In our previous Updates we published ’s views on various topics from Crime, Drugs, , Education, the Economy, Energy and . In this update we will continue with Paul’s Principles and Values.

Ron Paul on Principles & Values

 

Reagan ran on limited government, but increased its size

 

Q: On your Web site, you make this claim: "Principled Leadership. Ron was also one of only four Republican Congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president against Gerald Ford in 1976." And yet you divorced yourself from Ronald Reagan. You spoke of him as a traitor leading the country into debt & conflicts around the world, saying, "I want to totally disassociate myself from the Reagan Administration."

A: I’ll bet you any money I didn’t use the word ‘traitor.’ So I think that’s misleading. But a failure, yes, in many ways. The government didn’t shrink. Ultimately, after he got in office, he said, "All I want to do is reduce the rate of increase in size of government." That’s not my goal. My goal is to reduce our government to a constitutional size.

Q: But if he’s a total failure, why are you using, using his picture in your brochure?

A: Well, because he ran on a good program, and his idea was a limited government. Get rid of the Department of Education, a strong national defense.

Called Bush 41 a "bum"; didn’t vote for Bush 43

Q: George Herbert Walker Bush, according to the Nov. 1996 Ron Paul Political Report: "Bush is a bum." And asked about the current President Bush, whether you voted for him in 2004: "Paul says no: ‘He misled us in 2000.’" Asked if you voted for Bush in 2000: "No, I didn’t vote for him then, either. I wasn’t convinced he was a conservative." And actually, in 1987, you submitted a letter of resignation to the Republican Party: If Reagan’s a failure, Bush 41 is a bum, you didn’t vote for Bush 43, and you resigned from the Republican Party, why you running as a Republican candidate for president?

A: Because I represent what Republicanism used to be–that part of the Republican Party that used to be non-interventionists overseas; when the Republicans defended individual liberty and the Constitution and decreased spending. So the reason the Republican Party is shrinking, why the base is so small, is because they don’t stand for these ideals any more. So I stand for the ideals of the Republican Party.

READ MORE ON RON PAUL’S PRINCIPLES and VALUES

99% no intention to run as independent if he loses GOP race

Q: If you do not win the Republican nomination for president, will you run as an independent in 2008?

A: I have no intention to do that.

Q: Absolute promise?

A: I have no intention of doing that.

Q: Well, but "no intention" is a wiggle word.

A: Well, I deserve one wiggle now and then.

Q: So no Shermanesque statement like "I will not run as an independent."

A: I have no intention, no plans of doing it, and that’s about 99.9%. I don’t like those absolutists terms in politics.

Q: But the door’s open a little bit.

A: Not very much. We have February 5th coming up. We have a campaign to run. How many other candidates have you asked, "Are you going to run as a third party candidate if you don’t win?" Have you asked John McCain that?

Q: Well, if someone has a history of running as a third party candidate, sure. You ran in ‘88 as a Libertarian. It’s a logical question.

A: But there are independents. So ask them, too.

Breaks one-day fundraising record: $6M at Boston Tea Party"

Ron Paul raised an astounding $6 million & change Sunday. The campaign announced they had eclipsed the $5.7 million that John Kerry raised the day after he locked up the 2004 Democratic nomination–arguably the largest single-day fundraising haul in US political history.

Paul, whose campaign has been embraced by a zealous community of online supporters, raised $4.2 million on Nov. 5, [corresponding with Guy Fawkes Day]. The current fundraising effort was timed for the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, a day meant to resonate with the Libertarian sensibilities of his supporters.

The man who engineered it– Trevor Lyman, a 37-year-old music promoter–has no official ties to the campaign and had no political experience before he engineered the innovative model for Nov. 5. He set up a website that solicited pledges for contributions to be made directly to the Paul campaign on that day–a technique that became known as a "money bomb," which he used again to such great effect Sunday.

Broke fundraising records by spontaneous support on Internet

Q: The latest poll in Iowa has you at 7%, the same number as John McCain, behind Huckabee, Romney, & Giuliani. As far as fund-raising is concerned though–and this is significant–in the last quarter that ended, you had raised $5 million. But there is some suggestion in this final quarter of 2007, you could raise more money than any of the other Republican presidential candidates, given the enormous amount you have raised online. So, in this quarter, what, $8 million, $9 million?

A: Yesterday it went over $10.5 million. Our goal was to raise $12 million by the end of the quarter. And there is going to be another super day sponsored by our supporters, spontaneously, like they did on 11/5, when they raised $4.3 million. And they say this one is going to be bigger, and that’s December 16th. So, something big is going on. The people are really annoyed with conventional politics, and we’re spending this money in Iowa. So I think those polls are going to continue to shift.

Only support GOP nominee if they end war & reduce spending

Q: Do you promise to support the nominee of the Republican Party next year?

PAUL: Not right now I don’t, not unless they’re willing to end the war and bring our troops home, not unless they’re willing to look at excessive spending.

