Impressions of the Ron Paul Rally at Michigan State
1.) Boilerplate Limited Government speech and yet a speech you would hear no other candidate for President make.
2.) Reiterated promise to cut 1 Trillion from Spending if first year. Would cut much of that not from entitlement programs since those need to be phased out but would rather cut it from Foreign aid.
Analysis — I suspect that would include the shutting down of any number of foreign bases around the globe.
3.) Made a great deal of allusion that America’s turn from freedom happened almost 100 years ago w/ the Wilson administration. Noted his desire to see the 16th (unconstitutionally passed) amendment repealed and of course the necessity to end the FED, which likewise was passed under the Wilson administration. (Thank you Colonel House.)
4.) Tried to give a primer on the problem w/ Keynesianism. He did well in communicating the idea that Keynesianism sucks because it is the Government spending the money instead of the private individual. Noted that the problem thus becomes that the Government is inefficient and so wastes money as well as noting how the government then becomes the one through political favors that chooses winners and losers instead of personal hard work and achievement. Noted also that this leads to centralized planning and of course centralized planning has NEVER worked.
5.) Slammed the idea of the Government being the agency that redistributes wealth.
6.) Noted how wonderful it was that the rank and file citizenry rose up and stopped the SOPA legislation. However, the legislation was merely taken off the docket. Suspect they will try again to pass it.
7.) Spent a great deal of time lamenting the “Anti-4th amendment act” sometimes called “the Patriot act.” Said that when the time comes to repeal the Patriot act it should not be marketed as “repealing the Patriot act,” but rather as “bring back the 4th amendment act.”
8.) Told us how the Patriot Act had been legislation that had been floating around for a long time and that 9-11 served as pretext to get it passed. Also noted that the plans to go to war against Iraq had been around a long time and that 9-11 allowed the neo-cons and Statists to do that. Noted the lying ways of the FEDS who said things to get us into war with Iraq that ended up turning out to not be true. (i.e. — the need to stop Weapons of Mass destruction.”)
9.) Talked about how horrid the NDAA is and how it repeals Posse Comitatus as wel as habeas corpus so that the President can assassinate American citizens as long as he has a really really good reason and promises with all his might never to abuse the power.
10.) I think he revealed some naivete on foreign policy acting as if we are just good trade partners everyone else would become good trade partners. I am all for the end of American Empire but let’s not be naive about the fact that others will cease to flex Empire muscle if we cease to flex Empire muscle.
11.) Talked about personal and individual freedom, but as this was on a University Campus what I think I perceived the student assembly hearing was that they would be able to embrace moral anarchy and Libertinism. I believer in Liberty but liberty without responsibility is merely license. A culture cannot have cohesion where license is embraced under the name of Liberty.
12.) The assembly was composed overwhelmingly of white people but one of the sparsely numbered minorities managed to interrupt the speech by standing up with a sign, during Dr. Paul’s making a point about how Liberty can be a means of bringing people together, with a sign that said “Keep your Legislation off my vagina” while chanting something similar. Curious thing for someone to do at the rally of a man who is instinctually opposed to any legislation that touches any body part of any person.
Analysis — Notice how deftly the Democrats have changed the conversation during this election season from how horrid the Economy is to “the Republicans want to take away your right to unrestricted and uninterrupted coitus.” From a political perspective it is really quite clever even though it is all based on smoke and mirrors as no candidate is for moral clarity.
13.) Paul ended by noting how he believes that good times are ahead and that things are getting better. He says this on the basis of his seeing people hungry for Liberty. I think Paul is channeling Ronald Reagan’s optimism at this point. I don’t think Paul is correct here, if only because his program can not be successful apart from a people who embrace Jesus Christ who alone can give the Spiritual freedom from sin that can translate into economic, political, and social order liberty. Apart from Christ Paul’s program for Liberty is a recipe for anarchism.
14.) Paul mentioned the burgeoning design of the Statists to beat the war drums on Syria and Iran. He also noted that though there is a great deal of hoopla over US troops being out of Iraq that is a story that is largely hype.
15.) Paul repeated his theme that one reason the Taliban has designs on us is that we kill and maim them in their homeland. Paul also insisted that there was no Al Queda in Iraq until we showed up there.
16.) Paul lamented and went on a tirade regarding the TSA in America’s airports. Paul mentioned how insulting and humiliating the pat down procedure is.
Analysis — It is my conviction that the TSA in America’s airports is in order to incrementally condition the American Citizenry to getting used to living in a police state. The TSA then becomes a kind of forerunner to the State Police (Gestapo).
17.) Paul insisted that the fix for all this will not come from the top down. Political leadership will not see the light until they feel the electorate heat on these issues. He also insinuated (though he did not explicitly say it) that the American citizenry is also responsible for this mess because they keep electing constitutionally illiterate Ameri-tards who can not take their congressional oaths seriously because they do not know what the Constitutions says, let alone what it means.
18.) Reminded people that we had a bubble burst in 1920 that led to a depression but because the Feds did not follow a Keynesian print money because Companies were “To big to fail,” the downturn lasted only one year. This is a point that I believe people need to be educated more on. You can find info on it as written by Thomas Woods at the Von Mises site.
19.) Went on to say that the bubble busting depression of Hoover and Roosevelt (Roosevelt merely expanded Hoovers Statist approach to the 1928 Depression) that lasted 17 years lasted 17 years because of the Keynesian approach that sought to reform the American social order through a Socialist approach as opposed to merely seeking to revive the economy by letting the failures fail and the market to its work.
Analysis — Some great books on this subject have been written recently that I highly recommend. Amity Shlaes, “The Forgotten Man.” Burton Folsom’s “New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America.” Jim Powell’s ”
FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression.” Also you really should read Hayek’s “The Road To Serfdom” if you want to understand where this is all taking us.
20.) Paul rightly analyzed that the result of Keynesianism and redistributionist socialist policy is HUGE benefit to the Wealthy, small benefit to the poor, and an attack on the middle class as they end up being the ones who pay for the bailouts that are part of Keynesian policies. People don’t seem to understand that the uber Wealthy are the ones advantaged by socialism and that socialism never never helps the poor and disadvantaged over the long run. Paul though did say he has no problem with people being Wealthy as long as the wealth is gained honestly. Paul noted that all honest wealth is is an indication that somebody has provided a service that somebody else desires and is willing to pay for.
21.) Paul talked about the dollar and how the FED can not define what a dollar is.
Analysis — All the dollar is, is a unit of measurement. To say “dollar” is like telling someone to go to the grocery store and get a quart. A quart of what? A dollar is merely a unity of measurement that originally represented value in gold or silver but as we have been taken off the gold standard the dollar has no definition except whatever the State says it means by its fiat word. Thank you FDR. Thank you Richard Nixon and Bretton Woods.
22.) Paul is not polished speaker but what he lacks in eloquence he more than makes up for in sincerity, passion, and understanding his subject matter.
23.) Rally started with the introduction of his wife of 55 years (Carol) and one of his adult grand-daughters.