Ron Paul, whose forty-plus years in the political arena include a run for president as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988, received at the party’s national convention last weekend a Hall of Liberty award for his achievement in advancing the libertarian movement. Paul, who was unable to attend the convention, did appear in the convention hall via a video address in which Paul both expressed his deep appreciation for the award and offered some advice to the people assembled. Paul’s advice includes that they strive to be principled instead of wishy-washy.
Early in his message, Paul declares optimism for the libertarian message spreading this year. Paul explains:
It’s an exciting year, right now, for libertarianism to come alive and offer up a solution to the mess we are in. The country’s in a mess. We are in a bankruptcy. The things that we have tried for many, many years — the Progressive Era has ended, and the only answers as far as I am concerned can be found in libertarian ideas. The basic principle, of course, is that of the rejection of the initiation of force — the nonaggression principle.
Dr. Paul continues that he is “absolutely convinced the message of libertarianism, the message of liberty, is the answer to the problems that we have, which means the state is the enemy of liberty.
Full post by Adam Dick @The Ron Paul Institute http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2016/june/01/ron-paul-s-advice-at-the-libertarian-national-convention-don-t-be-wishy-washy/
Ron Paul’s decision to always run for Congress as a Republican, never as a Libertarian, was pragmatic at the time, and I don’t criticize him for it. But eventually we need candidates for elective office to have the courage to run as Libertarians, not Republicans. I also hope that people like Gary Johnson and Bill Weld will run for Congress or state office as Libertarians.
adam DICK is paul’s minion
What’s funny to me is why Ron Paul gets a pass for doing politics and tailoring his messaging and positions to his maximum political advantage.
“Maximum political advantage”? What a joke. Despite his seniority, Ron Paul was repeatedly passed over for committee memberships, chairmanships, and other ladder-climbing opportunities, because he refused to “play ball” like congressmen are expected to.
And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to do an issue-by-issue comparison of his record vs. that of Johnson, or especially Weld, to see who more closely matches the LP platform.
You got the Establishment puppets you want on the ticket, so maybe you should consider yourself lucky and just shut the fuck up while you’re ahead.
Ron Paul put out some pretty radical bills while in Congress, and he got lots of people talking about things they would not likely have ever talked about if it had not been for him, like ending the Federal Reserve and jury nullification.
I will take Ron Paul over Johnson and Weld any day.
They also did the opposite when they supported Ron Paul and all of his opportunistic buddies.
What’s funny to me is why Ron Paul gets a pass for doing politics and tailoring his messaging and positions to his maximum political advantage. He had a 40 year career in politics because he wasn’t a pure Libertarian. Yet he’s treated like the Godfather, and his best friends who supported things like expansion of the police state and theocracy always get a pass.
Yeah, he wasn’t wishy-washy. He decided to actually compete in elections and make money. He wasn’t one of these pure libertarians who’ve never had a job or done anything but think they are better than everyone else.
Pretty much everyone in the room cheered Ron Paul’s message, but then a little over half the people there did the opposite when picking the presidential and vice presidential candidates.