2000 Ron Paul 5:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, I took a special order to discuss the importance
of the American Republic and
why it should be preserved. Today, I
will continue with that special order.
2000 Ron Paul 5:2 When it comes to executive orders, it
has gotten completely out of hand. Executive
orders may legitimately be
used by a President to carry out his
constitutionally authorized duties, but
that would require far fewer orders
than modern day Presidents have
issued as the 20th century comes to a
close, we find the executive branch
willfully and arrogantly using the executive
order to deliberately circumvent
the legislative body, and bragging
about it.
2000 Ron Paul 5:3 Although nearly 100,000 American
battle deaths have occurred since
World War II and both big and small
wars have been fought almost continuously,
there has not been a congressional
declaration of war since 1941.
Our Presidents now fight wars not only
without explicit congressional approval
but also in the name of the
United Nations, with our troops now
serving under foreign commanders.
2000 Ron Paul 5:4 Our Presidents have assured us that
U.N. authorization is all that is needed
to send our troops into battle. The 1973
War Powers Resolution meant to restrict
presidential war powers has either
been ignored by our Presidents or
used to justify war up to 90 days. The
Congress and the people too often have
chosen to ignore this problem, saying
little about the recent bombing in Serbia.
The continual bombing of Iraq
which has now been going on for over 9
years is virtually ignored.
2000 Ron Paul 5:5 If a President can decide on the issue
of war without a vote of the Congress,
a representative republic does not
exist. Our President should not have
the authority to declare national emergencies
and they certainly should not
have authority to declare martial law,
a power the Congress has already
granted to any future emergency.
2000 Ron Paul 5:6 Economic and political crises can develop
quickly and overly aggressive
Presidents are only too willing to enhance
their own power in dealing with
them. Congress sadly throughout this
century has been only too willing to
grant authority to our Presidents at
the sacrifice of its own.
2000 Ron Paul 5:7 The idea of separate but equal
branches of government has been forgotten
and the Congress bears much of
the responsibility for this trend. Executive
powers in the past 100 years have
grown steadily with the creation of
agencies that write and enforce their
own regulations and with Congress allowing
the President to use executive
orders without restraint.
2000 Ron Paul 5:8 But in addition, there have been various
other special vehicles that our
Presidents use without congressional
oversight. For example, the exchange
stabilization fund set up during the depression
has over $34 billion available
to be used at the President’s discretion
without congressional approval. This
slush fund grows each year as it is paid
interest on the securities it holds. It
was instrumental in the $50 billion
Mexican bailout in 1995.
2000 Ron Paul 5:9 The CIA is so secretive that even
those Congressmen privy to its operation
have little knowledge of what
this secret government actually does
around the world.
2000 Ron Paul 5:10 We know, of course, it has been involved
in the past 50 years in assassinations
and government overthrows on
frequent occasions. The Federal Reserve
operation, which works hand in
hand with the administration, is not
subject to congressional oversight. The
Fed manipulates currency exchange
rates, controls short-term interest
rates, and fixes the gold price, all behind
closed doors.
2000 Ron Paul 5:11 Bailing out foreign governments, financial
corporations and huge banks
can all be achieved without congressional
approval. One hundred years ago
when we had a gold standard, credit
could not be created out of thin air,
and, because a much more limited government
philosophy prevailed, this
could not have been possible. Today it
is hard to even document what goes on,
let alone expect Congress to control it.
2000 Ron Paul 5:12 The people should be able to closely
monitor the Government, but as our
government grows in size and scope, it,
the Government, seeks to monitor our
every move. Attacks on our privacy are
an incessant and always justified by
citing so-called legitimate needs of the
State, efficiency and law enforcement.
2000 Ron Paul 5:13 Plans are laid for numerous data
banks to record everyone’s activities.
A national ID card using our Social Security
number is the goal of many, and
even though we achieved a significant
delivery in delaying its final approval
last year, the promoters will surely
persist in their efforts.
2000 Ron Paul 5:14 Plans are made for a medical data
bank to be kept and used against our
wishes. Job banks and details of all our
lending activities continue to be of interest
to all our national policy agencies,
to make sure they know exactly
where the drug dealers, the illegal
aliens, and tax dodgers are and what
they are doing, it is argued.
2000 Ron Paul 5:15 For national security purposes, the
Echelon system of monitoring all overseas
phone calls has been introduced,
yet the details of this program are not
available to any inquiring Member of
Congress.
2000 Ron Paul 5:16 The Government knew very little
about each individual American citizen
in 1900. But, starting with World War I,
there has been a systematic growth of
Government surveillance of everyone’s
activities, with multiple records being
kept. Today, true privacy is essentially
a thing of the past. The FBI and the
IRS have been used by various administrations
to snoop and harass political
opponents, and there has been little effort
by Congress to end this abuse. A
free society, that is, a constitutional
republic, cannot be maintained if privacy
is not highly cherished and protected
by the Government, rather than
abused by it. We can expect it to get
worse.
2000 Ron Paul 5:17 Secretary of Defense Bill Cohen was
recently quoted as saying,
“Terrorism is escalating to the point that U.S.
citizens may have to choose between
civil liberties and more intrusive forms
of protection.”
This is all in the name of taking care of us.
2000 Ron Paul 5:18 As far as I am concerned, we could all
do with a lot less Government protection
and security. The offer of Government
benevolence is the worst reason
to sacrifice liberty, but we have seen a
lot of that during the 20th century.
2000 Ron Paul 5:19 Probably the most significant change
in attitude that occurred in the 20th
century was that with respect to life
itself. Although abortion has been performed
for hundreds, if not for thousands,
of years, it was rarely considered
an acceptable and routine medical
procedure without moral consequence.
