WASHINGTON — The revolution is here, but it will not be the kind Karl Marx predicted, said former Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul Monday night.

A crowd of eager young conservatives and libertarians gathered in the Lisner Auditorium on George Washington University’s campus Monday night to hear from the two-time GOP presidential candidate. Paul was also the Libertarian Party’s nominee in 1988.

“Policies of peace and trade like the founders advised,” Paul said, should be what conservatives pursue going forward.

Paul spent a large portion of his talk pressing his highly controversial foreign policy. He suggested that if Republicans want to lead a revolutionary change, they need to fix their stance on foreign policy, citing what he described as the “no-win wars” of the last decade.

Paul surveyed the audience to see how many people trust information they hear from the government, not a person raised their hand. People today don’t believe the government, he said. People think the government is lying to us.

“Your generation,” he said, “you want to know the truth.” Now, more than ever, issues of government transparency need to be at the forefront, Paul suggested. “Truth should not be made treasonous.”

The crowd particularly lit up when Paul addressed the failures of the drug war.

“Vices don’t need to be crimes,” he said to roaring applause.

The former congressman also berated the “systematic destruction of currency transfers of wealth,” criticizing the Wall Street bailouts.

Paul praised the power of the Internet in the free exchange of ideas.

“This is a great country with great ideas. We already have a blueprint, it’s called the Constitution,” he concluded.

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