Story and photos by Louis Fine/Murphy News Service
- About 800 attended Ron Paul’s speech Monday night.
Former congressman and frequent presidential candidate Ron Paul came to the University of Minnesota campus Monday night to discuss why the Libertarian Party is a reasonable alternative to handling the considerable problems he says he sees facing Americans.
Paul, a physician and author as well, was sponsored to speak in the U’s Ted Mann Hall by the student groups Collegians for a Constructive Tomorrow, Students for a Conservative Voice and Young Americans for Liberty.
“We have a mess and young people are inheriting this mess,” Paul told the crowd on the eve of his son’s throwing a hat into the ring for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Indeed, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, announced this morning he was seeking the White House.
Paul mentioned his son’s candidacy plans toward the end of his speech, adding only that he thinks Rand Paul will be the candidate who defends liberties in the strongest sense.
No stranger to the election stump himself after three runs at the presidency, twice as a Republican and once as a Libertarian, Paul went out of his way to challenge recent social, political and military issues affecting the United States..
One such issue he discussed was the social uproar surrounding a Florida baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple’s wedding.
Business owners have a right to serve who they want for whatever reason, Paul declared, adding that organized groups shouldn’t be allowed to use government to make people do things in which they fundamentally don’t believe.
“People should not be allowed to use government to make baker’s bake cakes,” Paul said.
Paul moved on to what he called a long-standing hypocrisy in Washington, where elected officials act on behalf of lobbying groups while saying they are for liberty and the Constitution.
- Ron Paul supporters stood and cheered as he spoke Monday night at Ted Mann Hall on the U’s West Bank campus
“Liberty isn’t based on coercion,” Paul said, “… liberty means you cannot force people to do things your way.”
Paul also touched on the United States’ involvement in Middle Eastern conflicts and the move to topple the terrorist group ISIS that is waging its jihad in Iraq and Syria..
The 79-year-old Pennsylvania native who served as U.S representative from Texas for more than 20 years, said the U.S. has a history of starting wars that cause more harm than good, and also discussed how our military aid needs to stop ending up in the wrong hands.
As a remedy Paul proposed removing all U.S. military involvement and financial aid from the Middle East
“We can do a lot, but it’d be by doing a lot less, “Paul said,”Non-intervention is the best approach for all of us.”
Reporter Louis Fine is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.