I Chose Liberty - Ludwig von Mises Institute

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RON PAUL
STANDING FOR SOMETHING
In February 2002, Linda Johnston interviewed Ron Paul for a chapter in a book she was
preparing on the importance of the development of character and values and how they
helped shape ones perspective on life. The interview is verbatim and can be found on
lewrockwell.com.
I never had much interest in politics. My interest is in policy, economics and foreign
policy. I was looking for a forum to ventilate and politics has allowed me to do that. I never
thought anyone would listen. My goal was not to be in politics or be elected but to present
a case for what I thought was important. My wife warned me that it was dangerous because
I could end up getting elected. I told her that would never happen! She was right. I came
to Congress, but on my terms.
I was raised in Pittsburgh. I don’t recall anything dramatic in my childhood. I am
from a family of five boys. We had supportive parents but they didn’t over-indulge us. They
made sure we knew what the work ethic was all about. The greatest influence on the development
of character is from your family and the way a person has been brought up. I was
influenced over the years not by any one particular event.
I went through regular public education and then Gettysburg College. Overall, my
education was uneventful. The public school system and also college made it clear to me
that the way things were was not the way things should be. I had instincts toward the idea
of a very limited government even then.
Early exposure to war and several specific incidents dealing with the issue of war left
a huge impact on me. I heard about people going and not coming back. I had friends
and relatives dying in various wars; World War II, Korea, or Vietnam. I asked myself,
did they really serve a just cause? The families so often have to say their loved one was
serving their country and put it in noble terms. I was never convinced of that. What else
can you do? The alternative is that you have to admit that your government wasted
someone’s life. To me that is so tragic. I became even more determined to see that some
of these terrible things that are so unnecessary wouldn’t happen. We drift into these
conflicts and they could be prevented. I couldn’t figure out why our country was so stupid
to get us involved in some of these wars that I didn’t think we should be involved in.
Then it dawned on me that the government was not really following the rules. Korea and
Viet Nam weren’t even declared wars. That is an awful lot of violence that was done
without real proper authority to do it. This all has had a lot of influence on me and helped
formulate my views.