01/29/10 Baltimore, Maryland – When Dr. Paul delivered a one-hour speech Wednesday night in a small auditorium at this editor’s alma mater – Loyola University in Maryland – we knew what to expect. His message is a familiar one, and perhaps one of Dr. Paul’s more endearing qualities is that his message rarely changes. If you’ve ever seen him on TV or heard him speak, you might as well have been there with us. There was no big news, or announcements, or changes in policies. The man wants liberty, and that’s that.
But that’s not to say we found nothing of note. Au contraire… Ron Paul himself is just as interesting as his message.
Ron Paul is funny – “I really didn’t expect anyone to show up,” were the first words of his speech. Wednesday night also happened to be President Obama’s first State of the Union address, an address that every member of Paul’s 300-or-so audience was surely going to miss. He said that with a smile, but a hint of honesty too (Dr. Paul was not packing college auditoriums in 2005). “There is this other speech happening tonight, but I don’t think you’ll be missing a lot… We scheduled ours before the other guy,” he quipped.
Later, as his very grave call for the return of personal liberty reached its crescendo, he offered the ultimate attribute of a truly free society: “You can even drink unpasteurized milk!”
Ron Paul is old – He’s obviously no spring chicken, but Dr. Paul has been around even longer than you might think. This weekend he’ll be celebrating his 53rd wedding anniversary. He has great grand kids – three of ’em. When he speaks off the cuff – which was the majority of his presentation – he rambles, lacking that slick verbosity that characterizes his profession. His hands shake just a tiny bit. When your editor spoke with him (quite briefly) after his speech, he turned his ear and leaned in.
Ron Paul is young – “I’m really pleased with the reception at colleges,” he noted quite frankly. Of course, more than one college student in the crowd was not there by choice (to the guy with the headphones on…c’mon). But the “Ron Paul brand” is surprisingly youthful. Your editor was flanked on all sides by the “Young Americans for Liberty,” an outspoken club of undergrads in awkward suits, grinning ear to ear at the sight of their idol, Dr. Ron Paul. There was a loyal legion of the “tea party” 50+, but almost half the crowd was under 25. We even saw one high school-aged girl shed a tear and shudder after shaking his hand…not exactly Beetle-mania, but surprising for a 74 year old obstetrician turned Republican Congressman.
That’s no surprise to him: “We’re trying to promote something very young,” he responded to those who say he’ll send us back to the dark ages. “Liberty has not been around very long. These are not ancient ideas.” He reminded the audience that tyranny, monarchy and oligarchy are old ideas, and he’s not surprised that a college crowd – having just escaped the monarchy of Mom and Dad – thirsts for libertarianism.
Ron Paul’s a Southerner – He’s spent enough time in Washington to develop a relatively neutral diction, but our Yankee ears have never heard the phrase, “What in thunder?!?” Every once in a while, when he lets his guard down, a “yall” slips out.
Ron Paul’s a politician – Most, but not all of Dr. Paul’s “aw shucks” persona is legit. No doubt, much of his popularity stems from a constant appeal to fairness and often blatant honesty (for crying out loud, his middle name is Ernest). He oozes these attributes in person… but he can play politics, too.
“You’re married, so what?” is Dr. Paul’s unofficial policy on gay marriage. Halfway into his speech – which was billed as “The Case Against the Fed” – he wandered into this controversial hole. He dug his way out with careful words. Though he was clearly unopposed to gay marriage, he never overtly supported it – surely aware of the very conservative audience he was addressing. Even though he spoke about it for a good five minutes, we don’t recall Paul even saying the word “gay.”
In his 35 years in and out of politics (what would the founding fathers think of that?) he’s picked up some tools of the trade. He didn’t show the slightest bit of hesitation towards any of his policy proposals… the kind of “I have a monopoly on all the right ideas” attitude that plagues his Democrat and Republican brethren just the same. Though the topic of his speech was curing us of the Fed’s disease, he spent not one second addressing any potentially harsh side effects of such monetary medication. Even BigPharma gives the fine print (only because the FDA insists).
He did spend time hitting the libertarian easy targets… AIG…the second amendment…federal deficits…government regulators, etc. And when Dr. Paul hit ’em hard, there was always a pointed finger, a rising intonation and a well-timed pause for applause. Consider the rabble thoroughly roused.
Can we blame him? Only a little. Who would have ever thought that Dr. Paul – a quirky libertarian from Texas – could garner such eminence? It’s obvious now, but 5, 10 years ago…no way. The time has clearly come for his message to reach so many, and we welcome it in our strange state of political discourse – especially in places like a university. Paul’s not perfect, but neither is unpasteurized milk. We’ll take our chances with both, if only in small doses.
