Rand Paul and Ludwig von Mises

This interview was conducted before the Senate's passage of its version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which provides Pentagon generals with even more legal standing to detain and even torture anyone who disagrees with them.
Rand Paul opposed that passage and forced a roll-call vote on another, even more terrible amendment, No. 1274. This one would have given the US government authority to keep American citizens in jail indefinitely even if they were tried and found not guilty.
Apparently, 1274 would have passed by voice vote, but once Senator Paul demanded a roll call vote, the amendment narrowly lost, 41-59. You can see an article on the larger Act here: NDAA, The Smell of Fear.
Rand Paul was quoted in various reports as saying the following: "Suspicion of committing a crime should lead to your attempted prosecution. If the evidence does not support conviction, it would be against everything we believe in and fight for in America to still allow the government to imprison you at their whim."
The Senator also introduced an amendment to formally end the war in Iraq. Strangely, even though US troops will leave Iraq shortly (leaving behind mercenaries, no doubt), the amendment failed 30-67.
Rand Paul's activities as stated above bring three points to mind. First, he seems to have been more forceful in Congress about opposing America's burgeoning foreign wars than he was as a candidate for office.
In fact, we believed he'd lost chances to make educational statements about how America's overseas activities were not only unconstitutional but also inevitably contributing to the country's bankruptcy. Even more importantly, such wars are harming millions of civilians along with tens of thousands US soldiers, wounded or dead.
But once in the US Senate, from what he can tell, he has not shied away from making certain anti-war positions clear. While he may not be as impassioned as his father in this regard, at least he's spoken out, which is more than most Senators do, or even Congress members in general.
Second, Rand Paul's courageous behavior stands in sharp contrast to the way most Congressmen and Senators behave. His father, Ron Paul, has intimated in the past that there is a fairly sizeable fear factor in Congress currently. We figure that's the case as well.
With unlimited wiretapping and aggressively-resourced prosecutions available, anyone in Congress who raises a fuss on any issue important to the military-industrial complex or the ever-growing intelligence-industrial complex may well find himself or herself a target, or at least a contemplated target.
Since there are innumerable laws and almost no one finds a berth in Congress without breaking at least some of them, the threat of targeted prosecutions must surely loom large. It may not be realistic in the sense that most congressmen are not currently investigated no matter what they do, but the possibility is always there and thus the fear-factor remains.
This brings us to another issue, which is whether even the most aggressive reformist mentality can return America to its constitutional basics and free-market principles. One might have been more tempted to answer in the affirmative even a few years ago.
But currently, all three branches of the American government are giving out continuous signals that they are moving away from the nation's classical liberal roots and toward something that is more European and based on obvious elite rule.
This is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of what's going on currently. The corruption and contempt for civil society that America's public (and private) sector leaders are now exhibiting are an increasing danger to whatever is left of US exceptionalism.
In fact, it could be said that the law has entirely ceased to support the notion of legislative support for civil freedoms. What remains in the US is a cultural notion of how a free country is supposed to work. This is, in fact, a recipe for further conflict in the US. Civilians have one notion and their elected elites have another.
Finally, a third (unfortunately gloomy) conclusion that may be drawn from the valiant fight of the Pauls (both Rand and Ron) is that freedom is nonetheless failing in the US and generally in the West. The true scenario may be one that includes a continued, downward authoritarian spiral.
Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises argued that societies could not be "a little bit" socialist. Once "leveling" was formally adopted by a society, the damage was done and the future was certain. Sooner or later, the country and its citizens were bound to end up broke and miserable, with a dissipated and bankrupt civil and political establishment.
In bluntest terms (in our view), Western Money Power is determined to create world government and every tool of civil and state debasement is being used to further those goals, from currency failure, to generalized economic collapse and its corollary, war, and even genocide.
The people who stand up to this sort of manipulation, including Rand Paul, are most deserving of our respect. Those who understand the reality of what seems to be occurring must wish them well.
The Daily Bell