Former Congressman Ron Paul, the dad of presidential candidate and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, says he believes states should be allowed to secede from the country, but lamented that concept was destroyed in the Civil War.

"'Ron Paul, do you favor the rights of states, communities, and individuals to secede?'" said Paul, reading a question from a listener on his daily show. "And, we could get into a discussion about whether states actually have rights, but I think the gist of this question is do they have the authority and should they be able to, yes."

"The answer is yes," continued Paul. "I think the founders of this country believed that states should be able to secede. They went together voluntarily, it's a voluntary contract and they should leave. But, of course, that principle was destroyed with the Civil War."

Paul said it would "be real nice" if individual people could secede under the principle of individual, but again lamented that wouldn't be possible because of "the authoritarians" in charge.

"If every individual who seceded took care of themselves, it would be a wonderful world," stated Paul. "You wouldn't have to take care of them. There'd be no welfare state. There would be no militarism around the world. Under those circumstances that would be very good."

"This is the most important thing right now," added Paul.