ABC

My interview of Ron from this morning.

Texas Presidential primary race results here.

Update: Ron thrashes Peden 2:1; is re-elected to Congress (He has no Dem opponent for the fall.)

Yay Ron!

Ron Paul for minority leader!

For the Albert J. Nock types!

Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, Justin Raimondo’s excellent story of the origins of the American Old Right opposition to Great Dictator Roosevelt’s New Deal and dastardly plot to get the U.S. into WWII, its marginalization at the hands of the vile William F. Buckley Jr. and the return of Old Right libertarianism in our time is being reissued by ISI Books. It tells the stories of all the leaders of the Old Right and of the ex-communists who infiltrated the movement and turned it into nothing but a mob of support for belligerent nationalism and imperialism.

Says Ron Paul:

“When I was deciding whether or not to run for President as a Republican, I re-read Justin Raimondo’s Reclaiming the American Right and it gave me hope – that the anti-interventionist, pro-liberty Old Right, which had once dominated the party, could and would rise again. Here is living history: the story of an intellectual and political tradition that my campaign invoked and reawakened. This prescient book, written in 1993, could not be more relevant today.”

At Amazon.

Update: William F. Buckley is dead.

The Speech on YouTube: One, two, three, four, five.

Notes on Ron Paul’s great speech at UT today:

Thanks again Dr. Paul for doing this. (And for autographing my Antiwar.com sign!)

The cops said they estimated 4,000 people were there. It was a awesome crowd. When I showed up the sun was shining and Jimmie Vaughan was playing “Floodin’ Down in Texas.”

Of course in Paul’s speech, the lines on the war, for example, “Just come home,” got the most applause.

Besides that, Dr. Paul explained a vision for an America run from the bottom up by free people operating within the constraints only of the rights of other individuals. A society where the government’s only job truly is the protection of individual liberty, where the government is not expected to run our personal lives - since we trust in freedom and in each other - or the economy - since they can only “run it into the ground” - and certainly has no mandate to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations since it doesn’t work, we can’t afford it and run by crazy people or not, none of them are a threat to the United States.

A country which, like the Jedi Knights of Old, uses force for defense, never for attack. Where congressmen have so little power, there is nothing for a lobbyist to bribe. It would be a society, Paul says, with no income tax or the need for it. One where the resentments fostered by our seemingly endless culture war fade away since those matters would no longer be determined by the mandatory state and people could resolve them themselves.

A free society. A wealthy society. A live and let live society – and at peace with the rest of the world to boot.

Dr. Paul also promised that if he were the president he would never legislate through executive orders, he would never issue “signing statements” which act as an unconstitutional line-item veto, he would never let the government torture, employ the use of secret courts or secret prisons, employ military law or force in the United States, that he would always protect the great writ, habeas corpus, and each and every protection from government defined in the Constitution and its amendments. And he would never take this nation to war unless it was mandated in an official declaration by the Congress.

I believe him.

He said the Ron Paul Revolution was really just the American Revolution and the Texas Revolution - war of independence from Mexico - continued. These were men who believed that patriotism meant defending liberty. They did. Those revolutions live on today in this movement for liberty and peace.

Speaking of liberty and peace, Dr. Paul also said you can’t have liberty without peace. It is in wartime that the state truly comes into its own and violates individual rights with impunity. Where war is waged against us, war may be necessary to protect liberty, but when we start wars and occupy the world, our liberties become threatened by those sworn to protect them. And you should never sacrifice liberty for security. The trade-off is not worth it, Paul said, because you have to have liberty to provide security in the first place and without liberty, what’s to secure?

Paul also bragged that Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, libertarians and “even a few anarchists” have joined the Revolution.

Oh yeah, and as an aside when talking about how government shouldn’t interfere, Paul mentioned a bit about “what life is all about”: Trying your best to strive for virtue and honesty - stuff like that.

It will be my last vote and I will be proud to cast it for Dr. Ron Paul - best congressman ever.

Dr. Paul is still running for president and the message of individual liberty, free markets and peace that he’s delivering is still ringing bells across the land.

We love you Ron. Keep giving ‘em hell!

