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[Ya-ta Boy]

Online RP is sometimes referred to as a Jeffersonian Libertarian. This is reasonable because he is a philosophical heir to Jefferson, one of the loonier Founding Fathers. Ron Paul is on record as being for States Rights. This of course has a long and distinguished historical ancestry and can be traced to Jefferson.

(from Wikipedia)
"The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions (or Resolves) were important political statements in favor of states' rights written secretly by Vice President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (then in retirement) in 1798...The resolutions declared that the Constitution was a "compact." That is, it was an agreement among the states. The federal government had no right to exercise powers not specifically delegated to it; should the federal government assume such powers, its acts under them would be void. Thus it was the right of the states to decide as to the constitutionality of such laws passed by Congress...Their long-term importance lies not in their attack on the Sedition law, but rather in their strong statements of states' rights theory, which led to rather different concepts of nullification and interposition. "

A few decades later...

" The Nullification Crisis was a sectional crisis during the presidency of Andrew Jackson that arose when the state of South Carolina attempted to nullify a federal law passed by the United States Congress. South Carolina�s attempt was based on a constitutional theory articulated by South Carolina�s John C. Calhoun. He believed that any state could unilaterally, or in cooperation with other states, refuse to comply with any federal law which a convention selected by the people of the state ruled was unconstitutional. The theoretical issue related to the very nature of the United States Constitution."

And we all know what this idea led to in December 1860: "South Carolina was the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860. On April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries began shelling Fort Sumter and the American Civil War began."

So, since he seems to favor pre-20th Century ideas, I think it's fair to ask just how far RP takes this idea of States Rights. We know he thinks Lincoln was wrong to defend the Union with force. Is Ron Paul just a latter-day reincarnation of Jefferson Davis? Is Ron Paul trying to 'repeal' the Civil War (as well as the 20th Century?)

[igotthisguitar]

Jefferon's long been turning over in his grave ...

Ron Paul's wife, Carol Paul, interview Austin, TX May '07

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3SDc9g9Tcs&NR=1

[jinju]

If Ron Paul was president in Lincoln's time he would have allowed slavery to go on. The man is scum.

[igotthisguitar]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[ontheway]

At the time of the Civil War, and up to that point, it was generally accepted that the States had, and were supposed to have, more power than the Federal Government.

States were supposed to have the power to nullify bad Federal legislation. This is also a right of juries: the right to nullify bad legislation passed at ANY level of government.

Juries used this power to refuse to enforce slavery laws.

States used this power to refuse to return runaway slaves as required by Federal law.

Slavery was on its way out and would have been abolished without Lincoln or the Civil War, and would have been abolished in the South had they succeeded.

The civil war was about free trade and States' rights vs. the Federal Gov't.


Finally, it must be remembered, that Lincoln actually didn't free any slaves. His famous "proclamation" only applied to those areas in active rebellion against the remaining US territory. Slaves that were owned in areas that remained loyal to the Union, and these are listed county by county in his proclamation, were not freed. Slave owners in these areas were allowed to KEEP their slaves.

Since the areas "in rebellion" were not under Federal jurisdiction, no slaves were actually freed by Lincoln.

But, since most people do not actually care about the truth. You can all continue to believe the myths.

[On the other hand]

[ontheway]

As to the question of repealing the 20th Century, what a good idea.

Up until the time of Adam Smith's famous "Wealth of Nations" and the US Declaration of Independence, and the events and writings just prior, the world had suffered through milennia of rule by kings, dictators, mercantile interests, and various forms of dictatorship and group control.

The ideas of liberty were rarely heard, and routinely suppressed. There were some minor successes such as the Magna Carta in England, but these were exceptionally rare.

The ideas of liberty and individual rights are the only new political and economic ideas in existance.

The 20th Century saw a reversal. The power of the State, the creation of big, evil central governments, ruling kleptocrats, dictatorships in various forms came back. Some came roaring in as German "Yataboys" followed the national socialists. Others came creeping in as the American "Yataboys" followed the creeping fascists from FDR through Nixon to Bush and Clinton. The 20th Century saw a reversal of the new ideas of liberty and a return to the dominance of group power. New forms of propaganda were used to disguise the old systems, but they were, in fact, the same old evil fascist kings, dictators and scum of old.

Hopefully, now, as has started to be the case on the Internet and with the creation of over 1000 meetup groups, people have begun to wake up. They have begun to realize that this return to the evil ideas of old, even disguised as socialism, communism, fascism, or led by Hillary Clinton or George Bush today, or FDR or Nixon decades ago, represents a throwback to the ideas of old, that people should be ruled and not free.

With Ron Paul, we have a chance to move foreward once again. To begin to advance into the future. The ideas of peace, prosperity, individual liberty and freedom are the only new ideas around.