2000 Ron Paul 5:20 Since 1973, abortion in America has
become routine and justified by a contorted
understanding of the right to
privacy. The difference between American
rejection of abortion at the beginning
of the century compared to today’s
casual acceptance is like night
and day. Although a vocal number of
Americans express their disgust with
abortion on demand, our legislative
bodies and the courts claim that the
procedure is a constitutionally protected
right, disregarding all scientific
evidence and legal precedents that recognize
the unborn as a legal, living entity,
deserving protection of the law.
2000 Ron Paul 5:21 Ironically, the greatest proponents of
abortion are the same ones who advocate
imprisonment for anyone who disturbs
the natural habitat of a toad.
This loss of respect for human life in
the latter half of the 20th century has
yet to have its full impact on our society.
Without a deep concern for life and
with the casual disposing of living
human fetuses, respect for liberty is
greatly diminished. This has allowed a
subtle but real justification for those
who commit violent acts against fellow
human beings.
2000 Ron Paul 5:22 It should surprise no one that a teenager
delivering a term newborn is capable
of throwing the child away in a garbage
dumpster. The new mother in this
circumstance is acting consistently,
knowing that if an abortion is done
just before a delivery, it is legally justified
and the abortionist is paid to kill
the child. Sale of fetal parts to tax-supported
institutions is now an accepted
practice. This moral dilemma that our
society has encountered over the past
40 years, if not resolved in the favor of
life, will make it impossible for a system
of laws to protect the life and liberty
of any citizen.
2000 Ron Paul 5:23 We can expect senseless violence to
continue as the sense of worth is undermined.
Children know that mothers
and sisters, when distraught, have
abortions to solve the problem of an
unwanted pregnancy. Distraught teenagers
in coping with this behavior are
now prone to use violence against others
or themselves when provoked or
confused. This tendency is made worse
because they see in this age of abortion
their own lives as having less value,
thus destroying self-esteem.
2000 Ron Paul 5:24
The prime reason government is organized
in a free society is to protect
life, not to protect those who take life.
Today, not only do we protect the
abortionist, we take taxpayers’ funds
to pay for abortions domestically as
well as overseas. This egregious policy
will continue to plague us well into the
21st century.
2000 Ron Paul 5:25
A free society designed to protect life
and liberty is incompatible with Government
sanctions and financing abortion
on demand. It should not be a surprise
to anyone that as abortion became
more acceptable, our society became
more violent and less free. The
irony is that Roe v. Wade justified
abortion using the privacy argument,
conveniently forgetting that not protecting
the innocent unborn is the
most serious violation of privacy possible.
2000 Ron Paul 5:26
If the location of the fetus is the justification
for legalized killing, the privacy
of our homes would permit the
killing of the newborn, the deformed
and the elderly, a direction, unfortunately,
in which we find ourselves
going. As government-financed medical
care increases, we will hear more economic
arguments for euthanasia, that
is, mercy killing, for the benefit of the
budget planners. Already we hear these
economic arguments for killing the elderly
and terminally ill.
2000 Ron Paul 5:27
Last year the House made a serious
error by trying to federalize the crime
of killing a fetus occurring in an act of
violence. The stated goal was to emphasize
that the fetus deserved legal
protection under the law, and, indeed,
it should and does at the State level.
Federalizing any act of violence is unconstitutional.
Essentially, all violent
acts should be dealt with by the States,
and, because we have allowed the
courts and Congress to federalize such
laws, we find more good State laws are
overridden than good Federal laws
written.
2000 Ron Paul 5:28
Roe v. Wade federalized State abortion
laws and ushered in the age of
abortion. The Unborn Victims of Violence
Act, if passed into law, will do
great harm by explicitly excluding the
abortionist, thus codifying for the first
time the Roe v. Wade concept and giving
even greater legal protection to the
abortionist.
2000 Ron Paul 5:29
The responsibility of Congress is twofold:
first, we should never fund abortions.
Nothing could be more heinous
than forcing those with strong right-to-life
beliefs to pay for abortions.
2000 Ron Paul 5:30 Second, Roe v. Wade must be replaced
by limiting jurisdiction, which
can be done through legislation, a constitutional
option. If we as a Nation do
not once again show respect and protect
the life of the unborn, we can expect
the factions that have emerged on
each side of this issue to become more
vocal and violent. A Nation that can
casually toss away its smallest and
most vulnerable members and call it a
“right” cannot continue to protect the
lives or rights of its other citizens.
2000 Ron Paul 5:31
Much has changed over the past 100
years, where technology has improved
our living standards. We find that our
Government has significantly changed
from one of limited scope to that of
pervasive intervention.
2000 Ron Paul 5:32 One hundred years ago it was generally
conceded that one extremely important
function of government was to
enforce contracts made voluntarily in
the marketplace. Today, government
notoriously interferes with almost
every voluntary economic transaction.
Consumerism, labor laws, wage standards,
hiring and firing regulations, political
correctness, affirmative action,
the Americans with Disability Act, the
Tax Code, and others place a burden on
the two parties struggling to transact
business.
2000 Ron Paul 5:33 The EPA, OSHA and government-generated
litigation also interferes
with voluntary contracts. At times, it
seems a miracle that our society
adapts and continues to perform reasonably
well in spite of the many bureaucratic
dictates.
2000 Ron Paul 5:34 As the 20th century comes to a close,
we see a dramatic change from a government
that once served an important
function by emphasizing the value of
voluntary contracts to one that excessively
interferes with them. Although
the interference is greater in economic
associations than in social, the principle
is the same. Already we see the
political correctness movement interfering
with social and religious associations.
Data banks are set up to keep
records on everyone, especially groups
with strong religious views and anybody
to be so bold as to call himself a
patriot. The notion that there is a difference
between murder and murder
driven by hate has established the principles
of a thought crime, a dangerous
trend indeed.
