His advice that America should let others dictate our foreign policy so people won't have an excuse to physically hurt us anymore.
"I'll do what you want if you promise not to hurt me" is the essential attitude of the coward.
What lies?
Pledging one's dedication to Congressional term limits of 2 terms again and again to anyone who will listen, and then serving 9 terms.
The fact is that the Constitution does not give the federal government any police powers other than those necessary and proper to carry out expressly enumerated federal powers.
Among which is the Constitutional requirement that the federal government provide for the common defense of the several states.
A fact Ron Paul ignores.
Its also worth noting that not a single Congressman or Seantor was able to read the 500 pages of the PATRIOT Act before voting on it...they were simply not given the time.
The text of the act in 12pt Times New Roman font in Microsoft Word is less than 200 pages. The Act was sent to Congress on October 23, 2001 and voted on October 24, 2001.
I would expect that an educated adult - which we expect our Congressional representatives to be - could read a very important 200 page document in a day.
Even if they had to cancel a tennis lesson or a manicure to get it done.
Do you really want your congressman voting on things they have not read and know little about...that in itself should demand a vote against
No one in Congress had any excuse to not have read it. If they don't understand what legislation is and what it does, they don't have any excuse for that either.
If someone in Congress didn't bother to read it or couldn't understand it, they should just resign.
Americans can decide what they want their foreign policy to be...but its good that people are finally recognizing that there is a connection between American foreign policy and AQ's constant threat of terrorism. Ron Paul has never suggested that AQ "dictate our foreign policy"...only that Americans understand that the threat of terrorism is one of the costs of that policy. Americans, if they understand the connection, may decide that whatever benefits we Americans derive from having permanent military bases in Saudia Arabia or Iraq...or from supporting Israel....or from imposing years of sanctions on Saddam...or from deposing Saddam...are not worth the costs of living under a constant threat of terrorism and being in a permanent state of war. On that point, I agree with Ron Paul...I don't see how years of interventionist US policies in the middle east have benefitted your average every-day American like you or me...other than we have cheaper oil...but had oil prices been left to the volatility and political instability of the middle east...the environmental nazis would have been marginalized long ago and we, the originators of nuclear power, may have a serious nuclear energy program...and we may have been drilling for oil all over North America
Among which is the Constitutional requirement that the federal government provide for the common defense of the several states
That section of the Constitution is tied to the tax and spend power of the federal government. But the PATRIOT Act is essentially a criminal, regulatory statute. General regulatory police powers were, for most of our history, the exclusive province of the states...the New Dealers, as always, effected a radical expansion of federal powers and transfored the constitutionality of federal police power...but even then, the Courts tied federal police powers to other express federal powers (generally the Commerce Clause).
Pledging one's dedication to Congressional term limits of 2 terms again and again to anyone who will listen, and then serving 9 terms
So...where's the lie? Paul has never voted against a term limit bill...he has refused to accept a congressional pension, he is so far ahead of every other congressman in terms of fiscal restraint...the argument for favoring term limits is that politicians become entrenched and hand out public moneys in return for votes and campaign contributions...no one can say Ron Paul does that...if you had 435 congressmen like Ron Paul...the size of the federal government would be a fraction of what it is today