Ron Paul Supporters are All Over the World

Here's a video of Ron Paul supporters in Spain rallying last March in Madrid. It really goes to show that Ron Paul supporters are all over the world and his campaign for liberty transcends US borders.

Ron Paul supporters from Spain

It's interesting that the question of why I am so passionately supportive of Ron Paul was brought up recently. At first glance, I understand that it seems irrelevant. What would be the relevance of a statesman in the US to someone halfway around the world who is not even part of their electoral system? I'm sure they're asking the same question about those people in Madrid on the video above who went out of their way to organize and exercise their freedom of assembly and freedom of speech to voice out their support for Ron Paul. 

I have laid out the reasons in my article Why Do I Support Ron Paul and What Relevance Does He Have to Filipinos. I've learned though that people don't like reading long, overly passionate, and unintentionally dogmatic articles. I'm thinking of writing a new article and laying out the reasons to support Ron Paul and his platform in bullet form to make it simpler and easier to absorb.

economics in one lesson
Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

I did decide yesterday to reacquaint myself with Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson (pdf available for free here) being that, since there are very few Ron Paul supporters or libertarians here in the Philippines, I feel that I have somehow been tasked or that it is a grave responsibility of mine to defend libertarian political positions in casual debates and somehow change people's opinions or at least change the direction of the conversation.

It is dangerous to engage in debate, I realized. With one wrong word or faulty historical reference, I may actually just misrepresent libertarianism and counterproductively worsen people's opinion of the philosophy I have learned to love.

This is, after all, one of the books that converted Dr. Walter Block into libertarianism and somewhat a good summary of what economic freedom is really all about and why the status quo of economic interventionism is flawed. And all that is stated in a very easy to absorb manner, not too technical, and is exactly the right tool I need so that I won't fail miserably when trying to challenge statist mentality.

I was, in fact, like most libertarians I know, radically left-leaning in the past. I did read a lot of Marx and other socialist material. Dr. Walter Block himself explained that this is normal for those who are young and compassionate. It is so easy to be swayed by the proposed solutions of the left. It is rooted mostly on the emotional, on things that are apparent (and it's quite fitting that the first part of Henry Hazlitt's book explain the broken window fallacy: that which is seen and that which is not seen).

Libertarians do not agree on everything. Unfortunately, the things we may agree on are the most unpopular of positions. We propose a bitter medicine that many will refuse to swallow. Imagine how I'd have to say that Noble-prize winners like Paul Krugman and thousands of people with PhDs on economics are wrong. And who am I to say that, right? I have no credibility whatsoever in this field. I'm just some blogger who happened to stumble upon Ron Paul. And this really makes it a thousand times harder for me to argue for the libertarian position. 

And that's just the economic aspect of it all. When it comes to the social justice discussions, I'm most definitely screwed. As I have said before, libertarian positions can easily be deemed as the "anti-poor" or the "selfish" position. A case I tried to argue against in my article about Why Jefrey Sachs is Mistaken About Libertarianism. I actually got engaged in a casual debate recently about the bailouts , the housing bubble, and the recession and I was pretty sure going against government intervention and "regulation" sounds ridiculously bad. In fact, too much government involvement caused the housing bubble and the recession. Actually, when Ron Paul and other free marketers were warning people of the housing bubble and the recession no one listened: 

Ron Paul predicts the housing bubble years before it happens 

Peter Schiff (economic adviser to Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign) predicts recession and no one listened to him

So in a world where you are against Noble-prize winners, PhD degree holders, general public opinion,  and the status quo, what sort of hope is there for you? When you have proof like the videos above that  are opposite of what's reported in documentaries and by so-called experts about the recession yet somehow people still refuse to believe it, how do you respond?   

The pen is mightier than the sword, they say. My only hope is that somehow my writings and the videos I share on this blog will, even in a small way, make people curious about Ron Paul and libertarianism. Hopefully, you, my dear reader, get to see that maybe there is so much more about this political philosophy and that it is in the interest of a prosperous, peaceful, and free society.


Help support this blog by checking out these other helpful links:
1. My list of Top 10 Libertarian Books 
2. Why did FOX News Cancel Freedom Watch?
3. Why is the internet slow in the Philippines?

2 comments:

  1. Brazillians for Ron Paul!! Ron Ppaul 2012!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I dream to see a Filipino politician advocating reform in monetary policy with statesman quality as that of Ron Paul.

    ReplyDelete

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