2000 Ron Paul 5:35 When the business cycle turns down,
all the regulations and laws that interfere
with economic and personal transactions
will not be as well tolerated,
and then the true cost will become apparent.
It is under the conditions of a
weak economy that such government
interference generates a reaction to
the anger over the rules that have been
suppressed.
2000 Ron Paul 5:36 To the statist, the idea that average
people can and should take care of
themselves by making their own decisions
and that they do not need Big
Brother to protect them in everything
they do is anathema to the way they
think.
2000 Ron Paul 5:37 The bureaucratic mindset is convinced
that without the politicians’ effort,
no one would be protected from
anything, rejecting the idea of a free
market economy out of ignorance or
arrogance. This change in the 20th century
has significantly contributed to
the dependency of our poor on Government
handouts, the recipients being
convinced that they are entitled to
help and that they are incapable of
taking care of themselves. A serious
loss of self-esteem and unhappiness results,
even if the system in the short
run seems to help them get by.
2000 Ron Paul 5:38 There were no Federal laws at the
end of the 19th century dealing with
drugs or guns. Gun violence was rare
and abuse of addictive substances was
only a minor problem. Now, after 100
years of progressive Government intervention
in dealing with guns and drugs,
with thousands of laws and regulations,
we have more gun violence and a
huge drug problem.
2000 Ron Paul 5:39 Before the social authoritarians decided
to reform the gun and drug culture,
they amended the Constitution
enacting alcohol prohibition. Prohibition
failed to reduce alcohol usage and
a crime wave resulted. After 14 years,
the American people demanded repeal
of this social engineering amendment,
and got it.
2000 Ron Paul 5:40
Prohibition prompted the production
of poor quality alcohol with serious
health consequences, while respect for
the law was lost as it was flagrantly
violated. At least at that time the
American people believed the Constitution
had to be amended to prohibit the
use of alcohol, something that is entirely
ignored today in the Federal
Government’s effort to stop drug
usage.
2000 Ron Paul 5:41 In spite of the obvious failure of alcohol
prohibition, the Federal Government,
after its repeal, turned its sights
on gun ownership and drug usage. The
many Federal anti-gun laws written
since 1934, along with the constant
threat of outright registration and confiscation,
have put the FBI and the
BATF at odds with millions of law
abiding citizens who believe the Constitution
is explicit in granting the
right of gun ownership to all non-violent
Americans.
2000 Ron Paul 5:42
Our government pursued alcohol prohibition
in the 1920s and confiscation of
gold in the 1930s, so it is logical to conclude
that our government is quite capable
of confiscating all privately-owned
firearms. That has not yet occurred;
but as we move into the next
century, many in Washington advocate
just that and would do it if they did
not think the American people would
revolt, just as they did against alcohol
prohibition.
2000 Ron Paul 5:43
Throughout this century, there has
been a move toward drug prohibition
starting with the Harrison Act of 1912.
The first Federal marijuana law was
pushed through by FDR in 1938, but the
real war on drugs has been fought with
intensity for the past 30 years.
2000 Ron Paul 5:44 Hundreds of billions of dollars have
been spent and not only is there no evidence
of reduced drug usage, we have
instead seen a tremendous increase.
Many deaths have occurred from
overdoses of street drugs since there is
no quality control or labeling. Crime as
a consequence of drug prohibition has
skyrocketed and our prisons are overflowing.
Many prisoners are nonviolent
and should be treated as patients with
addictions, not as criminals. Irrational
mandatory minimum sentences have
caused a great deal of harm. We have
nonviolent drug offenders doing life
sentences, and there is no room to incarcerate
the rapists and murderers.
2000 Ron Paul 5:45
With drugs and needles illegal, the
unintended consequence of the spread
of AIDS and hepatitis through dirty
needles has put a greater burden on the
taxpayers who are forced to care for
the victims.
2000 Ron Paul 5:46
This ridiculous system that offers a
jail cell for a sick addict rather than
treatment has pushed many a young
girl into prostitution to pay for the
drugs priced hundreds of times higher
than they are worth, but the drug dealers
love the system and dread a new approach.
2000 Ron Paul 5:47
When we finally decide that drug prohibition
has been no more successful
than alcohol prohibition, the drug dealers
will disappear. The monster drug
problem we have created is compounded
by moves to tax citizens so
government can hand out free needles
to drug addicts who are breaking the
law in hopes that there will be less
spread of hepatitis and AIDS in order
to reduce government health care
costs.
2000 Ron Paul 5:48
This proposal shows how bankrupt we
are at coming to grips with this problem,
and it seems we will never learn.
2000 Ron Paul 5:49 Tobacco is about to be categorized as
a drug and prohibition of sorts imposed.
This will make the drug war
seem small if we continue to expand
the tobacco war. Talk about insane
government policies of the 20th century,
tobacco policy wins the prize.
First, we subsidize tobacco in response
to demands by the special interests,
knowing full well even from the beginning
that tobacco had many negative
health consequences. Then we spend
taxpayers’ money warning the people
of its dangers, without stopping the
subsidies.
2000 Ron Paul 5:50
Government then pays for the care of
those who choose to smoke, despite the
known dangers and warnings. But it
does not stop there. The trial lawyers’
lobby saw to it that the local government
entities could sue tobacco companies
for reimbursement of the excess
costs that they were bearing in taking
care of smoking-related illnesses, and
the only way this could be paid for was
to place a tax on those people who did
not smoke.