I forget what it was I read that fixed me from my naive belief in anti-trust laws back in the 1990s, but Ron Paul is right, executive regulation protects those the market would rightfully depose rather than the other way around. (The other guest is Dom Armentano.)

Thanks to Lew.

February 18, 2008

The DC neocons think their old dream is about to come true. They think they can defeat me in the Republican congressional primary in Texas on March 4th. And you know what? They may be right.

My opponent, who describes himself as a traditional conservative, is a dedicated servitor of all the special interests who have given us the disaster of recent years, from unconstitutional wars to a looming recession, from huge deficits to massive new welfare programs.

A Republican operative allied with the worst forces in DC recently said: “Give what you can [to Ron Paul's opponent]. Ron Paul is running scared — using his Presidential campaign’s donors’ money to subsidize a desperate last-minute attempt to save his Congressional seat.”

That is a lie, of course. It is illegal to use presidential campaign donations in my congressional race. The congressional campaign has to stand on its own. But so far, we have raised only about a third of what a well-funded effort would need.

In my 10 terms in Congress, I have not only been able to serve my constituents, and help them, for example, negotiate federal red-tape. I have also been able to defend our principles of less spending, lower taxes, no inflation, and strict adherence to the Constitution. Some people in DC laugh at the idea that I should obey my oath of office, and ask first of any proposed legislation, is it constitutional? But I know that you share my support for the vision of the framers.

My friend Congressmen Wayne Gilchrest (R-Maryland) was just defeated in his primary election by a neocon fraud similar to the one I face. My friend Walter Jones (R-North Carolina) is under heavy pressure as well. People like our hand-picked opponents will do anything to gain and keep power. They represent everything that is wrong with DC.

If I am defeated in the upcoming congressional primary, our ideas will be held to have been defeated as well. It will be proclaimed from the rooftops in DC that such “ridiculous and outmoded notions” as the free market, sound money, personal liberty, limited government, and a pro-American foreign policy are through.

I am determined not to let this happen. All that you and I believe in is far too important to the future of our country, and to everyone and everything we love, to let the neocons dance on its grave.

Please, help me stop the lies, the distortions, the pressure groups, the special interests that benefit from DC rip-offs. There is still time to run radio and tv ads, to set up phone banks, to get out the vote. But unless you help, my reelection to Congress may be in jeopardy. Please help me return to Congress to fight for the people of my district, and for the ideas that can save our country from the path to trouble we are now on.

I hesitated to ask you, since you have already done so much. But my wife Carol said, “When you need help, you ask your best friends.” So I do ask you, to hold out your hand in support.

Please give today http://www.ronpaulforcongress.com, as generously and as quickly as you can.

Sincerely,

Ron

It’s been a hell of a great Ron Paul Revolution. Thanks so much Dr. Paul for all of your efforts. It’s great to know you’ll still be taking ‘em on in the Congress.

Paul’s statement:

February 8, 2008

Whoa! What a year this has been. And what achievements we have had. If I may quote Trotsky of all people, this Revolution is permanent. It will not end at the Republican convention. It will not end in November. It will not end until we have won the great battle on which we have embarked. Not because of me, but because of you. Millions of Americans — and friends in many other countries — have dedicated themselves to the principles of liberty: to free enterprise, limited government, sound money, no income tax, and peace. We will not falter so long as there is one restriction on our persons, our property, our civil liberties. How much I owe you. I can never possibly repay your generous donations, hard work, whole-hearted dedication and love of freedom. How blessed I am to be associated with you. Carol, of course, sends her love as well.

Let me tell you my thoughts. With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.

I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.

In the presidential race and the congressional race, I need your support, as always. And I have plans to continue fighting for our ideas in politics and education that I will share with you when I can, for I will need you at my side. In the meantime, onward and upward! The neocons, the warmongers, the socialists, the advocates of inflation will be hearing much from you and me.

Sincerely,

Ron

Thanks to Tex and Lew for the intro and parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of Dr. Paul’s speech.

Robert A. Pape, Leon Hadar and Ivan Eland will be joining Philip Giraldi, Doug Bandow and Charles Peña on Ron Paul’s foreign policy team (Bandow is also a broader policy advisor).

This is great. At first I thought “Damn, I wish ya’ll had done this months ago!” but then I thought “This is perfect timing for a race that’s just beginning.”