Happy New Year! We always approach a new year with anticipation,
hope, and also some worries. Last year was one of the strangest political years
I have seen in some time. A new Republican president spent his first year pursuing
more or less the same foreign policy as his Democratic predecessor and the
Democratic Party spent the year looking under every rock in the US for a
“Russian connection” or any other reason to see him impeached over it.
The neocon-dominated foreign
policy establishment on both the Left and Right were so furious that candidate
Trump dared suggest we could get along with our “enemies” overseas that they
jumped on the impeachment bandwagon — even though once he became president
Donald Trump filled his Administration with neocons and began dropping bombs.
Like “peace candidate” Obama,
Donald Trump quickly dropped his “get along with others” rhetoric to become
just another aggressive, interventionist US president. He slammed missiles into
Syria over unproven claims of a chemical attack, he built US military bases on
Syrian soil, he dropped the “mother of all bombs” on Afghanistan, he continued
helping Saudi Arabia destroy Yemen, he expanded the US military occupation of
Africa, he put NATO troops on the border of Russia, did his best to tear up the
Iran nuclear agreement and in fact may have just launched a “color revolution”
on Iran, and continued rattling sabers over China’s presence in the South China
Sea.
That tells us quite a bit
about what’s wrong with American political life these days. The “opposition
party” doesn’t really oppose the other party’s policies. They are just angry
that other the party is in power. With no real philosophical or policy
differences, politics is essentially pointless. It is a game of spoils for the
well-connected and little more than a sporting event for the rest of the
country. Everyone wants to see his team come out on top.
Still, I have much hope for
2018. I know we are continuing to make steady progress waking up the American
people to the idea that ideas do matter! Our interventionist foreign policy,
responsible for so much misery around the world, is not inevitable. Our
destructive economic and monetary policies, which enrich the well-connected
while impoverishing the rest of us, are not inevitable. The further destruction
of our right to privacy, to live our lives as we see fit, to pursue our own
happiness without the government looking over our shoulder, is not inevitable.
We can turn this around!
In
2018 I strongly believe more Americans will wake up to the seriousness of the
total debt the US is facing and will begin blaming Washington for pumping up
the warfare-welfare state. I believe more Americans will understand the role of
the Federal Reserve in facilitating this ocean of debt. We will continue to
make progress toward ending the Fed!
While the media loves to tell
us all about how the millennials are attracted to discredited ideas like Bernie
Sanders’ socialism and the dead-end of cultural Marxism, I believe 2018 will
demonstrate that young people are actually attracted to the ideas of liberty
more than ever. Liberty is a new idea and a winning idea, while the twin
tyrannies of socialism and cultural Marxism should remain in same dustbin of
history they were tossed into more than 25 years ago.
In 2018 my Institute for
Peace and Prosperity will be reaching more people than ever with plenty of new
projects, events, and of course our daily Liberty Report! Yes, we will turn
this around. Liberty will prevail!
Dr. Ron
Paul is a former member of Congress and Distinguished Counselor to the Mises
Institute.
Copyright © 2018 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in
whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are
given.
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