2000 Ron Paul 5:51
How could such silliness go on for so
long? For one reason. We as a nation
have forgotten the basic precept of a
free society, that all citizens must be
responsible for their own acts. If one
smokes and gets sick, that is the problem
of the one making the decision to
smoke or take any other risk for that
matter, not the innocent taxpayers
who have already been forced to pay
for the tobacco subsidies and government
health warning ads.
2000 Ron Paul 5:52
Beneficiaries of this monstrous policy
have been tobacco farmers, tobacco
manufacturers, politicians, bureaucrats,
smokers, health organizations,
and physicians, and especially the trial
lawyers. Who suffers? The innocent
taxpayers that have no choice in the
matter and who acted responsibly and
chose not to smoke.
2000 Ron Paul 5:53
Think of what it would mean if we
followed this simple logic and implemented
a Federal social program, similar
to the current war on smoking, designed
to reduce the spread of AIDS
within the gay community. Astoundingly,
we have done the opposite by
making AIDS a politically correct disease.
There was certainly a different
attitude a hundred years ago regarding
those with sexually transmitted diseases
like syphilis compared to the special
status given AIDS victims today.
2000 Ron Paul 5:54
It is said that an interventionist
economy is needed to make society fair
to everyone. We need no more government
fairness campaigns. Egalitarianism
never works and inevitably
penalizes the innocent. Government in
a free society is supposed to protect
the innocent, encourage self-reliance
and impose equal justice while allowing
everyone to benefit from their own
effort and suffer the consequences of
their own acts. A free and independent
people need no authoritarian central
government dictating eating, drinking,
gambling, sexual, or smoking habits.
2000 Ron Paul 5:55
When the rules are required, they
should come from the government closest
to home as it once did prior to
America’s ill-fated 20th Century experiment
with alcohol prohibition. Let us
hope we show more common sense in
the 21st Century in these matters than
we did in the 20th.
2000 Ron Paul 5:56
A compulsive attitude by politicians
to regulate nonviolent behavior may be
well intentioned but leads to many unintended
consequences. Legislation
passed in the second half of the 20th
Century dealing with drugs and personal
habits has been the driving force
behind the unconstitutional seizure
and forfeiture laws and the loss of financial
privacy.
2000 Ron Paul 5:57
The war on drugs is the most important
driving force behind the national
police state. The excuse given for calling
in the Army helicopters and tanks
at the Waco disaster was that the authorities
had evidence of an amphetamine
lab on the Davidian property.
This was never proven, but nevertheless
it gave the legal cover but not the
proper constitutional authority for escalating
the attack on the Davidians
which led to the senseless killing of so
many innocent people.
2000 Ron Paul 5:58
The attitudes surrounding this entire
issue needs to change. We should never
turn over the job of dealing with bad
habits to our Federal Government.
That is a recipe for disaster.
2000 Ron Paul 5:59
America has not only changed technologically
in the last 100 years but our
social attitudes and personal philosophies
have changed as well. We have
less respect for life and less love for
liberty. We are obsessed with material
things, along with rowdy and raucous
entertainment. Needs and wants have
become rights for both poor and rich.
The idea of instant gratification too
often guides our actions, and when satisfaction
is not forthcoming anger and
violence breaks out. Road rage and airline
passenger rage are seen more frequently.
Regardless of fault, a bad outcome
in almost anything, even if beyond
human control, will prompt a
lawsuit. Too many believe they deserve
to win the lottery and a lawsuit helps
the odds.
2000 Ron Paul 5:60
Unfortunately, the only winners too
often are the lawyers hyping the litigation.
Few Americans are convinced
anymore that productive effort is the
most important factor in economic
success and personal satisfaction. One
did not get rich in the 1990s investing
in companies that had significant or
modest earnings. The most successful
investors bought companies that had
no earnings and the gambling paid off
big. This attitude cannot create perpetual
wealth and must some day end.
2000 Ron Paul 5:61
Today, financial gurus are obsessed
with speculation in the next initial
public offering and express no interest
in the cause of liberty without which
markets cannot exist.
2000 Ron Paul 5:62
Lying and cheating are now acceptable
by the majority. This was not true
100 years ago when moral standards
were higher. The October 1999 issue of
U.S. News and World Report reveals
that 84 percent of college students believe
cheating is necessary to get ahead
in today’s world, and 90 percent are
convinced there is no price to pay for
the cheating. Not surprisingly, 90 percent
of college students do not believe
politicians, and an equal number of
percentage believes the media cheats
as well.
2000 Ron Paul 5:63
There is no way to know if this problem
is this bad in the general population,
but these statistics indicate our
young people do not trust our politicians
or media. Trust has been replaced
with a satisfaction in the materialism
that speculative stock markets, borrowing
money, and a spendthrift government
can generate.
2000 Ron Paul 5:64
What happens to our society if the
material abundance which we enjoy is
ephemeral and human trust is lost? Social
disorder will surely result and
there will be a clamor for a more authoritarian
government. This scenario
may indeed threaten the stability of
our social order and significantly undermine
all our constitutional protections,
but there is no law or ethics
committee that will solve this problem
of diminishing trust and honesty. That
is a problem of the heart, mind and
character to be dealt with by each individual
citizen.
2000 Ron Paul 5:65
The importance of the family unit
today has been greatly diminished
compared to the close of the 19th Century.
Now, fewer people get married,
more divorces occur and the number of
children born out of wedlock continues
to rise. Tax penalties are placed on
married couples. Illegitimacy and single
parenthood are rewarded by government
subsidies, and we find many authoritarians
arguing that the definition
of marriage should change in order
to allow non-husband and -wife couples
to qualify for welfare handouts.
2000 Ron Paul 5:66
The welfare system has mocked the
concept of marriage in the name of political
correctness, economic egalitarianism,
and heterophobia. Freedom
of speech is still cherished in America
but the political correctness movement
has seriously undermined dissent on
our university campuses. A conservative
or libertarian black intellectual
is clearly not treated with the same respect
afforded an authoritarian black
spokesman.
