Do Elections Matter? | Ron Paul

i want to thank everybody for uh being here today and i thank for thank so many that have been supportive of not only my viewpoints and what i've tried to do but also supportive for the philosophy of liberty that is what counts ideas have consequences and uh the the politicians really aren't worth that much if the if their goal is to just be in office i have so many young people come and i'll be talking in the crowd and many college kids will come and they'll sort of grasp and say this is great this is great i i think i'd like to be a congressman like you what do i do i say don't do it [Laughter] don't do it at all because uh i i said unless unless you're going there for the right reason but if you're going there to be a congressman what they're generally thinking about is what should i run for first how am i going to raise the money how am i going to organize where do i do the advertising what am i going to do on the internet they want the technical part and that that i never gave one minutes worth of thought to because the only thing i was looking for in the 1970s was a forum to talk about something when i first ran for congress in 1974 it was in the midst of the watergate crisis we had three republican congressmen in texas and nobody was going to file for a congressional seat in 1974 and uh and so when i was hinting to somebody that i because i was very motivated and aggravated by the stupidity of nixon's monetary policy so i uh you know indicated to a few people uh that i might do it and how do you do it as an independent because i don't want to join a party but the republicans then were really desperate this guy might be foolish enough to run and we'll have a name on the ballot so uh so i i did that and it turned out to be uh much more than i expected but the goal was very clearly uh talking about the issues of liberty and talking about uh monetary policy and that um that took not too long a time to realize that uh you know it was a difficult task but uh i did that and to my surprise the incumbent democrat resigned from office and there was a special election in the special election especially its differences completely different and it's sort of it's sort of one of those things you couldn't plan it there was no way this could be planned i'd never never had it or never could have had that when i was 18 years old i knew i was going to go to congress nothing like that you know when i was 18 i was barely thinking about maybe i'd like to become a doctor and do something positive so we uh that that happened and lo and behold the special election turned out differently but my wife carol is with me today and i think she's sitting back there you might say hello to her [Applause] and she and she doesn't want to hear this story she's heard it too many times but you know i'm thinking about what i thought the consequence of the breakdown of the brenton woods agreement would mean and uh it has meant a whole lot a lot of people that is a big date in monetary history no doubt so uh i told her i said i think i'm going to run for congress and she said what what are you going to do that for she said you have a medical practice here and you're doing this and well i said you don't have to worry about that because she says she says the big problem with it is uh that uh it's dangerous i said how could i get running for congressman back then we weren't even worrying about uh the danger that you might be worried about now the dangers that our son ran has faced up to ray so no we said she says it's dangerous i said why how could it be dangerous she says you can get elected matter of fact she said you will get elected and i said there's no way i said there's no way a person like myself because i've already made my decision on all my boats and it was not going to be complicated and i i don't think they're going to vote against santa claus you know they want a santa claus in there so i was surprised that it ever happened but i also had this freedom i had this freedom because the desire wasn't to get 51 percent and become a congressman you know this sort of thing i had a total freedom of doing what i thought was important my goals then at that time were to try to set a standard you know set a record make a record because i always assumed that maybe there would be a time down the road because i certainly wouldn't be in washington very long donna wrote somebody might take it and put it together and look at individual votes and say oh this makes sense this comes together he votes against war he goes he votes against violation of civil liberties he votes for volunteerism in a free market and uh maybe they'll put it together and see a picture which many of you have already seen you we come together so often we discover these things how a few basic principles bring it bring the picture all together and it makes sense i know in the last day i met a couple people saying yeah it was always boy that just like turning on a switch that it makes them makes most sense by doing one thing defending your right to your liberty and assuming responsibility for it [Applause] so that is not complicated at all and that uh that is something people can't understand certainly uh in the campaigning that i went through i found out that people in a younger age or older people who here are young at heart will be acceptable to new ideas and and and look at things differently so there were many times i was impressed when the teenagers matter of fact there's somebody in this audience today they said they were in influenced by the campaign when they were still teenagers and uh and i always marveled at that i was always was fascinated with the idea when a teenager uh would bring their parents to the office and insist they come in and meet me and in the old days they'd have the parents bringing the kids well we're going to teach you a civics lesson who how these laws are made you know this sort of thing but they they would come in and i always thought it was just so neat that the parents were so proud of their kids in disagreements but that was irrelevant their kids were thinking you know and and and many parents were converted to that and they said boy he had something and they wouldn't listen it might not happen one night but but