a decision to take him at his word. He claims that he was far more detached than he should have been from something bearing his name. He claims that though he didn’t write the newsletters and didn’t know who did, he takes responsibility for what was written there.
Having read his other material, listened to his speeches and read the opinions other people have of him (even the ones that disagree with him or think him crazy haven’t been able to assail his record or character), I found nothing that suggested he believed previously or currently the things printed in that newsletter. It represents an enormous leap of faith on my part. But if the man is willing to be the sole voice of dissent in Congress on so many issues, and is willing to be laughed at or mocked for his other ideas, it seems inconsistent that he’d tiptoe around this. Of anyone I’ve ever seen, he seems the least likely to lie about his beliefs for political gain.
I will say I was surprised that no one in the debates ever took him to task on it…
As for the people on the edges who are drawn to his campaign, those groups have leaned Libertarian for years and he’s obviously the closest thing to a Libertarian in the race. It’s not a great feeling rooting for the same man they are, but I think they’re voting more for limited central government and personal freedom than a return to segregation. For me, I can’t not vote for a man who I think represents the best direction for our country because other people I don’t agree with like him too.
I don’t have a comments feed, because I’m lazy and an idiot…I’ll try to add it soon though.
thanks for responding to my comment.
and yes, you are definitely lazy…wordpress gives you a comments feed by default…
http://www.sean-johnson.com/comments/feed
I was too lazy to see if you had left it in place….
I didn’t know that - which I guess puts me more in the idiot camp :)