PAUL: No, I’m not going to support them if they continue down the path which has taken our party down the tubes. I mean, we’ve lost credibility because of all our spending, because we have violated the civil liberties of all the American people, and we have adopted the Democrats’ foreign policy. Why don’t we run on George Bush’s foreign policy of a humble foreign policy and no nation building and don’t police the world? Then I’ll support them.

Washington shouldn’t dictate to us our personal behavior

We have resorted to going to Washington for everything. We cannot go to Washington to dictate to us how we improve our personal behavior. You don’t dictate, you don’t legislate virtue. In a free society, you do that from people, from your family, your friends, and your neighbors, but not in the federal government.

GOP will continue losing elections with current Iraq policy

PAUL: [to Huckabee] A few people advising this administration, a small number of people called the neoconservatives, hijacked our foreign policy. They’re responsible, not the American people.

PAUL: No, when we make a mistake, it is the obligation of the people, through their representatives, to correct the mistake, not to continue the mistake.

PAUL: No, we’ve dug a hole for ourselves and we’ve dug a hole for our party. We’re losing elections and we’re going down next year if we don’t change it, and it has all to do with foreign policy and we have to wake up to this fact.

The champion of the Constitution

I’m Ron Paul. I’m a congressman from Texas, serving in my 10th term. I am the champion of the .

Congress should write fewer laws regarding church & state

Q: You ran for president once before as a Libertarian. What do you say about this whole issue of church and state and these issues that are coming forward right now?

A: I think we should read the First Amendment, where it says, "Congress shall write no law." And we should write a lot less laws regarding this matter. It shouldn’t be a matter of the president or the Congress. It should be local people, local officials–we just don’t need more laws determining religious things or prayer in school. We should allow people at the local level. That’s what the Constitution tells us. We don’t need somebody in Washington telling us what we can do, because we don’t have perfect knowledge. And that’s the magnificence of our Constitution and our republic. We sort out the difficult problems at local levels and we don’t have one case fit all. That’s why we shouldn’t have it at a central level.

Given epithet "Dr. No" by colleagues in Congress

In Congress, Paul has earned the nickname "Dr. No" for voting against any bill he believes violates the Constitution. Ron Paul is not your typical Republican. He strongly opposes the war in Iraq. He voted against the Patriot Act, and warns that President Bush is going down a dangerous path toward war with Iran. Paul ran as the Libertarian Party’s presidential nominee in 1988. But now he wants to change the Republican Party from within by running for President.

Religious affiliation: Protestant

Paul : religious affiliation:

The Adherents.com website is an independent project and is not supported by or affiliated with any organization (academic, religious, or otherwise).

What’s an adherent?

The most common definition used in broad compilations of statistical data is somebody who claims to belong to or worship in a religion. This is the self-identification method of determining who is an adherent of what religion, and it is the method used in most national surveys and polls.

Such factors as religious service attendance, belief, practice, familiarity with doctrine, belief in certain creeds, etc., may be important to sociologists, religious leaders, and others. But these are measures of religiosity and are usually not used academically to define a person’s membership in a particular religion. It is important to recognize there are various levels of adherence, or membership within religious traditions or religious bodies. There’s no single definition, and sources of adherent statistics do not always make it clear what definition they are using.

Member of the Republican Liberty Caucus

Paul is the chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus:

What is the RLC?

The Republican Liberty Caucus is a grassroots, nationwide organization affiliated with the Republican Party (GOP). The goal of the RLC is to elect pro-liberty individuals to office. The RLC was founded in 1990, and now has members in every state.

What does the RLC do?

We are expanding our nationwide base of pro-liberty Republicans. We publish a national newsletter and some state chapters publish newsletters as well.

What is the RLC’s platform?

The RLC doesn’t have an official platform like the major parties, because it is a political club and only affiliated with a major party. There is, however, an official list of RLC positions that emphasizes limited government across the board. The document was adopted at the 1996 RLC convention. Individual RLC members do not necessarily concur with every position, and it is not a requirement of membership to endorse it. It does seem to reflect the general views of the members.

Why don’t you just join the Libertarian Party?

Many in our group have been LP members, some still are. Our past chairman, Rep. Ron Paul, was the LP presidential candidate in 1988. Our Past Treasurer, Mike Holmes, was a founding member of the LP.

Everyone in the RLC joined for their own reasons, but it can be presumed that they all would agree that in many races the GOP is the best way to go in order to actually get a libertarian elected. It can also be said that the LP runs educational campaigns, where the goal is not actually electing someone, but educating the public about the libertarian philosophy. We are interested in getting someone who holds the libertarian philosophy elected.

Will the RLC support an LP candidate?

The RLC does not support LP candidates in a race where there is a GOP candidate. This does not mean that individual RLC members are party line voters. A person’s individual choice with regards to voting is not a litmus test for participation in the RLC.