there were many so i it's sort of a flip flip you know in the opposite direction but it but it happened more times so anyway that um that has worked out i think fairly well um you know but i was i was never satisfied that that was my career because i was there for four or four terms uh and uh from 50 from to 60 uh uh 76 up to 84. you know and i i missed medicine i didn't intend to do this and uh so i i got out of congress and went back and practiced medicine for 12 years but i still had that sort of gnawing thing i don't want to be in politics but i still want to talk to some people because i still think the issues are important and war issue became more and more important so i you know accepted the encouragement and did it again so i'm i'm always surprised that that happens but i also really delight in the freedom that i feel because daniel will confirm this but so often he witnessed these other staffers with other congressmen they had to well there's there's a vote coming up well the staff supposed to weigh these things look at this special interest look at this special interest which special interests are we going to support and i remember the first month or two i was uh voting and um people would go over to the board where you find out exactly what's being voted on and i said what is this here and they say well this list here says all these special interest lobbyists they support the bill all these other people here oppose the bill and that's the way that was sometimes the maximum amount of the information the congressman we're getting is just the number of people supporting because that's the way it works that's the way you raise money and raising money means how you get promoted and how you how you get to be a federal a a chairman of a committee now obviously the goal for me to be a chairman i had nothing to do with it just sort of you know rubbed me the wrong way but uh i had the seniority i was there i ended up there in a long time but if the goal had been to be the chairman you know it'd been a quite a bit different but all i can tell you is uh this approach and i know so many of you follow the same thing it should make us feel good by defending something if you can get convinced you know that it's uh it's the right thing to do you know and early on i was um i was influenced by reading austrian economics before the britain woods broke down i read some of the things on hayak and and and mises but i remember uh there was one day back then it would have been in the early 70s before i'd run for congress there was a little announcement in the uh probably with houston chronicle which uh doesn't exist or exists but doesn't publish anything it was about this big it was about this big and the announcement was that uh ludwig von mises professor mises would be speaking at the university of houston on such and such day and uh hey this sounds neat i'd sort of like to go here you him but there was only one other person in the whole town that i know would probably know who he was so i went and uh and he's oh no that sounds good so we both canceled our office hours for a few hours and drove to houston to hear mises give the lecture on on on socialism and and this was this was pretty pretty amazing for us to do that but you know the interesting story about that was many many years after that that was in early 70s 71 i believe it was one of the mises last lectures and uh and then maybe it could have been well it could have been 30 years afterwards i was giving this little spiel and it was at a mises function and afterwards the individual came up to me and it was a doctor and he said he says i know what you're talking about because you you talked about going to hear mises they gave them a room about this half the size but it wasn't 10 or 15 people the room was jam-packed even back then when hardly anybody knew about me said it was jam-packed and i thought boy they wouldn't even give them a decent room of course they never gave him a decent job in the university either so they it was jam-packed and i i mentioned that you know i stood at the door there we got there late didn't have a place to sit down but the individual in the audience at the mises function came up and told me he said i remember that i remember seeing you there and he's a doctor in pasadena and somebody will know his name i'm sure because we still we still see him he said that he says i i remember you standing at the door i remember exactly what you told him because he was a student at the university of houston and he was the one that organized me says he was probably the only student in the whole university that who mises was but he had organized and god's mises to come there it was just an interesting story about the coincidence about about how that happened but one student had some effort others did and i was impressed with the stuff with with the whole whole notion that even then people people were interested it was uh it was uh known i mean he was known well enough but not the professors there probably weren't very many many many professors there so this uh it was a very very exciting time but you know on on elections i think that um i think elections uh what what do they what do they they really are they necessary should should we have them and yes i think there is a significance but it has to be you have to sort it out is it is it significant because you can sit back and say ah we are such great americans we believe in democracy and we're going to have fair elections and we're going to let let the majority sort all these problems out but you know the one election that i remember uh and read a whole lot about that they are significant many times in a very negative way and the one i'm thinking about is 1948 and that was when lbj uh you know orchestrated one of the worst thefts in in history about stealing the senate seat and so he gets elected and he has a career afterwards uh he he gets in there and he was just uh he was just a you know just determined to have political power and he ended up getting he ended up becoming president and uh he uh of course then uh inherited the vietnam war and he he was a terrible terrible warmonger but he he did this and uh he ended up with this tremendous power but come 1968 you know 40 uh 20 years after that he was