2000 Ron Paul 5:67
We now hear of individuals being sent
to psychiatrists when personal and social
views are crude or out of the ordinary.
It was commonplace in the Soviet
system to incarcerate political
dissenters in so-called mental institutions.
Those who received a Soviet government
designation of socially undesirable
elements were stripped of their
rights. Will this be the way we treat
political dissent in the future?
2000 Ron Paul 5:68
We hear of people losing their jobs
because of socially undesirable
thoughts or for telling off-color jokes.
Today, sensitivity courses are routinely
required in America to mold social
thinking for the simplest of infractions.
The thought police are all
around us. It is a bad sign.
2000 Ron Paul 5:69
Any academic discussion questioning
the wisdom of our policies surrounding
World War II is met with shrill accusations
of anti-Semitism and Nazi lover.
No one is ever even permitted, without
derision by the media, the university
intellectuals and the politicians, to ask
why the United States allied itself with
the murdering Soviets and then turned
over Eastern Europe to them while
ushering in a 45-yearsaber-rattling,
dangerous Cold War period.
2000 Ron Paul 5:70
Free speech is permitted in our universities
for those who do not threaten
the status quo of welfarism, globalism,
corporatism, and a financial system
that provides great benefit to the powerful
special interests. If a university
professor does not follow the party
line, he does not receive tenure.
2000 Ron Paul 5:71
We find ourselves at the close of this
century realizing all our standards
have been undermined. A monetary
standard for our money is gone. The
dollar is whatever the government tells
us it is. There is no definition and no
promise to pay anything for the notes
issued ad infinitum by the government.
Standards for education are continually
lowered, deemphasizing excellence.
Relative ethics are promoted
and moral absolutes are ridiculed. The
influence of religion on our standards
is frowned upon and replaced by secular
humanistic standards. The work
ethic has been replaced by a welfare
ethic based on need, not effort. Strict
standards required for an elite military
force are gone and our lack of readiness
reflects this.
2000 Ron Paul 5:72
Standards of behavior of our professional
athletes seem to reflect the
rules followed in the ring by the professional
wrestlers where anything goes.
Managed medical care driven by government
decrees has reduced its quality
and virtually ruined the doctor-patient
relationship.
2000 Ron Paul 5:73
Movie and TV standards are so low
that our young people’s senses are totally
numbed by them. Standards of
courtesy on highways, airplanes, and
shops are seriously compromised and
at times leads to senseless violence.
2000 Ron Paul 5:74
With the acceptance of abortion, our
standards for life have become totally
arbitrary as they have become for liberty.
Endorsing the arbitrary use of
force by our government morally justifies
the direct use of force by disgruntled
groups not satisfied with the slower
government process. The standards
for honesty and truth have certainly
deteriorated during the past 100 years.
2000 Ron Paul 5:75
Property ownership has been undermined
through environmental regulations
and excessive taxation. True ownership
of property no longer exists.
There has been a systematic undermining
of legal and constitutional
principles once followed and respected
for the protection of individual liberty.
2000 Ron Paul 5:76
A society cannot continue in a state
of moral anarchy. Moral anarchy will
lead to political anarchy. A society
without clearly understood standards
of conduct cannot remain stable any
more than an architect can design and
build a sturdy skyscraper with measuring
instruments that change in value
each day. We recently lost a NASA
space probe because someone failed to
convert inches to centimeters, a simple
but deadly mistake in measuring physical
standards. If we as a people debase
our moral standards, the American Republic
will meet a similar fate.
2000 Ron Paul 5:77
Many Americans agree that this
country is facing a moral crisis that
has been especially manifested in the
closing decade of the 21st century. Our
President’s personal conduct, the characters
of our politicians in general, the
caliber of the arts, movies, and television,
and our legal system have reflected
this crisis.
2000 Ron Paul 5:78
The personal conduct of many of our
professional athletes and movie stars
has been less than praiseworthy. Some
politicians, sensing this, have pushed
hard to write and strictly enforce numerous
laws regarding personal nonviolent
behavior with the hope that the
people will become more moral.
2000 Ron Paul 5:79
This has not happened, but has filled
our prisons. This year it will cost more
than $40 billion to run our prison system.
The prison population, nearing 2
million, is up 70 percent in the last decade,
and two-thirds of the inmates did
not commit an act of violence. Mandatory
minimum drug sentencing laws
have been instrumental in this trend.
2000 Ron Paul 5:80
Laws clearly cannot alter moral behavior,
and if it is attempted, it creates
bigger problems. Only individuals
with moral convictions can make society
moral. But the law does reflect the
general consensus of the people regarding
force and aggression, which is a
moral issue. Government can be directed
to restrain and punish violent
aggressive citizens, or it can use aggressive
force to rule the people, redistribute
wealth, and make citizens follow
certain moral standards, and force
them to practice certain personal habits.
2000 Ron Paul 5:81
Once government is permitted to do
the latter, even in a limited sense, the
guiding principle of an authoritarian
government is established, and its
power and influence over the people
will steadily grow, at the expense of
personal liberty. No matter how well-intentioned,
the authoritarian government
always abuses its powers. In its
effort to achieve an egalitarian society,
the principle of inequality that
freedom recognizes and protects is lost.
2000 Ron Paul 5:82
Government, then, instead of being
an obstruction to violence, becomes
the biggest perpetrator. This invites all
the special interests to manipulate the
monopoly and evil use of government
power. Twenty thousand lobbyists currently
swarm Washington seeking special
advantage. That is where we find
ourselves today.
