“We know that the idea of perfect socialism is an oxymoron. Pursuing utopia throughout the last century has already caused untold human suffering. That’s why the clear goal of a free society must be understood and sought or the vision of the authoritarians will face little resistance and will easily fill the void.
There are precise goals we should work for, even under today’s difficult circumstances. We must legalize freedom to the maximum extent possible:
1. Complete police protection is impossible; therefore we must preserve the right to own weapons in self-defense.
2. In order to maintain economic protection against government debasement of the currency, gold ownership must be preserved — something taken away from the American people during the Great Depression.
3. Adequate retirement protection by the government is limited, if not ultimately impossible. We must allow every citizen the opportunity to control all his or her retirement funds.
4. Government education has clearly failed. We must guarantee the right of families to homeschool or send their kids to private schools and help them with tax credits.
5. Government snooping must be stopped. We must work to protect all our privacy, especially on the Internet, prevent the National ID Card, and stop the development of all government data banks.
6. Federal police functions are unconstitutional and increasingly abusive. We should disarm all federal bureaucrats and return the police function to local authorities.
7. The army was never meant to be used in local policing activities. We must firmly prohibit our presidents from using the military in local law-enforcement operations, which is now being implemented under the guise of fighting terrorism.
8. Foreign military intervention by our presidents in recent years is a costly failure. Foreign military intervention should not be permitted without explicit congressional approval.
9. Competitions in all elections should be guaranteed, and the monopoly powers gained by the two major parties through unfair signature requirements, high fees, and campaign donation controls should be removed. Competitive parties should be allowed in all government-sponsored debates.
10. We must do whatever is possible to help instill a spiritual love for freedom and recognize that our liberties depend on responsible individuals, not the group or the collective or society as a whole. The individual is the building block of a free and prosperous social order.” – Congressman Ron Paul, from a February, 2004 speech delivered at “Evenings at FEE” in Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.