(Video) Ron Paul launches Minn. campaign: ‘All we have to do is legalize freedom’
Monday, November 07, 2011 at 10:58 am
- 8 Comments
Source: Gage Skidmore, Flickr
U.S. Rep. Ron Paul launched the Minnesota portion of his presidential campaign with a spirited rally at the St. Cloud Civic Center Saturday.
Paul’s speech in St. Cloud touched on issues like domestic economic policy, the drug war and foreign interventions.
“The country and the world is in a mess today, and I’m quite convinced that we know exactly how we get here and exactly what to do,” Paul told the crowd, “and one thing’s for sure is we don’t need more government.”
Paul blamed the Federal Reserve for helping to bring about the speculative bubbles that sunk the nation’s economy.
“It’s the Federal Reserve that by interfering in the monetary system, monkeying around with interest rates, they create the bubbles,” Paul said. “For a while they can create one bubble and patch it up again, but eventually the big bubble bursts.”
He also condemned government bailouts of big banks and companies.
“They said if we don’t bail out the system there would be a depression,” Paul said. “Guess where the depression would have been? It would have been on those who were receiving our money. Instead the depression was dealt to the people, the middle class, they lost their jobs and they lost their houses and we the taxpayer absorbed the debt.”
Paul also voiced support for abolishing the Department of Education and the federal income tax, condemned the drug war as a tragedy and worried about creation of a worldwide monetary currency.
He told supporters that the country is increasingly in agreement with their libertarian economic views.
“We’re witnessing the end of an economic era,” Paul said. “This is a tremendous opportunity for those of us who believe in liberty to get this message out.”
Paul’s foreign policy stances have drawn jeers from some Republican crowds at debates, but he continues to advocate for neutrality and condemn the United States’ assassination of American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki, saying that ”what we must worry about is the rule of law because the rule of law protects us.”
Organizers put the turnout for the Republican candidate at about 2,500. Paul has trailed in most polls, but has captured a number of high-profile straw poll victories.
“You can not stop an idea whose time has come and the idea of liberty’s time has returned,” Paul said of his supporters. “We don’t have to understand each little issue, all we have to do is legalize freedom.”
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Pingback posted November 7, 2011 @ 11:40 am
[...] (Video) Ron Paul launches Minn. campaign: ‘All we have to do is legalize freedom’ –… [...]
Comment posted November 7, 2011 @ 11:54 am
Vote for your favorite candidate here http://www.conservativehq.com/article/5352-gop-presidential-straw-poll
Comment posted November 7, 2011 @ 9:19 pm
One by one the others fail and fall, and yet here is that one lone voice in the wilderness, the one lone defender of Freedom and the Constitution proving to us that yes, one person CAN make a difference in this crazy world. I second the motion: GOD BLESS RON PAUL.
Comment posted November 8, 2011 @ 4:54 am
An appeal to Prohibitionists:
Most of us are aware by now that individuals who use illegal drugs are going to get high, ‘no matter what.’ So why do you not prefer they acquire them in stores that check IDs and pay taxes? Gifting the market in narcotics to ruthless criminals, foreign terrorists and corrupt law enforcement officials is seriously compromising our future. If you remotely believe that people will one day quit using any of these ‘at present’ illegal drugs, then you are exhibiting a degree of naivety parallel only with those poor wretches who voluntarily drank the poisoned Kool-Aid in Jonestown.
Even if you cannot stand the thought of people using drugs, there is absolutely nothing you, or any government, can do to stop them. We have spent 40 years and over a trillion dollars on this dangerous farce. Practically everybody is now aware that Prohibition will not suddenly and miraculously start showing different results. So why do you wish to continue with it? Do you actually think you may have something to lose If we were to start basing drug policy on science & logic instead of ignorance, hate and lies?
Maybe you’re a police officer, a prison guard, or a local politician who’s scared of losing employment, overtime-pay, kick-backs or those regular fat bribes? But what good will any of that do you once our society has followed Mexico over the dystopian abyss of dismembered bodies and marauding thugs brandishing gold-plated AK-47s?
Kindly allow us to forgo the next level of your ghastly prohibition-engendered mayhem!
Prohibition Prevents Regulation : Legalize, Regulate and Tax!
Pingback posted November 8, 2011 @ 8:16 pm
[...] “You cannot stop an idea whose time has come and the idea of liberty’s time has returned,” Paul said of his supporters. “We don’t have to understand each little issue, all we have to do is legalize freedom.” – The Minnesota Independent [...]
Comment posted November 12, 2011 @ 12:48 pm
Ron Paul is only in favor of “freedom” when it won’t turn off his hyper-conservative donor base.
Ron Paul is against freedom for women – he is in favor of the same forced-pregnancy politics as his hard-right fellows.
Ron Paul is against freedom for GLBT people – he’s in favor of the same anti-marriage, anti-civil-rights politics as his hard-right fellows.
As a lesbian, trans woman I see NO difference between Ron Paul and his more openly theocratic-conservative counterparts Romney, Cain and Perry. Just a better marketing campaign.
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