Product Description

This Much Is True: You Have Been Lied To.

• The government is expanding.
  
• Taxes are increasing.
  
• More senseless wars are being planned.
  
• Inflation is ballooning.
  
• Our basic freedoms are disappearing.

The Founding Fathers didn't want any of this. In fact, they said so quite clearly in the Constitution of the United States of America. Unfortunately, that beautiful, ingenious, and revolutionary document is being ignored more and more in Washington. If we are to enjoy peace, freedom, and prosperity once again, we absolutely must return to the principles upon which America was founded. But finally, there is hope . . .

In THE REVOLUTION,Texas congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul has exposed the core truths behind everything threatening America, from the real reasons behind the collapse of the dollar and the looming financial crisis, to terrorism and the loss of our precious civil liberties. In this book, Ron Paul provides answers to questions that few even dare to ask.

Despite a media blackout, this septuagenarian physician-turned-congressman sparked a movement that has attracted a legion of young, dedicated, enthusiastic supporters . . . a phenomenon that has amazed veteran political observers and made more than one political rival envious. Candidates across America are already running as "Ron Paul Republicans."

"Dr. Paul cured my apathy," says a popular campaign sign. THE REVOLUTION may cure yours as well.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Congressman, Republican Presidential candidate and author Paul (A Foreign Policy of Freedom) says "Let the revolution begin" with this libertarian plea for a return to "the principles of our Founding Fathers: liberty, self-government, the Constitution, and a noninterventionist foreign policy." Specific examples demonstrate how far U.S. law has strayed from this path, particularly over the past century, as well as Paul's firm grasp of history and dedication to meaningful debate: "it is revolutionary to ask whether we need troops in 130 countries... whether the accumulation of more and more power in Washington has been good for us...to ask fundamental questions about privacy, police-state measures, taxation, social policy." Though he can rant, Paul is informative and impassioned, giving readers of any political bent food for thought. With harsh words for both Democrats and Republicans, and especially George W. Bush, Paul's no-nonsense text questions the "imperialist" foreign policy that's led to the war in Iraq ("one of the most ill considered, poorly planned, and... unnecessary military conflicts in American history"), the economic situation and rampant federalism treading on states' rights and identities ("The Founding Fathers did not intend for every American neighborhood to be exactly the same"). Though his policy suggestions can seem extreme, Paul's book gives new life to old debates.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"The real truth about Liberty. This book takes a wrecking ball to the political establishment. Senator Goldwater would have loved it -- it's The Conscience of a Conservative for the 21^st century." (Barry M. Goldwater, Jr., former member of Congress )

About the Author
Ron Paul, a ten-term congressman from Texas, is the leading advocate of freedom in our nation's capital. He has devoted his political career to the defense of individual liberty, sound money, and a non-interventionist foreign policy. Judge Andrew Napolitano calls him "the Thomas Jefferson of our day."

After serving as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force in the 1960s, Dr. Paul moved to Texas to begin a civilian medical practice, delivering over four thousand babies in his career as an obstetrician. He served in Congress from 1976 to 1984, and again from 1996 to the present. He and Carol Paul, his wife of fifty-one years, have five children, eighteen grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

Ron Paul, the New York Post once wrote, is a politician who "cannot be bought by special interests."

"There are few people in public life who, through thick and thin, rain or shine, stick to their principles," added a congressional colleague. "Ron Paul is one of those few."

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Customer Reviews

Overly simplistic anti-government tirade
I can see both good and bad in Ron Paul's book THE REVOLUTION, but let me say right off the bat that I do not support his unrelenting libertarian attitude that government is the source of all evil. Paul rightly points out many problems that we face today - high federal budget deficit, runaway health care costs, belligerent foreign policy, presidential illegalities, and on and on - but in my view these are not the result of government per se, but rather are the fault of the astoundingly bad leadership we in the U.S. have suffered from in the last 10 or so years. There is an increasingly common view, which I sympathize with, that Republicans have deliberately tried to ruin government functions in this country in an attempt to cause more people to reject ALL government. See John Dean's 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches for a good example of this argument.

To take one illustrative example of the problems described in this book, Paul entirely blames government for the high cost of health care in the U.S. Here he quotes his hero, the economist Ludwig von Mises, who said that "government interventions create unintended consequences that lead to calls for further intervention, and so on into a destructive spiral of more and more government control." Yet one glaring discrepancy here is that most developed countries have much MORE government intervention in their health care systems than we do, yet health care costs in the U.S. are much HIGHER than anywhere else in the world! Nor does he mention the abuses of health insurance companies in this country. What can I as an individual do to deal with those companies? We need government to set some fairness standards here. But Paul would never propose such a thing, since that would dilute his black-and-white view that government is all bad and private enterprise is all good. So he just ignores the problem. The same is largely true with the environment, where he at least supports the concept of environmental protection, yet barely discusses the matter, and does not mention how to deal with the worldwide problem of global warming. Might we need government to do something here? Heavens!

But as I said at the beginning, I do agree with Paul in some regards, such as his emphasis that we must roll back our foreign empire for both economic and practical reasons. He has been an adamant foe of our invasion of Iraq, and here is an issue that we agree. What I am opposed to about THE REVOLUTION is Paul's relentless anti-government tirade that extends to virtually all issues, and which I believe is overly simplistic, sometimes to the point of absurdity.

Should be required reading in our nation's high schools
The United States has managed to go from being the biggest creditor nation (a good thing) to the biggest debtor nation (a bad thing) in a mere 30 years. We have our politicians and the federal reserve to thank for this. We can all continue pretending that there is not an 800 lb gorilla in the room and just wait for a total collapse or we can heed the advice of Dr. Paul and people like him. It's hard to believe that we fought for our independence from England less than 250 years ago and we've apparantely forgotten why we did so. The constitution is that reminder. It is startling how many personal freedoms and liberties we are willing to keep giving up. We need someone to fight for us. The government is supposed to serve the people; not the people serve the government. This book is a great reminder of the way things were intended to be and where we are straying from the path.

Another liberal who calls himself a conservative
In short, a liberal manifesto (although not nearly as liberal as the Bush/Cheney crowd.)

the bad:

* conservatives, by definition, do not go around calling for 'revolutions'
* his take on free trade is liberalism on steroids -- a conservative believes in free trade only as far as it benefits the interests of the home country. Ron takes it too philosphically, and believes in trade with no restrictions.
* liberals always have their heads in the clouds, and looking to establish utopias on earth. Conservatives roll up their sleeves and deal with the reality we have to face. Ron has his head in the clouds, just like Bush.

the good:

* I agree with his take on the military, the gold standard, and minding our own business

Overall, a good read with some good moments.