With Ron Paul’s bill H.R. 459, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, headed for a floor vote in the House in the next two weeks (and likely success at passage with 263 sponsors), he and his son Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are now focusing on the Internet.
His Campaign for Liberty (C4L), started in 2008 with some four million dollars of campaign funds from his unsuccessful run for the White House that year, has issued its manifesto to continue the fight: “The Technology Revolution: A Campaign for Liberty Manifesto.”
Starting with his first term as a member of the House of Representatives from Texas in 1976, Paul has led the fight to expose the secret machinations of the Federal Reserve, making that his primary theme in the freedom fight. That theme can be traced to the publication of his The Revolution: A Manifesto in 2008 to his End the Fed in 2009, and finally to his latest book, Liberty Defined, published in January this year.
But with his campaign for the presidency likely to fail at the Republican Party’s convention next month and his decision not seek reelection to his House seat, Paul is passing the torch to his son. As explained on the C4L website:
As we stand on the verge of making history with our top priority initiative of fully auditing (and then ending) the Federal Reserve, C4L is excited about also advancing Internet freedom with the same energy and determination that has turned an historic spotlight on the Fed’s outrageous actions.
The manifesto is not only a clarion call to arms to protect what it calls “the single greatest catalyst in history for individual liberty and free markets,” it also directly confronts and challenges the powers that seek to neutralize that catalyst and turn it to the advantage of governments:
Individual genius, enabled by the truly free market [that] the internet represents, routes around obsolete and ineffective government attempts at control.
The arrogant attempts of governments to centralize, intervene, subsidize, micromanage and regulate innovation are scoffed at, and ignored.
It then makes very clear who the enemies of Internet freedom are: those “collectivist special interests and governments worldwide [who] are now tirelessly pushing for more centralized control of the internet and [its] technology.” Calling those efforts at control “pernicious,” the manifesto sees the threats attacking Internet freedom by
• Penalizing and intimidating successful companies on the Internet
• Imposing government regulations on the Internet’s high-speed infrastructure
• Treating that infrastructure as “common property” and therefore subject to all manner of government interference
• Micromanaging wireless communications
• Severely limiting private property rights on the Internet, and
• Scrutinizing private data collection practices while letting government’s warrantless surveillance and collection of private data run free
Just so those opposed to Internet freedom know who the Pauls and C4L are targeting, their manifesto goes on the attack:
The road to tyranny is being paved by a collectivist-industrial complex — a dangerous brew of wealthy international NGOs (non-government organizations), progressive do-gooders, corporate cronies, and sympathetic political elites…
We know where this path leads. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”
In passing the torch from father to son, Dr. Paul is showing Rand the way forward for the next decade. This could become Rand Paul’s primary theme as he picks up where his father is leaving off. The manifesto ends:
We oppose any attempt by government to tax, regulate, monitor or control the internet, and we oppose the internet collectivists who collaborate with the government against internet freedom.
This is our revolution!
Photo of Rand and Ron Paul: AP Images