first elected i mean he was in big political trouble you know he he uh it was discovered the first primary in new hampshire that he has been you know hurt he was politically weak and he dropped out of the race suddenly it was a big event when when lbj had dropped out of the race and uh and then uh of course uh it wasn't long after that he went back to texas and and uh it uh he spent all the time he got exactly what he was aiming for and he died a miserable death i mean he he he was one but didn't take care of his health and i guess uh he he gets to that point he has all that power that he had nothing so within a year or so he died just bad health but it was it was something i always thought about spent a lifetime with a goal of getting power you know but people said you know people use that term a whole lot you know ron if you become a chairman chairman of the banking you're going to have a lot of power i don't want power but i wouldn't i don't shy away from the fact that if i can have a little bit of intel influence on the issues of the day i'm willing to participate in that but they they deal in power everything is power that's what's going on because i claim these elections are you know a farce uh because when it comes to you know the process that we're gonna have fair fair election there are force because uh in one way they're fighting tooth and nails to find out whether lbj types are going to win or somebody else with some different views but they they fight they fight over that but they don't uh they'd never stop and think that what is what what is it going to come of all this so they they they do this and they there's a no there's no there's no stopping it it just continues for forever and ever and uh the lbj case was a typical example of that but uh they they really uh won't want they want the power of it and uh and that is what they're doing today it's power because when you when you think about it if you want to deal in the area of philosophy should you pick pick the democrats uh pick the republicans or even at some time the libertarian party and think that you're going to have a crystal clear position of saying what do we believe in well it's very easy to mock the two big parties the two major parties because you know are which which party is going to end the fed [Applause] all the special interests have control of both parties which one well i have to say that uh you know i mentioned that the 20 years in this century was a little bit better than some of the other 20 years but foreign policy if you look at it really doesn't change daniel had pointed out earlier that sometimes he'll say one thing the president will say one thing but not really do it the troops are still out there the military-industrial complex is going to be remain very very powerful are we going to repeal the whole principles of the of the welfare state are we going to all of a sudden have a majority vote that's going to systematically every year cut the budget three percent of years or one percent a year sometimes a member will do that they'll say cut this program ten percent and they wouldn't vote for it five percent and went before one percent i wouldn't vote for that either no the spending is going to continue the deficits are going to continue to explode the attack on civil liberties are are going to be horrendous and this whole thing and i think one of the biggest threats to us right now is the whole issue of the social media being nothing more than an arm of the government and i think that has really played great done great harm to our first amendment now our first amendment when i left congress this go last go-around the one thing i put on the top of the list is if we lose the first amendment we lose the chance to talk here and and do it and we are daniel mentioned it others have mentioned it we read stories about it well you will get 10. oh yeah and then they hide behind well we can do that because we're a private company but we heard the lecture today there's there's nothing very private about it's crony capitalism what it is that is worse [Applause] and the real the real downside of all that is that the marxists who are marching in not with armies they're not invading us but they have invaded our universities for over a hundred years and they have become a structure here because the marxists are there you know with the great great deal of influence and that that is where the real real problem is and uh and yet we cannot say well we can't do anything we're still in this room we're still talking i know people get cut off on the internet but we have to expose people and more and more people are recognizing this now that's uh back to where we started the internet then the internet can be our best friend you know in spite of all this in the end because i wasn't really into technology i saw the internet as a real blessing in many ways it was competing even though it's very very weak competition because because of their control then it's used used against us but that that is something that i think uh you know we we still have a chance with because we still can reach more people and we can do the pamphlet hearing one way the other and that's what really is important is the pamphlets here this these problems that we face are ideological they're not lack of military look at the military power we have we can blow up the world two or three times and oh yeah but every president wants to rebuild build up the military more and more and more weapons and it's all part of the military industrial complex to do to do it so to me it's all ideological and that's the reason that we have the mises institute that's the reason that you're here because ideas do have consequences and it's such a for as far as i'm concerned a wonderful idea personal liberty you know and how how do you define personal liberty no violence you can't commit any violence against anybody else pretty simple rule no lying no cheating no stealing no killing well that'd be pretty neat wouldn't it and uh would you would that mean you're unamerican to some people that's un-american but no that is really part of the american early spirit is that we shouldn't be killing each other and uh we should we should think of volunteerism and participation in in a free market and also uh why