WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.419 Welcome back to The Deep Dive. It is really great 00:00:03.419 --> 00:00:05.040 to have you with us today. Great to be here. 00:00:05.179 --> 00:00:08.500 Because today we are looking at a story that, 00:00:08.539 --> 00:00:11.080 honestly, I mean, if you pitch this as a movie 00:00:11.080 --> 00:00:13.380 script... A studio executive would throw you 00:00:13.380 --> 00:00:15.779 out of their office for making things up. Exactly. 00:00:15.779 --> 00:00:18.480 They would throw you right out. We are talking 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:22.460 about a Texas OBGYN. A guy who delivered over 00:00:22.460 --> 00:00:26.739 4000 babies. Yeah. Yet somehow he ended up becoming 00:00:26.739 --> 00:00:29.420 the intellectual godfather of the Tea Party movement. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:32.000 A three time presidential candidate. Right. And 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:34.979 really one of the earliest, most massive political 00:00:34.979 --> 00:00:37.409 phenomena on the Internet. It's a trajectory 00:00:37.409 --> 00:00:39.689 that completely provides conventional wisdom. 00:00:40.030 --> 00:00:42.750 When you study how modern political careers are 00:00:42.750 --> 00:00:45.429 typically built, they follow a very specific, 00:00:45.530 --> 00:00:48.710 you know, focus -grouped ladder. This story throws 00:00:48.710 --> 00:00:50.689 that entire ladder out the window. Absolutely. 00:00:50.710 --> 00:00:53.549 And our source material for this deep dive is 00:00:53.549 --> 00:00:56.649 a comprehensive biographical article. It maps 00:00:56.649 --> 00:00:59.509 out his life, his career, and a highly specific, 00:00:59.729 --> 00:01:02.909 uncompromising political platform. We are, of 00:01:02.909 --> 00:01:05.530 course, talking about Ron Paul. Yes, Ron Paul. 00:01:06.090 --> 00:01:08.920 Now... Our mission today, and I want to set the 00:01:08.920 --> 00:01:11.439 ground rules with you right up front, is to unpack 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:14.099 this highly unique political figure strictly 00:01:14.099 --> 00:01:16.659 using the facts laid out in our source. Right. 00:01:16.840 --> 00:01:19.180 We are not here to endorse. We're not here to 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:22.099 condemn. We aren't taking sides. No sides at 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:24.959 all. We are simply exploring how one man's rigid 00:01:24.959 --> 00:01:28.079 adherence to a very specific set of ideologies 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:31.540 shaped a political career spanning decades and 00:01:31.540 --> 00:01:34.019 how we ultimately reshaped modern political movements. 00:01:34.280 --> 00:01:36.500 And to help us connect all these dots, I'm joined. 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:39.219 by our resident expert. Glad to be diving into 00:01:39.219 --> 00:01:41.599 this. It's a brilliant case study. When you look 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:44.799 at his impact objectively, whether his politics 00:01:44.799 --> 00:01:47.260 align with yours or not, his footprint on the 00:01:47.260 --> 00:01:49.640 modern political landscape is undeniable. It 00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:51.900 really is. It's essentially a master class in 00:01:51.900 --> 00:01:54.540 how ideology can function or completely disrupt 00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:56.459 the machinery in Washington. And what's wild 00:01:56.459 --> 00:01:58.120 is that this story does not start anywhere near 00:01:58.120 --> 00:02:00.400 Washington, D .C. Not at all. Or even in politics. 00:02:00.560 --> 00:02:02.980 Ron Paul was actually a high school track champion. 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:05.140 Right. He won the 200 meter dash in Pennsylvania. 00:02:05.379 --> 00:02:08.419 Yeah. And following that, he became a flight 00:02:08.419 --> 00:02:11.879 surgeon in the Air Force in the 1960s. Eventually, 00:02:11.900 --> 00:02:14.340 he settles down in Texas to run a private practice 00:02:14.340 --> 00:02:17.300 as an obstetrician gynecologist. Which is a very 00:02:17.300 --> 00:02:19.979 grounded local profession. Oh, and wait, I have 00:02:19.979 --> 00:02:21.879 to mention this incredible piece of trivia from 00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.300 the source. He actually delivered the famous 00:02:24.300 --> 00:02:28.120 Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla. Wow. See, that 00:02:28.120 --> 00:02:30.560 really paints a vivid picture of his early life. 00:02:30.740 --> 00:02:34.180 You have someone deeply embedded in a local community. 