Ron Paul's Congressional Farewell Speech

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hawkeye

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zqi6paX3ong[/youtube]

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By Ron Paul | Delivered on the House Floor, November 14, 2012


This may well be the last time I speak on the House Floor. At the end of the year I'll leave Congress after 23 years in office over a 36 year period. My goals in 1976 were the same as they are today: promote peace and prosperity by a strict adherence to the principles of individual liberty.

It was my opinion, that the course the U.S. embarked on in the latter part of the 20th Century would bring us a major financial crisis and engulf us in a foreign policy that would overextend us and undermine our national security.

To achieve the goals I sought, government would have had to shrink in size and scope, reduce spending, change the monetary system, and reject the unsustainable costs of policing the world and expanding the American Empire.

The problems seemed to be overwhelming and impossible to solve, yet from my view point, just following the constraints placed on the federal government by the Constitution would have been a good place to start.

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http://www.dailypaul.com/263111/ron-pauls-farewell-address-full-text
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I feel really sorry for him. The one thing he wanted to do was become president, and he never was able to achieve it. If any man deserves to become president it was this man.
 
Ernster said:
I feel really sorry for him. The one thing he wanted to do was become president, and he never was able to achieve it. If any man deserves to become president it was this man.
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Yes and no.

I consider him the best of a bad bunch, but he was never going to realistically change the system from within it.

Chris Duane had spoken with Ron briefly in recent times and implored him to take a stance more like Ghandi.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAtWQ2KX884[/youtube] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1evXVPeTAWw[/youtube]

That is, Ghandi was a lawyer for some 20 years of his life within the system trying to bring about change, but realised that you couldn't hope to create change whilst you were still a part of it.

Ron was in the same position as a US Senator and whilst his legacy will be amusing public 'discussions' with the Bernank, the bottom line is that much of what he's to be remembered for will be lost because of the forum in which he tried to deliver it.

Understand that for all of Ron's good intent, moral virtue and integrity, he was still trying to do the impossible and for it, he was cast aside so easily in the end. 40 years of struggle and he couldn't even get a party nomination in the end, that's how hopelessly corrupt that system has become.

His legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of those that supported him in the darker days yet to come, but ultimately, I think we'll all realise that when true change does come to the US and the world, it's NOT going to come from anyone who resides within the system - but outside of it.

Go back through history and there's many examples of this shift in consciousness and real awakening brought about by people who shunned the system of the day.

Ghandi being one, Albert Einstein also said 'You can't solve a problem with the kind of consciousness that gave rise to the problem' and I believe this is ultimately where Ron Paul has fallen down in his endeavor to restore the US back to what made it once great.

Many kudos and much respect to Ron Paul. He was at the very least, one of the very few people in the political spectrum you could pay respect to and cast a vote for in full conscience it was a vote worthy of a leader to inspire the people.
 
Ernster said:
I feel really sorry for him. The one thing he wanted to do was become president, and he never was able to achieve it. If any man deserves to become president it was this man.
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Sorry, but if you think that then you don't understand his motivations at all.
 
Trouble is, even if he had gained the White House, they would have crucified him in the Congress.

The gravy train was and is just too attractive for the 500 people in Congress.

JMO


OC
 
Old Codger said:
The gravy train was and is just too attractive for the 500 people in Congress.
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More like the financial backers of these puppets in Congress.

The Fed and many other Corporate entities have the true power in the US.
 
hawkeye said:
Sorry, but if you think that then you don't understand his motivations at all.
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So I must of imagined him trying to become president for the last 2 elections? He did want to become president, so he could try to create some change on a larger scale. Never meant that being president was his main goal/motivation but it was kind of required (or he believed it was the best way) to achieve the change that he truly wanted. Of course he can still do some good now even at his age, mainly creating more awareness and educating others to take his place. Apology accepted;)
 
Ernster said:
hawkeye said:
Sorry, but if you think that then you don't understand his motivations at all.
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So I must of imagined him trying to become president for the last 2 elections? He did want to become president, so he could try to create some change on a larger scale. Never meant that being president was his main goal/motivation but it was kind of required (or he believed it was the best way) to achieve the change that he truly wanted. Of course he can still do some good now even at his age, mainly creating more awareness and educating others to take his place. Apology accepted;)
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Now you are right. He would have done it only because he thought it was necessary, not because it was some great ambition.

The truth is that he is more respected around the world than ever, and will probably be more fulfilled, I think, post-politics. Think how frustrating those 30 years must have been. I would think he is probably glad to be leaving and ultimately relieved that he didn't have to do the whole President thing.

The only people who would want to be President are power-mad megalomaniacs. eg. Obama, Romney, Bush, Clinton, etc.... No sane normal person would want that.
 
A very inspiring speech. I really hope it gains traction and gets more airplay. The more people that take the time to listen to it, the better.

I found his point on the role of government particularly interesting.

1. A government designed to protect libertya natural rightas its sole objective. The people are expected to care for themselves and reject the use of any force for interfering with another person's liberty. Government is given a strictly limited authority to enforce contracts, property ownership, settle disputes, and defend against foreign aggression.
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Anyone want to hazard a guess where we've heard this before? ;)

A ghost from 1958...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeTfUot51io[/youtube]

The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may resort to force only against those who start the use of force. The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. But a government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man's deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his. - Ayn Rand
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We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. - Ayn Rand
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The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. - Ayn Rand
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It's interesting to note when I talk about Ayn around here in the past there's so much backlash, probably because people didn't like her personality.

It's worth noting that even Ron Paul knew Ayn personally...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjwuGHPilwI[/youtube]

Amazing how for all the rejection of the Objectivist philosiphy out there on principle, many people have adopted and endorsed it anyway, when they don't think it comes from the lips of Ayn.

I just find it incredible that in Ron's farewell speech he quotes Ayn almost word for word - and the free thinkers are cheering it.

How the times change...
 
I don't personally know anything about Ayn Rand. Haven't read her books or anything, but the way people talk disparagingly about her on the net always seemed to me to be basically a popular thing to do, sort of like name-calling.

It was basically, if you talk about free market ideas you get called Randian or whatever, and thatwas basically trying to imply you are part of some weird cult if you think about ideas of freedom and liberty. It's a way, ironically, to scare you back into the actual cult that most people inhabit. The cult of nationalism.
 
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