I think I’ve found my favorite congressman:
Just a few days after the presidential election, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) — the only libertarian in Congress — rose to the House floor to deliver a stinging critique of the Bush administration’s war policy, assaults on civil liberties, and massive increases in the size and cost of government.
During the wide-ranging speech, Congressman Paul — a devout Christian who opposes abortion —urged the millions of pro-life Christian conservative voters who voted for Bush to abandon support for the Iraq war and related military globalism.
Said Paul:
“It’s clear the Christian conservative turnout was critical to the President’s re-election. Though many may well have voted for the family/moral values touted by the President and mishandled by Senator Kerry, most agree with the Christian Right that our policy of pre-emptive war in the Middle East is not in conflict with pro-family and pro-life values.
“This seems strange indeed, since a strong case can be made that the conservative Christian Right, those most interested in the pro-life issue, ought to be the strongest defenders of peace and reject unnecessary pre-emptive war.
“Here are a few reasons why conservatives ought to reject the current policy of pre-emptive war:
1.The Constitution is on the side of peace. Under the Constitution — the law of the land —only Congress can declare war. The president is prohibited from taking us to war on his own.
2. The Founders and all the early presidents argued the case for non-intervention overseas,with the precise goals of avoiding entangling alliances and not involving our people in foreign wars unrelated to our security.
3. The American tradition and sense of morality for almost all our history rejected the notion that we would ever deliberately start a war, even with noble intentions.
4. The Christian concept of Just War rejects all the excuses given for marching off to Iraq with the intention of changing the whole region into a Western-style democracy by force, with little regard for the cost in life and limb and the economic consequences here at home.
5. America faces a 7.5 trillion dollar national debt that is increasing by 600 billion dollars per year. Fiscal conservatives cannot dismiss this, even as they clamor for wars we cannot afford.
6. History shows the size of the state always grows when we’re at war. Under conditions of war civil liberties are always sacrificed — thus begging the point. We go hither and yon to spread our message of freedom, while sacrificing our freedoms here at home and eating away at the wealth of the country.
7. Those who understand the most important function of our national government is to provide strong national defense should realize that having troops in over 100 countries hardly helps us protect America, secure our borders, or avoid alienating our allies and potential enemies.
8. The best way to prevent terrorism is to change our policies, stop playing crusader, and stop picking sides in religious civil wars or any other civil wars. “Blow back” from our policies is not imaginary.
9. Promoting true free trade and promoting prosperity through low taxes and less regulation sends a strong message to the world and those interested in peace and commerce.
10. A policy of free exchange with other nations avoids the trappings of the new isolationists,who influence our foreign policy with the generous use of sanctions, trade barriers, and competitive currency devaluations. They are only too willing to defer to the World Trade Organization and allow it to dictate our trade and tax policies.
“Conservatives who profess to uphold the principle of right-to-life should have little trouble supporting the position of the Founders and the Constitution: a foreign policy of ‘peace and commerce with those who choose and no entangling alliances.'”
(Sources: Ron Paul speech “Where To From Here?,” November 20, 2004:http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2004/cr112004.htm)
