Ron Paul Warns America To Stay Out Of Egypt, Rails Against Foreign Aid In CPAC Speech

Mediaite.com ^ | 02/12/2011 | Ron Paul

[OldDeckHand]

Given the contentious relationship between his followers and many in the conservative movement, it’s safe to say that Rep. Ron Paul’s address to CPAC this year was one of the more anticipated speeches of the political holiday weekend. And Rep. Paul delivered: railing against the “neo-Jacobins” that passed the PATRIOT Act, calling for drastic cuts in military spending, and a passionate repudiation of the Federal Reserve.

Opening with a jubilant recognition of the results of last November’s midterms– and, especially, the election of his son Rand to the Senate– the tenor of Paul’s speech was mostly combative towards the more military wing of the American right than anyone else. “We’ve given up our devotion to liberty,” Paul lamented, appreciating that, while the PATRIOT Act was now history, the fact that it passed at all was infuriating enough. “The PATRIOT Act has nothing to do with patriotism– they always name it the opposite of what it is,” he quipped. “The PATRIOT Act is literally the destruction of the Fourth Amendment.”

[OldDeckHand]

Golly, this man is a moron. We stayed out of Iran after the fall of the Shah. How did that turn out?

Imagine if we had stayed out of Germany when the wall came down, or out of Poland or a half-dozen other former Eastern Block countries after the fall of the Soviet Union. How many of them would now be members of NATO in our absence?

[Sybeck1]

Or let Cuba get missles.

[RINOS ARE RADICALS]

The more he speaks the more I think the guy is a lib.

[jd777]

George Washington said " Beware of Foreign Entanglements."

perhaps you know better?

[VaRepublican]

I agree, get the hell out and focus on home.

[OneLoyalAmerican]

Greetings OldDechHand:

Both a Ron Paul speech and Dennis Kuchinich speech could have been read from the same teleprompter.

Cheers,
OLA

[Freedom_Fighter_2001]

Ever heard of the French Navy? George Washington did.

[OldDeckHand]

"George Washington said " Beware of Foreign Entanglements."

Ronald Reagan said, "Mr. Gorbechov, tear down this wall".

I don't know if I know better, but I'm wagering Reagen sure as hell did.

Washington lived in a day before we knew what an atom was, let alone how to split it, and before the day we knew what a virus was let alone before we knew how to weaponize it.

I'll go with Reagan - it's better to take care of problems abroad, before the become problems at home.

[rideharddiefast]

The more he speaks the more I think the guy is a lib.

You think? You only think?

[bill1952]

>George Washington said “ Beware of Foreign Entanglements.”

He never spoke those 4 words.
His speech did contain this:

“The nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.
It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest,”

Also followed with this:

“A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils.
Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.”

[ROTB]

>perhaps you know better?

Yes. Blessing Israel is good for the USA. That is not an “entanglement”.

[griswold3]

Ron Paul reminds me of the Robert Taft sector of the Republican party. Eisenhower was used to thwart Taft’s presidential ambition and yet Ike warned of the military-industrial complex.

[Tex-Con-Man]

I agree, get the hell out and focus on home.

Pretending what happens in the Middle East will not directly affect us is the most naive/idiotic foreign policy.

Radical Islamists have made it clear they want to destroy us and our way of life. Do we just sit around and wait until they perfect the means to do so?

[Crim]

Ron puts the LIBERAL and Contrarian into Libertarian.

*grin*

[Batrachian]

"Imagine if we had stayed out of Germany when the wall came down, or out of Poland or a half-dozen other former Eastern Block countries after the fall of the Soviet Union. How many of them would now be members of NATO in our absence?"

We got out of Afghanistan in a hurry after the Soviets left. I challenge anyone to say that was good policy. Isolationism isn't a good policy when they can get to us.

What people like Ron Paul don't understand is that by the very nature of things the most powerful nation on earth can't exist by itself in a vacuum. We could not do so even in 1800.

[FromLori]

“Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

[Crim]

Jefferson sent the marines to tripoli without asking for congressional approval.

RP thinks that is unconstitutional.

[OldDeckHand]

"We’re screening the whole population when the problem lies with about 0.01% or less.."

While I agree that it would better serve our security interests if less deference was be paid to political correctness, I think that most of the criticism of the Patriot Act was largely overblown - and it was mostly overblown to serve some politically expedient ends. Have you noticed that since Obama came to power, the professional Left is virtually silent on the Patriot Act?

I'm not all that worried about some of the peripheral infringement on personal liberties precipitated by the Act, so long as the Act continues to be renewed with an expiration date. I think a robust debate every 3-4 years on its renewal is precisely what is needed.