“There are worse things than being alone,
but it often takes decades to realize this,
and most often when you do
it's too late…
And there's nothing worse
than too late.”
― Charles Bukowski
Former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) stood alone as he delivered his farewell speech on Nov. 14, 2012.
The Republican party was fresh off another lost presidential election after backing Mitt Romney, while President Barack Obama basked in the glory of his reelection. No one in Washington, D.C., could have predicted that Donald J. Trump would soon become the next President of the United States.
Yet, on that November day, Paul could foresee America’s future — and the tough moral choices Americans would have to make in the midst of political and economic crisis.
Americans today are very much living in the future Paul foresaw. They are bedeviled by persistent inflation, the second and third-largest bank failures in the nation’s history, an unwieldy national debt, the erosion of trust in institutions, and the slow and steady loss of God-given liberties at home, all while fighting more costly and avoidable wars abroad.
But it’s not too late for Americans to heed Paul’s words. It’s not too late for liberty-loving Americans to show Paul’s lonely stand was not in vain.
Paul understood that the root of our current crisis is a matter of moral principle and personal responsibility. For all the policy debates over welfare, war, debt, and central planning, Paul knew that a free people must be a morally-principled people, seeking solutions in liberty and self-reliance.
“It’s the moral crisis that has allowed our liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth of illegal government power,” Paul said:
"If the people are unhappy with the government performance it must be recognized that government is merely a reflection of an immoral society that rejected a moral government of constitutional limitations of power and love of freedom.
If this is the problem all the tinkering with thousands of pages of new laws and regulations will do nothing to solve the problem.”
According to Paul, too many Americans believed they could consume the material fruits of liberty without maintaining a principled respect for liberty in law and culture:
“The wealth that we enjoyed and seemed to be endless, allowed concern for the principle of a free society to be neglected. As long as most people believed the material abundance would last forever, worrying about protecting a competitive productive economy and individual liberty seemed unnecessary.”
The illusion about material abundance ended, however, because “it was based on debt” and was therefore “doomed to fail,” Paul said.
“We have ended up with a system that doesn’t produce enough even to finance the debt and no fundamental understanding of why a free society is crucial to reversing these trends.
If this is not recognized, the recovery will linger for a long time. Bigger government, more spending, more debt, more poverty for the middle class, and a more intense scramble by the elite special interests will continue.”
Paul placed the blame on both political parties, citing their “aggressive partisanship and power seeking,” and noting that their ideological differences are minor. “The immoral use of force is the source of man’s political problems,” Paul said, observing that many private institutions look to government to bring about change.
Unfortunately, “the good results sought never materialize,” Paul said. Instead, government force grows, resulting in more “regulation of personal liberty and habits of our citizens.”
Paul then described the five big problems facing America then, which are still relevant today:
"1. The continuous attack on our civil liberties which threatens the rule of law and our ability to resist the onrush of tyranny.
2. Violent anti-Americanism that has engulfed the world. Because the phenomenon of ‘blow-back’ is not understood or denied, our foreign policy is destined to keep us involved in many wars that we have no business being in. National bankruptcy and a greater threat to our national security will result.
3. The ease in which we go to war, without a declaration by Congress, but accepting international authority from the UN or NATO even for preemptive wars, otherwise known as aggression.
4. A financial political crisis as a consequence of excessive debt, unfunded liabilities, spending, bailouts, and gross discrepancy in wealth distribution going from the middle class to the rich. The danger of central economic planning by the Federal Reserve must be understood.
5. World government taking over local and U.S. sovereignty by getting involved in the issues of war, welfare, trade, banking, a world currency, taxes, property ownership, and private ownership of guns."
But Paul does not leave us without hope. “The ultimate solution is not in the hands of the government,” he said, but is with individuals living and working amongst their communities. “The No. 1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with the hope that others will follow. This is of greater importance than working on changing the government; that is secondary to promoting a virtuous society. If we can achieve this, then the government will change.”
If you believe in the cause of LIBERTY as I do, and as Paul does — if you love the ideals of this great nation conceived in liberty — then you should know you are not alone.
It's not too late. Have faith! Another revolution has already begun to take shape in the minds and hearts of more Americans than you know.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 9 am-12 noon. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email newsandviews931@gmail.com.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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