Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) may not be the GOP presidential front-runner, but students came out in full force to hear him articulate his libertarian message in Gaston Hall on Wednesday.

Entering to a standing ovation and chants of “Paul” in a packed auditorium, the native Pennsylvanian delivered an address that focused on his belief in limited government and a renewed focus on the Constitution.

Invoking the founding fathers, Paul declared that every person has the right to full liberty, and that these liberties are currently dwindling in American society.

“[My message is] appealing to everybody, because it offers one thing — it offers freedom,” he said.

Central among the issues that Paul discussed was the war in Iraq. He said that the war has been a mistake all along, noting that he is the only Republican presidential candidate who voted against the authorization of the Iraq War.

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“We’ve gotten ourselves into this mess,” he said. “How about supporting the troops by keeping them out of these no-win wars?”

Paul added that continued Iraqi occupation cannot be adequately justified by those who argue the United States has a responsibility to fix the problem.

“If we made the mistake, why not just come home, save the money and save the lives,” he said.

He then drew upon the larger global context in order to emphasize what he believes are the current flaws in U.S. foreign policy.
“We’re supposed to spread democracy, but we’ve been doing that since [President] Woodrow Wilson,” he said. “We don’t have the authority to police the world. Maybe it’s been good-intended, but good intentions won’t get us anywhere.”

Most importantly, he argued, the United States must lead by example.

“The best way to spread our message is by our example, not by the barrel of a gun,” he said.

Paul did not pull punches with regard to the George W. Bush administration, suggesting that there might be ulterior motives for our foreign operations.

“We’ll pretend we’re doing it out of the goodness of our heart, but we usually only do it in countries that have oil,” he said.

Throughout his speech, Paul emphasized that governments should be small so as not to infringe upon individual liberties and freedom.

“People don’t have rights to jobs, and people don’t have the right to medical care. What you have is a right to your life. It is never, never necessary to sacrifice your liberties to be safe,” he said.

International trade was another prominent issue in the speech, as Paul said the U.S. should foster trade and not discriminate on the basis of value judgments.

“We’d have to trade with people that are less than perfect because we’re less than perfect,” he said.

Paul has only secured 14 delegates to the Republican National Convention, according to the Associated Press, but he has a strong Internet support base as well as a strong group of backers in active military service. Paul said that has been Googled and viewed more times on Youtube than any other presidential candidate, and also received more donations from active military personnel than any other candidate in the Republican race.

Paul was also light-hearted throughout the course of speech, even calling for electoral reform on the basis of his Internet success.
“There’s only one law that I’m proposing. From now on, we’re going to have our elections on the Internet,” he said.

During the question-and-answer session, a student asked Paul why it took him many years to deny that he wrote an article in his independent newsletter prejudicial towards blacks, Jews and gays in 1992.

Paul admitted that he did not deny the allegations at first, but has since denied writing it, referring to the incident as a publishing oversight. He also said that he believes his record speaks for itself.

“I handled it in 1996 differently, because I did feel a lot of moral responsibility for neglect. The sad part of it all is I’m probably the biggest champion of all for everybody,” he said.