The Militant Libertarian

I'm pissed off and I'm a libertarian. What else you wanna know?

Friday, January 23, 2004

Rep. Ron Paul in SLC - Full Report

Congressman Ron Paul Speaks in Salt Lake City
by Aaron Turpen

A coalition of committees of the John Birch Society, calling themselves the "Utah Get US Out of the UN Committee" hosted a conference featuring Representative Ron Paul (R-TX) on Thursday, January 22. In attendance were two members of Utah's legislature, Representative Bush and Senator Thomas, who have co-sponsored HJR3, a proposal to declare Utah's intention to get us out of the UN. Representative Bush attempted similar legislation in last year's session and was stonewalled.

The meeting was to a packed house of an estimated 800 or more people. The crowd was, while respectful, very jubilant and applause was loudly forthcoming.

The show opened with the Jensen family, a troupe of entertainers (ages 3 and up) who play various musical instruments and sing patriotic songs. Very fun!

After several introductions, Dr. Paul finally spoke. He spoke for quite some time and was very informative and entertaining, having many anecdotes of the proceedings in and around Washington, D.C. He promised to move to Utah if he runs into trouble in Texas, but is currently running for reelection unopposed this year (interesting to note, the Libertarian Party of Texas is running 31 candidates for 32 available seats in Texas, not running against Paul as a specific note of approval).

During his speech, Paul made many great libertarian references to personal sovereignty, the Von Mises Institute, and more. He advised us to stay concerned about the USA PATRIOT Act and made many joking references to his own voting record in Congress.

He noted that he "votes alone" regularly: more often than all other members of the House COMBINED. He noted that his voting strategy is simple: vote not to raise or expand anything, vote to lower or shrink everything, and if it's not specifically given to the Congress in the Constitution, vote NO every time. His stalwart record and principles and his many awards from various conservative and low-government advocacies attest to the truth of his statements.

During Dr. Paul's speech, two key notes came out regularly: first, don't expect a lot out of Washington in any short amount of time; second, grass roots activity does have a noticeable and lasting effect on D.C. politics.

Specific grievances that Rep. Paul has against the United Nations are: their push for a world tax, their push to "regulate" firearms of all types, their Kyoto-style "Heritage Site" provisions for land control, the basic bureaucracy of the UN, and their attacks on sovereignty using the "environment" as an excuse.

Paul also pointed out some of our own problems here in the US: the extremely unmitigated power of the Executive Order, all forms of debt (national, corporate, and personal) are monstrous while the dollar gets weaker, the attempts by Congress to allow the EPA to set law according to UN mandate without Congressional vote, etc.

He then made several positive points in these regards: grass roots organizations against the UN are gaining in speed, voice, and influence. The economy, though it gets worse, will eventually lead to the collapse of the dollar and an opening to make significant change in our monetary system for the better. Finally, the greatest wealth we have as a nation is our right to free speech, protected by the First Amendment.

Some specific points he would like to see happen: the fall of the IRS, repeal of the 16th Amendment, Constitutional restriction on the power of an Executive Order, and a return to the strong belief in individual, state, and national sovereignty.

All in all, Representative Ron Paul's speech was very well received and afterward, in milling about the crowd, I met people of many differing political backgrounds and became amazed at the number of people who support those like Ron Paul in their activities.

It was a great event to witness and I gained great encouragement by it!


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