2000 Ron Paul 5:83
Although government cannot and
should not try to make people better in
the personal, moral sense, proper law
should have a moral, nonaggressive
basis to it: no lying, cheating, stealing,
killing, injuring, or threatening. Government
then would be limited to protecting
contracts, people, and property,
while guaranteeing all personal nonviolent
behavior, even the controversial.
2000 Ron Paul 5:84
Although there are degrees in various
authoritarian societies as to how much
power a government may wield, once
government is given the authority to
wield power, it does so in an ever-increasing
manner. The pressure to use
government authority to run the economy
in our lives depends on several
factors. These include a basic understanding
of personal liberty, respect for
a constitutional republic, economic
myths, ignorance, and misplaced good
intentions.
2000 Ron Paul 5:85
In every society there are always
those waiting in the wings for an opportunity
to show how brilliant they
are as they lust for power, convinced
that they know what is best for everyone.
But the defenders of liberty know
that what is best for everyone is to be
left alone, with a government limited
to stopping aggressive behavior.
2000 Ron Paul 5:86
The 20th century has produced socialist
dictators the world over, from Stalin,
Hitler, and Mao to Pol Pot, Castro,
and Ho Chi Minh. More than 200 million
people died as a result of bad ideas
of these evil men. Each and every one
of these dictators despised the principle
of private property ownership,
which then undermined all the other
liberties cherished by the people.
2000 Ron Paul 5:87
It is argued that the United States
and now the world have learned a third
way, something between extreme socialism
and mean-spirited capitalism.
But this is a dream. The so-called
friendly third way endorses 100 percent
the principle that government authority
can be used to direct our lives and
the economy. Once this is accepted, the
principle that man alone is responsible
for his salvation and his life on Earth,
which serves as the foundation for free
market capitalism, is rejected.
2000 Ron Paul 5:88
The third way of friendly welfarism
or soft fascism, where government and
businesses are seen as partners, undermines
and sets the stage for authoritarian
socialism. Personal liberty cannot
be preserved if we remain on the
course at which we find ourselves at
the close of the 20th century.
2000 Ron Paul 5:89
In our early history, it was understood
that a free society embraced both
personal civil liberties and economic
liberties. During the 20th century this
unified concept of freedom has been undermined.
Today we have one group
talking about economic freedom while
interfering with our personal liberty,
and the other group condemning economic
liberty while preaching the need
to protect personal civil liberties. Both
groups reject liberty 50 percent of the
time. That leaves very few who defend
liberty all the time. Sadly, there are
too few in this country who today understand
and defend liberty in both
areas.
2000 Ron Paul 5:90
A common debate that we hear occurs
over how we can write laws protecting
normal speech and at the same
time limiting commercial speech, as if
they were two entirely different things.
Many Americans wonder why Congress
pays so little attention to the Constitution
and are bewildered as to how
so much inappropriate legislation gets
passed.
2000 Ron Paul 5:91
But the Constitution is not entirely
ignored. It is used correctly at times
when it is convenient and satisfies a
particular goal, but never consistently
across-the-board on all legislation.
2000 Ron Paul 5:92
Two, the Constitution is all too frequently
made to say exactly what the
authors of special legislation want it to
say. That is the modern way language
can be made relative to our times, but
without a precise understanding and
respect for the supreme law of the land,
that is, the Constitution, it no longer
serves as the guide for the rule of law.
In its place, we have substituted the
rule of man and the special interests.
2000 Ron Paul 5:93
That is how we have arrived at the
close of this century without a clear
understanding or belief in the cardinal
principles of the Constitution: the separation
of powers and the principle of
Federalism. Instead, we are rushing toward
a powerful executive, centralized
control, and a Congress greatly diminished
in importance.
2000 Ron Paul 5:94
Executive orders, agency regulations,
Federal court rulings, unratified international
agreements, direct government,
economy, and foreign policy.
Congress has truly been reduced in status
and importance over the past 100
years. When the people’s voices are
heard, it is done indirectly through
polling, allowing our leaders to decide
how far they can go without stirring up
the people.
2000 Ron Paul 5:95
But this is opposite to what the Constitution
was supposed to do. It was
meant to protect the rights of the minority
from the dictates of the majority.
The majority vote of the powerful
and influential was never meant to rule
the people.
2000 Ron Paul 5:96
We may not have a king telling us
which trees we can cut down today, but
we do have a government bureaucracy
and a pervasive threat of litigation by
radical environmentalists who keep us
from cutting our own trees, digging a
drainage ditch, or filling a puddle, all
at the expense of private property ownership.
2000 Ron Paul 5:97
The key element in a free society is
that individuals should wield control of
their lives, receiving the benefits and
suffering the consequences of all their
acts. Once the individual becomes a
pawn of the state, whether a monarch- or
a majority-ruled state, a free society
can no longer endure.
2000 Ron Paul 5:98
We are dangerously close to that happening
in America, even in the midst of
plenty and with the appearance of contentment.
If individual liberty is carelessly
snuffed out, the creative energy
needed for productive pursuits will dissipate.
Government produces nothing,
and in its effort to redistribute wealth,
can only destroy it.
2000 Ron Paul 5:99
Freedom too often is rejected, especially
in the midst of plenty, when
there is a belief that government largesse
will last forever. This is true because
it is tough to accept personal responsibility,
practice the work ethic,
and follow the rules of peaceful coexistence
with our fellow man.
2000 Ron Paul 5:100
Continuous vigilance against the
would-be tyrants who promise security
at minimum cost must be maintained.
The temptation is great to accept the
notion that everyone can be a beneficiary
of the caring state and a winner
of the lottery or a class action lawsuit.
But history has proven there is never a
shortage of authoritarians, benevolent,
of course, quite willing to tell others
how to live for their own good. A little
sacrifice of personal liberty is a small
price to pay for long-time security, it
is too often argued.
