Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom Review

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Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom ReviewFor one who wants to see Ron Paul win the 2012 Republican nomination, the congressman's latest book is a bit of a let down. In contrast to a hard-charging campaign book like Harry Browne's The Great Libertarian Offer, or a memoir, it offers little of the kind of material media people look for. If Dr. Paul decides to enter the 2012 presidential race, it will do little to garner mainstream media coverage in the crucial early months of the campaign.
But Ron Paul is more interested in being right than he is in being president. Perhaps the only truly reluctant presidential candidate since George Washington, his primary aim is to educate. And he does it in the way of the Ancient Greek teacher; by challenging the untested points of his students' preconceptions, so that they come to the answers themselves.
One of the most interesting chapters in Liberty Defined relates to the obstacle Paul confronts in his aim to educate: demagogues who "manipulate a political issue in a manner to obscure or distort truth with emotionalism and prejudice...to take a principled stand by the proponents of liberty and reason and turn it into support for something ugly and mean."
As one illustration, Paul indirectly addresses the uproar his son, Senator Rand Paul, faced during his 2010 campaign when he suggested that business owners had the right to pick and choose their customers. "What liberal authoritarians don't quite understand," Paul writes "is that, if government has the power to control business establishments and all their decisions, they have justified the intrusion of government in every social aspect of our lives."
Though leaving specifics alone with respect to the Rand Paul controversy, there are enough personal anecdotes in Liberty Defined to satiate those waiting for a Ron Paul autobiography. In "Democracy," he discusses his experience with a stolen election. In "Evolution versus Creation" he recounts how he felt in a debate moderated by Chris Matthews and John Harris when asked to raise his hand if he believed in evolution. And in "Empire" we learn what quote is contained on a laminated card Paul carries with him and the story behind it.
If there is one thing in Liberty Defined that could put Paul at the center of a debate at the start of the 2012 presidential campaign, it is his remarks on civil disobedience. Though he has chosen political action over civil disobedience, he has great respect for those who, understanding what is at stake, challenge laws non-violently, and envisions a day when civil disobedience is the only option.
But to really compete in the Republican primary, Ron Paul needs to present a comprehensive agenda. The majority of journalists and political pundits view libertarian ideas as impractical. For those with a textbook to test paper view of history, libertarianism is a great unknown. Paul would do well, therefore, should he make the decision to run, to go beyond what other candidates offer in the way of details.
Ron Paul's greatest trait is his authenticity. When he sounds optimistic it is because he is feeling so. When he questions whether politics can change things, he does not hide it. You can trust what he says. For this, many philosophical differences are forgiven. His admission that civil disobedience might be the only option suggests a growing pessimism.
In perhaps the most revealing part of the book, Paul tells the story of Cicero, who "heroically refused to join Julius Caesar's betrayal of the Roman constitution and the rule of law." When Caesar was crowned dictator, Cicero wrote a series of books on history and politics and war. "Cicero," Paul writes, "would have been remembered for what he did to save the Roman constitution and the Republic. But his legacy was sealed for more than 2000 years by his philosophic dissertations that, once it was clear to him that the Roman Republic was dead, sprang from his effort to reflect on it."
But Liberty Defined was penned before the recent uprising in Egypt and other Middle Eastern nations. These pro-freedom movements demonstrate that the poorer people grow the more likely they are to revolt.
The price increases that ignited rebellion overseas are starting to be seen in the United States. While prices are rising, wages remain flat. Economists, meanwhile, are using nominal percentage gains in GDP to say that the U.S. economy is growing. Americans are growing poorer and they are being lied to. They are ready to hear a real libertarian agenda. Ron Paul is the person to offer it.
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