Sunday, May 25, 2008

Ron Paul at Duke U., and Other Cool Stuff

I'm a member of the Facebook John Birch Society Freedom Campaign, and I received an awesome link that I want to share with you. It's a May 2 speech by Ron Paul to the Duke University College Republicans, but it also has some other cool stuff.

First, there's a woman who discusses her conversion from liberal Democrat to John Birch Society volunteer. She looks beyond the distinction between Republicans and Democrats and says that there are other threats to America's liberties.

Then, there's a video about America being a constitutional republic rather than a democracy. The video is excellent, and it is endorsed by Michael Munger, the chairman of the Duke University Political Science Department. In an illustration of the difference between a democracy and a republic, the narrator gives the scenario of a posse that captures someone who's on the run. In a democracy, the majority can vote to hang him, and he dies. In a republic, however, a sheriff upholds his rights and gives him a trial by jury. In essence, a republic is the rule of law, not majority tyranny. I always wondered why the Birch society has emphasized that America is not a democracy. This video cleared a lot of that up.

Then, a Republican congressional candidate and Duke alum talks about how Ron Paul has inspired him. He says that he reaches out to Republicans, yet he receives a lot of Democratic support as well.

Finally, Ron Paul speaks about liberty, inflation, the war, and fiscal responsibility. In one interesting line, he criticizes fiscal conservatives for cutting health insurance for children. He doesn't believe that the federal government should have a role in that, mind you, but he also doesn't think that it needs to begin there when looking for places to cut.

Enjoy!

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-5335883552107085649&hl=en