2000 Ron Paul 5:101
I have good friends who are in basic
agreement with my analysis of the current
state of the American republic,
but argue it is a waste of time and effort
to try and change the direction in
which we are going. No one will listen,
they argue. Besides, the development
of a strong, centralized, authoritarian
government is too far along to reverse
the trends of the 20th century. Why
waste time in Congress when so few
people care about liberty, they ask?
The masses, they point out, are interested
only in being taken care of, and
the elite want to keep receiving the
special benefits allotted to them
through special interest legislation.
2000 Ron Paul 5:102
I understand the odds, and I am not
naive enough to believe the effort to
preserve liberty is a cake walk. I am
very much aware of my own limitations
in achieving this goal. But ideas
based on sound and moral principles do
have consequences, and powerful ideas
can make major consequences beyond
our wildest dreams.
2000 Ron Paul 5:103
Our Founders clearly understood
this, and they knew they would be successful,
even against the overwhelming
odds they faced. They described this
steady confidence they shared with
each other when hopes were dim as “divine
Providence.”
2000 Ron Paul 5:104
Good ideas can have good results, and
we must remember, bad ideas can have
bad results. It is crucial to understand
that vague and confusing idealism produces
mediocre results, especially
when it is up against a determined effort
to promote an authoritarian system
that is sold to the people as conciliatory
and nonconfrontational, a compromise,
they say, between the two extremes.
2000 Ron Paul 5:105
But it must be remembered that no
matter how it is portrayed, when big
government systematically and steadily
undermines individual rights and
economic liberty, it is still a powerful
but negative idea and it will not fade
away easily.
2000 Ron Paul 5:106
Ideas of liberty are a great threat to
those who enjoy planning the economy
and running other peoples’ lives. The
good news is that our numbers are
growing. More Americans than ever before
are very much aware of what is
going on in Washington and how, on a
daily basis, their liberties are being undermined.
There are more intellectual
think tanks than ever before promoting
the market economy, private
property ownership, and personal liberty.
2000 Ron Paul 5:107
The large majority of Americans are
sick and tired of being overtaxed, and
despise the income tax and the inheritance
tax. The majority of Americans
know government programs fail to
achieve their goals and waste huge
sums of money. A smoldering resentment
against the unfairness of government
and efforts to force equality on
us can inspire violence, but instead, it
should be used to encourage an honest
system of equal justice based on individual,
not collective, rights.
2000 Ron Paul 5:108
Sentiment is moving in the direction
of challenging the status quo of the
welfare and international warfare
state. The Internet has given hope to
millions who have felt their voices
were not being heard, and this influence
is just beginning. The three major
networks and conventional government
propaganda no longer control the information
now available to everyone with
a computer.
2000 Ron Paul 5:109
The only way the supporters of big
government can stop the Internet will
be to tax, regulate, and monitor it. Although
it is a major undertaking, plans
are already being laid to do precisely
that. Big government proponents are
anxious to make the tax on the Internet
an international tax, as advocated
by the United Nations, apply the
Eschelon principle used to monitor all
overseas phone calls to the Internet,
and prevent the development of private
encryption that would guarantee privacy
on the Internet.
2000 Ron Paul 5:110
These battles have just begun. If the
civil libertarians and free market proponents
do not win this fight to keep
the Internet free and private, the tools
for undermining authoritarian government
will be greatly reduced. Victory
for liberty will probably elude us for
decades.
2000 Ron Paul 5:111
The excuse they will give for controlling
the Internet will be to stop pornography,
catch drug dealers, monitor
child molesters, and do many other so-called
good things. We should not be
deceived. We have faced tough odds,
but to avoid battle or believe there is a
place to escape to, someplace else in
the world, would concede victory to
those who endorse authoritarian government.
2000 Ron Paul 5:112
The grand experiment in human liberty
must not be abandoned. A renewed
hope and understanding of liberty is
what we need as we move into the 21st
century. A perfectly free society we
know cannot be achieved, and the ideal
perfect socialism is an oxymoron. Pursuing
that goal throughout the 20th
century has already caused untold suffering.
2000 Ron Paul 5:113
The clear goal of a free society must
be understood and sought, or the vision
of the authoritarians will face little resistance
and will easily fill the void.
2000 Ron Paul 5:114
There are precise goals Congress
should work for, even under today’s
difficult circumstances. It must preserve
in the best manner possible voluntary
options to failed government
programs.
2000 Ron Paul 5:116
1. Complete police protection is impossible;
therefore, we must preserve
the right to own weapons in self-defense.
2000 Ron Paul 5:117
2. In order to maintain economic protection
against Government
debasement of the currency, gold ownership
must be preserved, something
taken away from the American people
during the Depression.
2000 Ron Paul 5:118
3. Adequate retirement protection by
the Government is limited, if not ultimately
impossible. We must allow
every citizen the opportunity to control
all of his or her retirement funds.
2000 Ron Paul 5:119
4. Government education has clearly
failed. We must guarantee the right of
families to home school or send their
kids to private schools and help them
with tax credits.
2000 Ron Paul 5:120
5. Government snoops must be
stopped. We must work to protect all
privacy, especially on the Internet,
prevent the national ID card, and stop
the development of all Government
data banks.
2000 Ron Paul 5:121
6. Federal police functions are unconstitutional
and increasingly abusive.
We should disarm all Federal bureaucrats
and return the police function to
local authorities.
2000 Ron Paul 5:122
7. The Army was never meant to be
used in local policing activities. We
must firmly prevent our Presidents
from using the military in local law enforcement
operations, which is now
being planned for under the guise of
fighting terrorism.
