David M. Kinchen

Huntingtonnews.net

July 29, 2008

Once again, a major political party — the Republicans — has rejected the one candidate who tells the truth; we’re faced with the same old choices this November, between two Republicrats, Obama and McCain. It’s no choice at all to an ornery registered Democrat like me who has strayed off the reservation many times.

The candidate that I wanted to vote for — again — was and is U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, D-TX, and his No. 1 New York Times bestselling book “The Revolution: A Manifesto” (Grand Central Publishing, 192 pages, $21) describes the mess we’re in and how to return the U.S. to the nation the Founding Fathers envisioned.

I was right when I voted for Ron Paul when he ran for President on the Libertarian Party ticket in 1988 and millions of Americans saw the wisdom of this 10-term congressman when they contributed millions of dollars to his Internet fundraising campaign earlier this year. Paul’s book was published in April, but it’s a timeless guide to solving the nation’s problems, from our endless search for “monsters to destroy” in the immortal words of John Adams, to our creation of government agencies that were never authorized by the Constitution to the bailout of financial institutions to the trillions of dollars of unfunded mandates brought on by imperial government.

The 72-year-old obstetrician — he turns 73 on Aug. 20 — has been dubbed “Dr. No” and I for one applaud his rejection of bloated government. When he was growing up, he says, there was no federal Department of Education and he rightly says education was better for it. Since Paul is only a couple of years my senior, I couldn’t agree more.

Here are some things Ron Paul opposes: the federal income tax, foreign aid, “going abroad in search of monsters to destroy”; U.S. troops in 130 nations — including 75,000 in Germany and tens of thousands in Korea; the World Trade Organization; NAFTA; NATO; the Patriot Act; the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan; the United Nations; the Federal Reserve System — he wants a return to hard money that existed in this nation until 1933 when FDR abolished it — and bailouts of financial institutions, including the most recent one, the so-called Mortgage Reform Act just passed by the Senate and sent to President Bush for his signature.

Paul lives in Lake Jackson, TX, but was born in the Pittsburgh, PA suburb of Green Tree. Following his 1961 graduation from Duke University School of Medicine and a residency in obstetrics and gynecology, he became a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon. He later represented Texas districts in the House (1976–1977, 1979–1985, and 1997–present). He remained a Republican when he ran for President in 1988. Full disclosure, I currently live in Port Lavaca, Texas, midway between Houston and Corpus Christi, and Ron Paul is my congressman.

Ron Paul also opposes the so-called War on Drugs and has a scathing section in his book on the criminalization of marijuana in 1937. He says there are many medical benefits for marijuana and, since he’s a physician, I’ll take his word over that of the lawyers in the Justice Department. Paul also is strongly pro-life and has introduced bills to negate Roe v. Wade, although he concedes that states have the right to ban abortion, rather than the federal government.

Paul has nothing but scorn for the so-called “maestros” who chair the Federal Reserve, including the sainted Alan Greenspan. He praises Jon Stewart, host of “The Daily Show”, for asking Greenspan why there is a need for the Federal Reserve. Paul also agrees with my assessment of President Woodrow Wilson, who dragged us into a war nobody wanted, World War I, and under whose watch both the Federal Reserve and the federal income tax were instituted. Paul’s bibliography includes “Wilson’s War” by Jim Powell, a 2005 book that I’ve read that shows how Woodrow Wilson was the patron saint of today’s neoconservatives.

Ron Paul is a supporter of Israel, but he doesn’t want that prosperous country to get billions of dollars of aid from the U.S. — money we’re borrowing from China. I agree with his stand on foreign aid and want it abolished entirely.

As befits a true libertarian, Paul is a supporter of the economic policies of Ludwig von Mises and quotes the economist: “Government intervention creates unintended consequences that lead to calls for further intervention, and so on into a destructive spiral of more and more government control.”

That sounds to me like a good description of the latest mortgage bailout measure and its consequences.

Paul also quotes George Washington on government: “Government is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire; it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”

Beg, borrow or steal a copy of “The Revolution” and read it thoroughly. Paul provides an excellent libertarian bibliography, but there is no index. Paul’s slim volume is destined to become a classic like Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer,” a book cited in the reading list.

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