Ron Paul shares views about small government with campus

Ron Paul spoke on campus Monday about his vision of a small government, greater individual freedoms and an adherence to the Constitution.

The Republican representative from Texas was invited to the IU Auditorium by the IU chapter of Young Americans for Liberty, a group that sprung out of Students for Ron Paul after the most recent presidential election.

In his speech, “Case for Liberty,” Paul talked about how the U.S. is still riding the wave of liberty the founding fathers set up when they wrote the Constitution. But, the government is continuing to erode it.

For instance, he said you should never give up liberties, even in cases of national
security.

“You never have to give up any freedom to be secure,” Paul said. “You’re less secure if you do.”

Paul said the legislative branch is supposed to be the most important and powerful but has become a rubber stamp for the executive branch.

Paul also talked about a need for economic reform.

He said the Constitution says that money has to use gold as currency.

The government gave the Federal Reserve the power to be “the official counterfeiter of the country,” Paul said.

He said the country wouldn’t have as many issues if more people in Washington obeyed the Constitution. In his opinion, the country was on the right track about 100 years ago but it lost its way.

People need to get control of their lives and their government, he said. No branch of government should regulate how different people should live their lives.

He said issues such as the federal government outlawing marijuana and the regulation of other drugs is wrong.

“I think the FDA exists for the drug companies,” he said, also stating that he believes the FDA creates a world-wide effort to raise drug prices.

He praised Private First Class Bradley Manning, who is suspected of leaking the Iraqi war documents to WikiLeaks, and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, for breaking a law to tell the truth, which he said used to be considered noble.

“Some people used to call them patriots,” Paul said, “not criminals.”

Paul talked more about Iraq and Vietnam, saying wars there didn’t accomplish anything and only made the situation in those areas worse.

Iraq, he said, is more aligned to Iran than ever before, and the war brought in Al-Qaeda, who’d never been there before. He said that after the fighting stopped in Vietnam, the U.S. began to talk and trade with the country, and it’s becoming more and more democratic.

Paul said he likes speaking to college students. It encourages him, he said, because of students’ enthusiasm.

For the country to change, he said, there will have to be ideological changes, and those start on campus.

He said if a country really wants to see the direction it’s going, look at college campuses.

“Not only is the future in your hands,” Paul said. “All the debt is in your hands, too.”
At the end, Paul took questions. The final question was whether he is going to run for president again.

It was met with rounds of applause and cheers, and then answered with an anti-climatic “We’ll see.”