why if we were moving in this direction uh you know the founders thought counterfeiting was one of the worst things you do they actually had established the death penalty for counterfeiting the money so so here we are we uh we we have the counterfeiters there's more counterfeiting done by our government and the governments of the world and the monetary issue to any private organization with so private people finally get caught at it but it does it seems like the free this attitude that is something for free and the people get tempted by this and saying yes we have to participate just think of what's happened this year i can't even keep up with the trillions it's at least three trillion dollars and uh they they and this is supposed to solve the whole problem the crack up boom i think i think we must be about that close to it because last week was a horrendous week when you saw the stock market doing this gold doing this crypto doing this debt doing this i mean how how much longer can that go and probably longer than we think it should that's for sure but uh but the one place where i think we're way ahead of where we were even 100 years ago is the crispness that we can define what we believe in because uh i think i think liberty is more understandable when i first you know went to went to congress uh you know most of them never even heard the word libertarian you know so and and the other thing is is uh uh i i never dreamed that uh people would would galvanize iran and the fed you know and they have so that's a that's a major that's a that's a that's a big thing to happen but the uh the the people who who want it though want it for a very special reason and this sets the stage to open up the door to the uh the mob the mob that you know the marxists that are have gotten into congress because they they want they tear us down because of capitalism but they're describing and they're and they can attack us because it's crony capitalism they're not attacking us they don't even understand what we want but uh yes it sets the stage for identifying you know uh something where we can understand they they they do they're they're getting they're getting getting a lot of points for this the the uh the carl the marxists get a lot of points for this but i think i think the the views are better i think there's a better understanding on monetary policy in spite of modern monetary theory which is pretty old uh that that the the um people are more understanding on this and i think that i the big big thing that we have to wonder about is when when will we overcome moving in the direction of venezuela you know they've gone through this for four or five years and they get a little blip of uh i guess the underground economy gives them a blip and they go back to printing money and all but uh it it's a it's this effort that's why numbers aren't totally the answer to the issue it isn't like 51 you want people support and you want support by a majority of people because the government we have can only exist with support from the people when the support is diminished by the people then it just goes away i think the most miraculous thing of the 20th century was the the tearing down of the berlin wall and the end of communism the fact you know soviet soviet communism because there were no nuclear weapons i was drafted in the 60s i was in the military and there there was a cold war going on there and there was a lot of legitimate concerns of who's going to drop a nuclear weapon but all of a sudden it just was gone it's just and even at that time i was delighted but i was concerned that they weren't going to quite come to us completely to the libertarian view but they would probably end up being uh modified republicans or something and it and it didn't it didn't work but it ended with without a nuclear holocaust so things can do it it was just sort of a walking way crucial it's just amazing he just walked away he sent no tanks into europe and it was done so we need we need another miracle like that and that's a that's a a miracle or a consequence of just reality and the reality is that there's no reason why we can't win because what we're what we're challenged by are a bunch of people who have no idea what liberty is about no idea how to create prosperity no idea what monetary policy is no idea about how we should have peace because even though the warmongers are out there and they and they stir up these wars that uh the the people really don't want wars i always say you know the wars don't start by the teenagers getting together in one country and going to another country and getting their teenagers into because they're the ones who have to fight the war and get killed so the teenagers get together they say let's have a war it sounds like a lot of fun it's insane but they it happens over and over and over again because of the propaganda not because the majority of the people start off by saying they like peace because the majority of people like peace but they end up being complacent and listening to the demagogues just think how how badly the demagogues have been you know winning uh this this whole nonsense on the propaganda over the coronavirus you know we we don't we don't go the the soviets aren't the enemy it's you know we're masochistic we make ourselves the enemy and create create things to be fearful of and that is something to do with human nature but the only thing i can see is uh continuing to uh preach the truth the truth about what liberty is all about it's been experimented with with many many years hundreds if not thousands of years there's been you know bits and pieces of what liberty is all about and there's no reason to think that we can't continue to improve on that that is why i like to come to organizations and meetings like this and that's why i complement the mises institute to continue what to do what they do and i want to thank all of you for supporting the mises institute and also because of your encouragement that you give me thank you very much [Applause] you

Channel: misesmedia

Views: 17,696

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Keywords: Ron Paul, election, 2020, future, Liberty, strategy, Mises

Id: qE4QasgRR1A

Length: 29min 40sec (1780 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020