- Paul, Ron.
The Revolution.
New York: Grand Central, 2008.
ISBN 978-0-446-53751-3.
-
Ron Paul's campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential
nomination has probably done more to expose voters in the
United States to the message of limited, constitutional
governance, individual liberty, non-interventionist
foreign policy, and sound money than any political
initiative in decades. Although largely ignored by the
collectivist legacy media, the stunning fund-raising success
of the campaign, even if not translated into corresponding
success at the polls, is evidence that this essentially
libertarian message (indeed, Dr. Paul ran for president in
1988 as the standard bearer of the Libertarian Party)
resonates with a substantial part of the American electorate,
even among the “millennial generation”,
which conventional wisdom believes thoroughly indoctrinated
with collectivist dogma and poised to vote away the last
vestiges of individual freedom in the United States. In
the concluding chapter, the candidate observes:
The fact is, liberty is not given a fair chance in
our society, neither in the media, nor in politics,
nor (especially) in education. I have spoken to many
young people during my career, some of whom had never
heard my ideas before. But as soon as I explained the
philosophy of liberty and told them a little American
history in light of that philosophy, their eyes lit
up. Here was something they'd never heard before, but
something that was compelling and moving, and which
appealed to their sense of idealism. Liberty had
simply never been presented to them as a choice.
(p. 158)
This slender (173 page) book presents that choice as
persuasively and elegantly as anything I have read.
Further, the case for liberty is anchored in the
tradition of American history and the classic
conservatism which characterised the Republican party
for the first half of the 20th century. The author
repeatedly demonstrates just how recent much of the
explosive growth in government has been, and observes
that people seemed to get along just fine, and the
economy prospered, without the crushing burden of
intrusive regulation and taxation. One of the most
striking examples is the discussion of abolishing the
personal income tax. “Impossible”, as
other politicians would immediately shout? Well,
the personal income tax accounts for about 40% of federal
revenue, so eliminating it would require reducing the
federal budget by the same 40%. How far back would you
have to go in history to discover an epoch where the
federal budget was 40% below that of 2007? Why, you'd
have to go all the way back to 1997! (p. 80)
The big government politicians who dominate both major
political parties in the United States dismiss the
common-sense policies advocated by Ron Paul in this book
by saying “you can't turn back the clock”. But
as Chesterton observed, why not? You can
turn back a clock, and you can replace disastrous policies
which are bankrupting a society and destroying personal liberty
with time-tested policies which have delivered prosperity
and freedom for centuries wherever adopted. Paul argues
that the debt-funded imperial nanny state is doomed in any case by
simple economic considerations. The only question is whether
it is deliberately and systematically dismantled by
the kinds of incremental steps he advocates here, or
eventually
collapses Soviet-style
due to bankruptcy and/or
hyperinflation. Should the U.S., as many expect, lurch
dramatically in the collectivist direction in the coming
years, it will only accelerate the inevitable debacle.
Anybody who wishes to discover alternatives
to the present course and that limited constitutional
government is not a relic of the past but the only
viable alternative for a free people to live in peace
and prosperity will find this book an excellent introduction
to the libertarian/constitutionalist perspective. A five
page reading list cites both classics of libertarian thought
and analyses of historical and contemporary events from a
libertarian viewpoint.
May 2008 