A Bitter Pill

Conservatives, both social and political, have a bitter pill to swallow. The anti-Iraq war folks on the left were most likely right. This isn't something that I always believed.

Ron Paul is a congressman from Texas. He's generally described as a conservative libertarian. I think he's more like a Classical Liberal or Jeffersonian Democrat. Something of a fundamental constitutionalist who believes in free markets, small controlled central governments, and less power in the banks. His foreign policy views are along the line of what we profess to believe in, freedom and liberty for all. We all generally believe (with some notable people who are exceptions) that everyone has the liberty to do what they want in their own house, so long that they don't infringe on others same basic rights. Only we have a history of ignoring this fundamental belief on the international stage for about one hundred years now.

I'm linking to this speech he made in the House of Representatives because I feel this might be his best of all his great speeches. I think that the content of the speech, in a contemporary way, poses a series of questions that prove this point without ever really lecturing you on how it really is. It frames questions that NEED to be asked today.

Doesn't war and empire building always lead to larger government?

Should we as a country start a war with a sovereign country without provocation or a request for defense from an ally?

Should we allow our country preform acts of torture, no matter how benign, in our name? Or send prisoners to other countries to do our dirty work? (This would be called rendition)

Don't war time periods always lead to greater infringement of OUR liberties in the name of national security? And yet they cannot worry about securing our borders?

We as conservatives, who value personal liberty and responsibility, who drink the kool-aid of the boot strap mantra, who preach smaller government; don't we need to look in the mirror and rethink our blind nationalist support of a federal government or political party that continues to grow the central state, infringe on our freedoms and liberties and continues to treat other human beings so poorly?

Shouldn't WE have been the people to rally in the streets against Bush all those years ago demanding better behavior from our government and "conservative" leaders?