Ron Paul’s Conservative Lesson
Every Republican calls themselves conservative these days, but for many this means little more than opposing Democrats. Newt Gingrich considers any attempt to limit government “radical.”
Every Republican calls themselves conservative these days, but for many this means little more than opposing Democrats. Mitt Romney has no discernible limited government philosophy. Newt Gingrich considers any attempt to limit government “radical.” At Monday night’s debate, Ron Paul reminded the Republican Party that one can’t be truly conservative without being dedicated to the cause of limited government in a genuine and comprehensive fashion:
“I think the problem is the way we are defining what conservative means. Conservative means we have smaller government and more liberty. And yet, if you ask what have we [the Republican Party] done, I think we’ve lost our way completely. Our rhetoric is still pretty good, but when we get in charge we expand the government… So if it means limited government, you have to ask the basic question: ‘What should the role of government be?’ “
The Founders asked that question, had a revolution and wrote a constitution. And they said the role of government ought to be to protect liberty. It’s not to be a welfare state and it’s not to be the policemen of the world. How can you be ‘conservative’ and cut food stamps, but you won’t cut spending overseas? There’s not a nickel or a penny that anybody will cut on the ‘conservative’ side on overseas spending. We don’t have the money – and they are willing to start world wars.
So I say that if you’re conservative you want small government across the board – especially in personal liberty. What’s wrong with having the government out of our personal lives? We have to decide what ‘conservative’ means, what ‘limited government’ means – and I have a simple suggestion. We have a pretty good guide. And if we follow the Constitution, government would be very small and we’d all be devoted conservatives.” - Ron Paul 1/23/12
