Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul said Sunday that he was intent on bringing the Republican Party back to its founding principles of limited government.

“I think Republicans have dug a hole for themselves because they’re trying to out-militarize the President, saying we should do more,” he said on CBS News’ Face the Nation. “Yet 75 percent of the American people have said we’ve had enough, it’s cost us too much money, it’s time to come home.”

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Paul, a Texas congressman, has gained an enthusiastic and dedicated following for his libertarian views. While his budget-cutting economic policies are similar to other Republican candidates, his view of civil liberties and foreign policy is markedly different.

“I am talking to a whole generation, which is expanding,” Paul said. “When I can get 52,000 people out on a college campus as wildly enthusiastic to hear the message of liberty and freedom and less war and curtailing the Federal Reserve, there is no way I’m going to quit speaking out on this and there is no way I’m going to give up on the effort to get the Republicans back to their roots.”

“In some ways they say, ‘well why don’t you give up and this will help the Republican Party.’ The truth is I’m trying to save the Republican Party from themselves because they want perpetual wars, they don’t care about presidents who assassinate American citizens, they don’t care about searching our houses without a search warrant and these are the kind of things that people care about.”

Watch video, courtesy of CBS News, below: