KING: He\u2019s made three runs for the White House, and now his son, US Senator Rand Paul, is aiming for the Oval Office. Ron Paul, former Republican member of the House of Representatives. And one time Libertarian presidential nominee is my guest on this edition of PoliticKING.<\/p>\n
Welcome to PoliticKING, I\u2019m Larry King. He is always outspoken, opinionated, and one of a kind. He\u2019s Ron Paul. He joins me from Clute, Texas. Former congressman, he\u2019s a physician. He\u2019s made White House bids twice as a Republican, once in 1998 as the Libertarian party\u2019s nominee. He\u2019s the founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, he\u2019s an outspoken advocate for limited government, personal liberty, and low taxes, and you can catch him as he hosts the \u201cRon Paul Liberty Report\u201d and you\u2019ve seen ads for a latest thing that he\u2019s got, about you and your finances about what this country\u2019s going to, or coming to. We\u2019ll get to that in a minute. What are your thoughts about your son\u2019s success in the Senate?<\/span><\/p>\n PAUL: Well, I think it\u2019s wonderful because I know how tough of a job he has. You know, because it\u2019s not nice to be in a place where you really want to get along, but you have to stand your ground, and everybody\u2019s yelling and screaming at you, you have to believe in something to do that. Too often people just capitulate, and go along to get along because that\u2019s how you advance in Washington. So I thought he did a great job because he was dealing with something very, very important. I think he realizes the obstacles and also what might happen in the future. But he made the point very clearly. I thought he handled himself very well.<\/span><\/p>\n KING: Now as I understand it, we are still going to have some sort of USA Freedom Act, right? It\u2019ll be somewhat diminished from what it is now.<\/span><\/p>\n PAUL: Well, that\u2019s what they\u2019re telling you and that\u2019s why a lot of people are voting for the reform act, but actually it\u2019s making things worse. Because, the first thing is it\u2019s making government a partner with big business, as you know. Verizon, and AT&T, so they\u2019re doing the government\u2019s work. I don\u2019t like that. I don\u2019t like the mixture. But the other thing that is very, very bad, is that they\u2019re cancelling, or they\u2019re working toward the court ruling. The court ruled that the Patriot Act, the way it\u2019s written, did not legalize this collection of data, and now what they\u2019re doing in the reform package is making sure that the law says this. When the court ruled, they did not rule on the Fourth Amendment, they just ruled and said, well the Patriot act is pretty vague on that, it doesn\u2019t say that you can\u2019t do this, so they\u2019re correcting that. So, one thing in Washington, when they have a reform of something, you cannot trust them. Because reform usually means that they\u2019re making things a lot worse, and also you have to be very, very cautious about anything about a Freedom Report or the Patriot act. I thought that was very unpatriotic, what they were doing, but everybody after 9\/11 said, oh, well we can\u2019t vote against the Patriot act, so I think the reform act is a very, very dangerous thing to go. It\u2019s not a slight improvement, as some people argue.<\/span><\/p>\n KING: It\u2019s a dilemma to many people. He said \u2013 your son said yesterday, \u201cI acknowledge a need for a robust intelligence agency, and for a vigilant national security. I believe we must fight terrorism. I believe we must stand strong against our enemies. But we do not need to give up who we are to defeat them. In fact, we must not. There has to be another way.\u201d Do you agree totally with that statement?<\/span><\/p>\n PAUL: Well, probably just, very, very close to everything, but the point is very important. Why do we give up our liberties? We go to war, we send our kids over there, fight wars that are undeclared, they make no sense whatsoever, and they\u2019re made to protect our liberties and protect our Constitution. Well, why would we do to ourselves what we\u2019re claiming they might do to us from coming overseas. So we in this process, undermine our Constitution. It wasn\u2019t a lack of\u2013it wasn\u2019t because we had too much freedom that was the problem, but now we have less freedom and the way we are fighting the war on terrorism, and I think they have made a lot of mistakes.<\/span><\/p>\n KING: The problem is, isn\u2019t it, Ron, when you deal with fear, when you instill fear into people, in Hitler, in 1937, discarded warrants, and his argument was, if you have nothing to hide, what are you afraid if we don\u2019t need a warrant to come into your house? We have troubles in this country and we should weed out the bad people. And that appealed to Germans.<\/span><\/p>\n PAUL: Well it appeals to a lot of Americans right now, I hear it all the time. It\u2019s very scary because people, when they\u2019re fearful, and that is a technique and a tool for those who believe in a lot more government than I do, they want to make the people fearful, but they can do this in economic policy too, well if the government doesn\u2019t take care of you, there will be poverty, and everybody\u2019s going to suffer. But the government has these programs, and look at how many people are suffering right now, the middle class is getting wiped out so that hasn\u2019t worked. And of course, the fear around the world is that we have to spread America\u2019s greatness, we have to have a program of promoting democracy around the world, and what do we end up with? A lot of constant wars if they do have an election and they don\u2019t elect the person that we want, we go get rid of them. So I think the idea that we are exceptional and we can tell the world how to live is the wrong approach. I think we can be an exceptional nation, we have been an exceptional nation, but we should set a standard. We should practice civil liberties, we should have a good economy, and let people say, hey America is great, I wonder what they\u2019re doing, maybe we ought to follow them. But for us to use authority and force and guns and threaten people, I claim we\u2019ve only had two kinds of foreign policy. If other countries would do exactly as we say, we give them billions and billions of dollars. If they don\u2019t do exactly as we tell them, we turn on them and we kill them. And I think there\u2019s a third option, and that is a little bit of diplomacy and a little bit of common sense.<\/span><\/p>\n KING: Your son\u2019s party, though, is the one that probably most favors the Patriot Act. He ran against his own party, in a sense. How will this affect him, do you think, in the Republican primaries?<\/span><\/p>\n PAUL: Well it\u2019s a challenge, but I found out that we were able to do quite well by inviting people in who otherwise wouldn\u2019t vote in the Republican primary. But I also believe you don\u2019t sacrifice truth. If you believe in something, and you if you believe that the Constitution is right and the Fourth Amendment is right and privacy should be protected. You know, that individual who promotes it isn\u2019t the problem. The problem is that too many people wimp out and say, well you know we have to be safe and we have to give up our liberties if we don\u2019t have anything to hide. And to give more and more authority, let the government go into business with big business, and that of course is bad, and let financial situations just get worse. No, if that\u2019s what they believe, to go along with them would be, in my mind, criminal. It would be sacrificing your whole soul to go along because you think you\u2019re going to do better. But what we need to do in this country is make sure that the majority of the American people really want their freedoms back again. And quite frankly, I think we\u2019d be a lot safer, there\u2019d be a lot more peace, and this economy would be a heck of a lot better considering the trillions and trillions of dollars we spend on the war machine, military investor complex and how about that many, many trillions of dollars we spent bailing out the rich when the economic crisis hit. That can all change, we could have such a different situation, and I just sort of am sad that more people don\u2019t wake up and listen to the truth.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n