2000 Ron Paul 5:123
8. Foreign military intervention by
our Presidents in recent years to police
the American empire is a costly failure.
Foreign military intervention
should not be permitted without explicit
congressional approval.
2000 Ron Paul 5:124
9. Competition in all elections should
be guaranteed, and the monopoly powers
gained by the two major parties
through unfair signature requirements,
high fees, and campaign donation controls
should be removed. Competitive
parties should be allowed in all government-sponsored debate.
2000 Ron Paul 5:125
10. We must do whatever is possible
to help instill a spirit of love for freedom
and recognize that our liberties
depend on responsible individuals, not
the group or the collective or the society
as a whole. The individual is the
building block of a free and prosperous
social order.
2000 Ron Paul 5:126
The Founders knew full well that the
concept of liberty was fragile and could
easily be undermined. They worried
about the dangers that lay ahead. As
we move into the new century, it is an
appropriate time to rethink the principles
upon which a free society rest.
2000 Ron Paul 5:127
Jefferson, concerned about the future
wrote,
“Yes, we did produce a near-perfect
republic, but will they keep it? Or
will they, in the enjoyment of plenty,
lose the memory of freedom? Material
abundance without character is the
path of destruction.”
2000 Ron Paul 5:128
“They,” that he refers to are “we.”
And the future is now. Freedom, Jefferson
knew, would produce plenty, and
with material abundance it is easy to
forget the responsibility the citizens of
a free society must assume if freedom
and prosperity are to continue.
2000 Ron Paul 5:129
The key element for the Republic’s
survival for Jefferson was the character
of the people, something no set of
laws can instill. The question today is
not that of abundance, but of character,
respect for others, and their liberty
and their property. It is the character
of the people that determines the
proper role for government in a free society.
2000 Ron Paul 5:130
Samuel Adams, likewise, warned future
generations. He referred to “good
manners” as the vital ingredient that a
free society needs to survive. Adams
said,
“Neither the wisest Constitution
nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty
and happiness of a people whose
manners are universally corrupt.”
2000 Ron Paul 5:131
The message is clear. If we lose our
love of liberty and our manners become
corrupt, character is lost and so is the
Republic. But character is determined
by free will and personal choice by
each of us individually. Character can
be restored or cast aside at a whim.
The choice is ours alone, and our leaders
should show the way.
2000 Ron Paul 5:132
Some who are every bit as concerned
as I am about our future and the pervasive
corrupt influence in our Government
in every aspect of our lives offer
other solutions. Some say to solve the
problem all we have to do is write more
detailed laws dealing with campaign finance
reform, ignoring how this might
undermine the principles of liberty.
Similarly, others argue that what is
needed is merely to place tighter restrictions
on the lobbyists in order to
minimize their influence. But they fail
to realize this undermines our constitutional
right to petition our Government
for redress of grievances.
2000 Ron Paul 5:133
And there are others with equally
good intentions that insist on writing
even more laws and regulations punishing
nonviolent behavior in order to
teach good manners and instill character.
But they fail to see that tolerating
nonviolent behavior, even when
stupid and dangerous to one’s own self,
is the same as our freedom to express
unpopular political and offensive ideas
and to promote and practice religion in
any way one chooses.
2000 Ron Paul 5:134
Resorting to writing more laws with
the intent of instilling good character
and good manners in the people is
anathema to liberty. The love of liberty
can come only from within and is
dependent on a stable family and a society
that seeks the brotherhood of
man through voluntary and charitable
means.
2000 Ron Paul 5:135
And there are others who believe
that government force is legitimate in
promoting what they call “fair redistribution.”
The proponents of this
course have failed to read history and
instead adhere to economic myths.
They ignore the evidence that these efforts
to help their fellow man will inevitably
fail. Instead, it will do the opposite
and lead to the impoverishment
of many.
2000 Ron Paul 5:136
But more importantly, if left unchecked,
this approach will destroy liberty
by undermining the concept of private
property ownership and free markets,
the bedrock of economic prosperity.
2000 Ron Paul 5:137
None of these alternatives will work.
Character and good manners are not a
government problem. They reflect individual
attitudes that can only be
changed by individuals themselves.
Freedom allows virtue and excellence
to blossom. When government takes on
the role of promoting virtue, illegitimate
government force is used and tyrants
quickly appear on the scene to do
the job. Virtue and excellence become
illusive, and we find instead that the
government officials become corrupt
and freedom is lost, the very ingredient
required for promoting virtue, harmony,
and the brotherhood of man.
2000 Ron Paul 5:138
Let us hope and pray that our political
focus will soon shift toward preserving
liberty and individual responsibility
and away from authoritarianism.
The future of the American Republic
depends on it. Let us not forget that
the American dream depends on keeping
alive the spirit of liberty.
Notes:
2000 Ron Paul 5:2
modern day Presidents probably should be hyphenated:
modern-day Presidents.
2000 Ron Paul 5:8
the depression probably should be capitalized:
the Depression.
2000 Ron Paul 5:12
Attacks on our privacy are an incessant
probably should be
Attacks on our privacy are incessant.
2000 Ron Paul 5:35
It is under the conditions of a weak economy that such
government interference generates a reaction tothe anger
over the rules that have been suppressed.
perhaps should be
It is under the conditions of a weak economy that such
government interference generates a reaction of anger
over the rules that has been suppressed.
2000 Ron Paul 5:41
law abiding citizens probably should be hyphenated: law-abiding citizens.
2000 Ron Paul 5:41
nonviolent OR non-violent? The word is hyphenated at the end of a line of text in the Congressional Record
but on Ron Paul’s Congressional website it is unambiguously non-violent.
2000 Ron Paul 5:42
privately-owned probably should be unhyphenated: privately owned.