Ian Mathias
for The Daily Reckoning
P.S. So what did Dr. Paul and I talk about after his speech? This is a little embarrassing…
He didn’t take any questions after his presentation, but Paul did sign a few copies of End the Fed. With my fancy press pass and press seating, I was able to get one of the first cracks at him, before the “commoners.” As such, your editor foolishly expected he might gain Dr. Paul’s audience for a few seconds – maybe even a question or two – instead of the customary handshake and autograph. Given my publisher’s history with Dr. Paul, I thought I had a good shot. Heh, wrong:
“Nice to meet you doctor. I’m Ian Mathias. I write for The Daily Reckoning.”
(Brief pause. He shows no sign of recognition or regard. Better cut to the chase.)
“We have a library dedicated in our office to Kurt Richebächer, who is…”
“OK… Who is this to?” he interrupts, having already written “To”.
“Oh, sorry… Ummm, if you could please make it for the Richebächer Memorial Library.”
“Can you make it just one name?”
“Yeah, sorry… Kurt.”
“What?”
“Kurt.”
“With a K?”
“Please.”
I took our copy, noted the terse “To Kurt, Ron Paul” inscription, and nodded in passive appreciation. Paul turned to his handler, “Tell them no more dedications.”
P.P.S. We owe some gratitude to Loyola’s Courtney Jolley for getting us a press pass at the last minute and for the best seat in the house. Also thanks to Thomas DiLorenzo for arranging the event.
Ian Mathias
Ian Mathias is the managing editor of Agora Financial’s Income Franchise, where he writes and researches about retirement, dividend and fixed income investing. Much of his work is featured in The Daily Reckoning and Lifetime Income Report – Agora Financial’s flagship income investing advisory.
Previously, Ian managed The 5 Min. Forecast, a fun, fast-paced daily look into the future of global markets and macroeconomics. He’s also worked in public relations, where media outlets like Forbes, AP, Yahoo! and MSN Money have syndicated his writing. If he’s not at work, you’ll probably find Ian on a bicycle, racing up and down the “mountains” of Baltimore County. Ian has a BA from Loyola University in Maryland.
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The no dedications…. do you think he’s concerned some supremacist will end up with a dedication to somewhere awful, which will end up in the press, and he just won’t have recognized the name?
Interesting. I really like him.
Ron Paul surely isn’t perfect and sometimes I wish he was just a little more open to compromise. However, name me one other politician who is even close to as honest and forthcoming. Ron Paul is about as perfect as a politician can be, which is to say, he’s REAL, and that is sorely lacking in politics.
OK, so he didn’t @ss-kiss some reporter from Loyola.
I knew I liked him.
Right on the money Ed.
Kuscinich (spelling)? and Sanders just as honest and forth coming also.
Bah. Sounds like a typical politician and his behavior signing books confirms that.
Sorry “99 cent…”, Bernie Sanders just voted YES for Bernanke’s re-appointment-he doesn’t walk the walk.
JaneM, it’s 2010, and it is obvious you have zero knowledge of Dr. Paul. IOW, your ignorance is showing, in a most flamboyant manner.
Educate yourself, he’s about the only honest, freedom-loving congressman we have, one who believes in non-intervention, minimal government, following the letter of the Constitution, and ending the Federal Reserve, just for a brief intro.
Yes Ken R he did and he was honest about it. The problem with Dr. Paul he is at heart a libertarian and libertarianism will not work in today’s environment given the population numbers we have and apparently not that many people are interested in libertarianism because if they were they would be in power. Its all about the numbers.
He said after his run, that a 3rd party, libertarian wouldn’t work as this is a 2 party system. We have to find the candidates that are in agreement and support Mr Paul and vote all the others out – no matter if they’re Rep or Dem. Thing I want to know is, why isn’t there a movement? Why aren’t we marching in the streets? I hope you all realize that votes, while democratic, don’t evoke change like protests. I hate this Kleptocracy but no seems to be able to get off their fat arses to state their position publicly- in protest if necessary. You don’t get anywhere without some personal sacrifice. Remember civil rights? The end of the war in Vietnam? Womens rights? None of those would have happened without very public protests. They certainly wouldn’t have happened with just votes alone.
99 cent
If by “libertarianism will not work…” you mean libertarians are unelectable that is true. So far. The electorate are too imbedded in the notion that the government will fix things. That does not mean that it would not work were the electorate to come to their senses.
I really like Ron Paul. I agree that he isn’t the most polished speaker, but them neither am I. He stands for what is right and just, and that is good enough for me.
Jer are you talking about libertarianism or Anarchism? Anarchy actually has more to offer than libertarianism. One can learn more about anarchy and its true meaning at Wikipedia or a good web search. There again the word itself scares hell out of many that still feel that government is the only thing that will save them. Coming to their senses is very unlikely.
Me thinks Ian had stars in his eyes. Don’t feel to bad, liberty is a busy message these days.