Liberty Maven

Watching the excellent first two episodes of the HBO miniseries “John Adams” started me thinking about Ron Paul. Ron Paul has said that Adams was his favorite founding father. I was confused by this because of Adams’ Federalist history. I can only assume Ron Paul chose him because he was really one of the biggest players in the movement towards the American Revolution in the name of liberty.

The miniseries depicts Adams as somewhat of a war monger beginning with the First Continental Congress right on through to the Declaration of Independence. I guess it would be more accurate to say he was a liberty monger, but everyone knew what demanding independence meant. It meant certain all out war with Britain.

If Ron Paul lived during that time would he have been on the side of a diplomatic solution like John Dickinson or would he have been more like Adams and push towards a revolution. If you listened to Ron Paul’s antiwar rhetoric during his campaign you probably would think he’d come down on the side of Dickinson and the others pushing for exhausting every imaginable diplomatic solution. I think this would be a very interesting interview question to ask Ron Paul.

Examining the Ron Paul antiwar rhetoric a bit deeper reveals that it may not necessarily be true that he’d push for diplomacy. After all, he did vote for going after Osama Bin Laden once it was verified al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. He also spoke out for “just war” emphasizing that the Iraq war was no such thing. It is certainly conceivable that he would have considered the revolutionary war a just war. After all, there was already bloodshed at the hands of the British. In fact, that was one of the very reasons they were meeting in Philadelphia.

It wouldn’t surprise me to hear pro Iraq war people accuse Ron Paul of not believing we should have even had the American Revolution. We Ron Paul supporters know different. In fact, Ron Paul would have stood right along side John Adams pushing for independence. Paul has always spoken out against tyranny. There is no question King George was acting as a tyrant over the colonies at that time.

Today, Ron Paul speaks against the spreading American empire. It is likely he sees America today equivalent to Britain of the 18th century. He is the modern day version of Thomas Paine. Perhaps his upcoming book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto“, will end up being the “Common Sense” of the 21st century. One can certainly hope.