Ron Paul: A Man of Ideas and Ideals

Portion of a book review in The New American:

In the ’70s, the era when Keynesian (socialist) economics reached full fruition with the global abandonment of the gold standard, young Congressman Paul, the hard-money advocate, was met with derision. In the ’80s, when the Great Economic Bubble began and the Reagan rhetoric created an illusion of limited government, Dr. Paul returned to his medical practice but made time to continue writing on liberty and also to run for president on the Libertarian Party ticket. In the ’90s, he returned to Congress, where he has remained ensconced since 1996, despite determined efforts by Democrats and Republicans alike to unseat him. With the surprising prominence of his presidential campaign and an economic crisis that has fulfilled many of his dire warnings, Dr. Paul enjoys a newfound credibility among his political peers that may bode well for the future of the movement he helped to re-ignite.

The new biography also furnishes many fascinating details about the private life and personality of a man known to most by his nerdy on-camera persona. He is shown as deeply human and prone to human failings. Here are detailed some of the rifts and fallings-out between Dr. Paul and erstwhile friends and supporters. One betrayal, a six-figure embezzlement by a trusted subordinate uncovered on the eve of the 1988 presidential elections, threw his Libertarian Party candidacy into complete disarray and led to a criminal investigation and prosecution of one of his closest confidantes. Another, a bitter feud that persists to this day between Dr. Paul and one of his longest associates, began in a disagreement over the Iraq War; Congressman Paul refused to retain any staffer who supported the war, and the resulting rift made a genuine enemy out of a friend of many years.

Here too is Ron Paul the all-American young man, a high-school track star and top-notch student who, after growing up and attending college in Pennsylvania, obtained a medical degree from Duke University Medical School and went on to deliver thousands of babies in his adopted state of Texas. On one occasion, he witnessed an abortion, and was so appalled at seeing the doctors throw the still-moving baby into the trash that he became a staunch opponent of abortion, a position he has never compromised, despite being at variance with many in the libertarian movement.

In a time of Big Government ascendant, Congressman Ron Paul is ample reason to believe that America’s love affair with liberty is not over. With his dogged adherence to principle and personal incorruptibility, Dr. Paul is a relic of a more civilized age, when men of character rather than charisma were elevated to prominence in public service. As one detractor noted during his presidential campaign, Dr. Paul would have made a great president in the 19th century. But if the Ron Paul Revolution has been any indication, the 21st century may see others of Dr. Paul’s ilk raised up to write the epitaph for the 20th century, the time when Big Government almost — but not quite — eradicated freedom and civilization.