Ron Paul: The Revolution A Manifesto

I just got finished reading Ron Paul’s book called The Revolution: A Manifesto It’s a short read.  It’s only about 150 pages, but it’s packed with more information then I’ve read in weeks or months anywhere else.  I’ve been caught up in the political process for about the last 10 years and it was such an eye opener to read about things like foreign policy, economic policy, and social policy and have it all make sense.  I don’t mean that he dumbed anything down in the writing.  Quite to the contrary actually.  Many of his positions are quite sophisticated.  The thing that made sense was that his positions were actually backed by sound historical and empirical information.  I can honestly say that I rarely, if ever, see this done before by a politician.

He spends time reminding us about how health care was affordable before government created HMOs and other managed health care.  He reminded me about how prosperous we were before we let our budget explode out of control.  He actually said something in the book that made me seriously rethink my current prochoice stance on abortion.  The entire book just cut through all the nonsense and got right to the heart of these matters.  Without all that smoke and mirrors, it’s possible for a regular guy like me to have an opinion on these topics and make an informed decision.  I’m happy to lend this book to anyone who wants to read it.  It has had the same effect that many college courses had on my views about religions (I promise I’ll write about this later.)  Before college, I had only known one way: Roman Catholicism.  After these courses, I was hit with a barrage of perspectives and ideas about religion that I was forced to completely reshape my views.  Politically and as a citizen, I’ve had that same experience.

I was especially impressed with Paul’s amazing depth of knowledge on monetary and fiscal policy.  It inspired me to go pick up some economics books and learn about all this stuff.  It’s amazing to think that 30% of your money is taken away and spent by the government and most people have a difficult time figuring out how the whole system works.  Grasping a concept like inflation is important.  Understanding what’s actually happening when the Fed cuts the interest rate effects you.

The depth of the inspiration that I got from reading this material, coupled with a lot of other sources that I’ve used to learn about politics and government over the last year, has made me decide that when I’m finally settled in somewhere and know it’s where I want to put down some roots, I’m going to run for elected office.  I’m definitely not a suit and tie kind of guy, but I’m also not the type of guy to sit around and wait for someone else to do something.  I’m putting this idea that’s in my head out to the people that I know to act as a motivation for me.  It’s important to me to follow through with my words and placing this out there makes it all the more likely that I will.

There was one amazing idea in the book that’s really stuck in my head and been influential in this new found desire.  The Constitution was created to protect the people from the government yet the government forcibly takes a percentage of your paycheck every week.  We all work about a day week for the government.  It can force you to go to war if it wants to reinstate a draft.  The government owns you.  It owns me.  It wasn’t meant to be this way.

It has to change.