Ron Paul Liberty Report - "Do I get my gold coin back?" Ron Paul on the Libertarian Party convention controversy...
Aired: 2018-02-02
Duration: 04:31


=== Mises Caucus Controversy (03:54) ===

[00:00:00]  You know, Dr. Paul, I've been following this controversy a lot.
[00:00:03]  I don't know if you've read about this, but within the Libertarian Party, there's a Mises caucus, and they hew closer to the Mises line on a lot of these things.
[00:00:13]  Well, they wanted to have you speak at the upcoming LP convention, the Mises Caucus.
[00:00:17]  They wanted to have you as a speaker.
[00:00:20]  But from what I've read, someone really put the kibosh on that, and they said no way.
[00:00:25]  Actually, the Mises Caucus even raised the money, I think, to get you out there to talk.
[00:00:29]  Someone said no, they said no way that the convention coordinator said no way, no Ron Paul.
[00:00:35]  Does that make you feel sad?
[00:00:38]  Well, you know, I wondered about that, and I heard a little bit about it, but I wondered.
[00:00:46]  I thought the Libertarian Party would be for Mises.
[00:00:49]  I didn't know they had to have another caucus, but I find that really fascinating.
[00:00:53]  Matter of fact, I did get some vibes from this.
[00:00:56]  Somebody might have called us down, not me directly.
[00:00:58]  I didn't talk to anybody.
[00:00:59]  And I indicated, well, we'll look into it because I've spoken to the Libertarian Party meetings before, even though I've sort of skirted things Republican and Libertarian, but I'm still a member of the Libertarian.
[00:01:12]  I'm a lifetime member.
[00:01:13]  A lifetime member.
[00:01:15]  I don't think this isn't equivalent to kicking me out, is it?
[00:01:18]  I mean, they're just preventing me from speaking.
[00:01:21]  So that's not disbarring me from the Libertarian Party.
[00:01:25]  Besides, if they did that, I wonder if it would be okay if I could ask for my gold coin back.
[00:01:32]  Because I paid my lifetime membership in 1987 with a gold coin.
[00:01:38]  Did you?
[00:01:39]  So to make a point, you know.
[00:01:41]  So this would be interesting.
[00:01:43]  That's worth a little more nowadays, anyway.
[00:01:45]  That's right.
[00:01:46]  But no, I'm open to talking with them, so I don't know exactly what's going on.
[00:01:51]  It used to be that they would ask me to come frequently, and a lot of times I couldn't do it.
[00:01:57]  But we'll have to see what happens, see if they really want me or not.
[00:02:02]  Well, I think one of the things that the leadership of the party, rather than the rank and file, they weren't happy that you were critical of the ticket last time.
[00:02:10]  You didn't love Bill Weld.
[00:02:12]  So I think that might be, they said he has no idea what the LP represents, is what the coordinator said.
[00:02:19]  Well, you know, I wasn't happy with what the Republicans were doing or the Democrats.
[00:02:25]  And I know something about not being allowed to speak in the Republican Party.
[00:02:30]  You know, I've been a candidate, an official candidate, qualified and all.
[00:02:34]  Did finally get in the debates, but there were some times when I didn't get in the debates.
[00:02:38]  And sometimes what we had to do is have our own little organization in order to counteract what was going on.
[00:02:45]  So this is probably not new.
[00:02:47]  It's not unique to the Libertarian Party, but there's always factions going on.
[00:02:51]  And it doesn't get me too upset because I think in terms of ideologies and philosophy, and I think in a bigger picture of the freedom philosophy, the libertarian approach should infiltrate Republican Democrats and libertarians, you know, so that we can have everybody.
[00:03:10]  And that's what happens when an idea whose time has come, it will infiltrate.
[00:03:15]  Right now, I think those ideas are coming together and the libertarian message should be leading the charge.
[00:03:22]  But when you look at the leadership, it just seems like so often they melt away when you look at the Republicans and the Democrats.
[00:03:29]  And Republicans, you know, say that they like libertarians.
[00:03:34]  And there's a few Republican libertarians in office.
[00:03:37]  But the leadership is so bad in all the political parties.
[00:03:44]  They seem to go along.
[00:03:46]  And that's annoying.
[00:03:48]  So this Mises caucus seems to like you.
[00:03:49]  Maybe they'll have an alternative party at the election and we'll all sit down and talk about that.

=== Could Be Fun (00:36) ===

[00:03:55]  That would be interesting.
[00:03:56]  It could be fun.
[00:03:57]  You know, we could see that because, of course, I've been promoting Austrian economics and Mises for a long time.
[00:04:05]  He's been a big influence.
[00:04:07]  And if anybody should be praising a particular economist, it should be the Libertarian Party because they've been more open about Austrian economics.
[00:04:20]  So I think that would be very interesting.
[00:04:24]  Who knows what will happen?
[00:04:27]  We'll see.
[00:04:28]  Maybe it could be fun.
[00:04:29]  Yeah, we'll see.
[00:04:31]  All right.