00:02:34.870 --> 00:02:37.030 interacting with everyday people at their most 00:02:37.030 --> 00:02:39.550 vulnerable moments. Completely far removed from 00:02:39.550 --> 00:02:41.830 the political establishment. Exactly. Okay, let's 00:02:41.830 --> 00:02:44.009 unpack this. How does a guy with that specific 00:02:44.009 --> 00:02:46.909 medical background suddenly pivot to running 00:02:46.909 --> 00:02:49.250 for Congress? You would naturally assume his 00:02:49.250 --> 00:02:50.830 trigger for entering politics was health care 00:02:50.830 --> 00:02:53.460 reform. You would. But the source indicates it 00:02:53.460 --> 00:02:55.599 had absolutely nothing to do with medicine. It 00:02:55.599 --> 00:02:58.860 didn't. It was entirely about economics. Specifically, 00:02:58.900 --> 00:03:02.639 a massive macroeconomic shift in the 1970s. You 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:04.259 really have to understand his mindset at the 00:03:04.259 --> 00:03:06.159 time. Right. He had been obsessively reading 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:08.280 the works of the Austrian School of Economics. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:10.639 And for those who might not be familiar, the 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:12.800 Austrian school is an economic line of thought 00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.159 that champions free markets, private property 00:03:16.159 --> 00:03:18.960 and fiercely argues against government intervention 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:21.699 in the economy, especially when it comes to manipulating 00:03:21.699 --> 00:03:25.099 money. They are huge proponents of money having 00:03:25.099 --> 00:03:30.159 intrinsic value like gold. So he is already primed 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:32.639 with this specific economic worldview. Exactly. 00:03:33.210 --> 00:03:36.550 Then, in 1971, President Richard Nixon officially 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:38.830 takes the United States off the gold standard. 00:03:39.030 --> 00:03:41.569 He closed what was called the gold window. Right. 00:03:41.629 --> 00:03:44.409 To put it simply, prior to this, the U .S. dollar 00:03:44.409 --> 00:03:47.490 was loosely backed by actual gold. Other countries 00:03:47.490 --> 00:03:49.490 could theoretically exchange their dollars for 00:03:49.490 --> 00:03:51.930 American gold. And Nixon ended that. He did. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.860 The dollar became a fiat currency, meaning its 00:03:54.860 --> 00:03:57.080 value is backed only by the government's word, 00:03:57.199 --> 00:03:59.659 not a physical commodity. And for a guy steeped 00:03:59.659 --> 00:04:01.439 in Austrian economics, that is essentially a 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:03.860 doomsday scenario. It was a massive alarm bell. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:07.259 To Paul, unpegging the dollar from gold meant 00:04:07.259 --> 00:04:09.139 the federal government suddenly had the power 00:04:09.139 --> 00:04:11.300 to print as much money as it wanted. And if you 00:04:11.300 --> 00:04:14.120 print endless amounts of money. You devalue the 00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:16.980 currency, which he believed would inevitably 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:19.600 lead to disastrous out -of -control inflation. 00:04:20.019 --> 00:04:23.550 That specific fear. That the government was going 00:04:23.550 --> 00:04:26.670 to destroy the value of the dollar. That is what 00:04:26.670 --> 00:04:29.069 drove a local doctor to print up campaign signs 00:04:29.069 --> 00:04:31.949 and try to stop it from the inside. It is remarkable. 00:04:32.110 --> 00:04:34.649 Think about how wild that is for you as a voter. 00:04:35.009 --> 00:04:37.810 A shift in international monetary policy is what 00:04:37.810 --> 00:04:40.689 gets your local doctor onto the ballot. He ran 00:04:40.689 --> 00:04:44.040 for Congress in 1974 and lost. but then won a 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:47.439 special election in 1976. And his local ties 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:49.579 were actually his biggest asset. Oh, without 00:04:49.579 --> 00:04:51.860 a doubt. His Democratic opponent, Robert Gammage, 00:04:51.959 --> 00:04:54.160 admitted he had genuine trouble beating Paul 00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:57.620 in Brazoria County. Gammage famously noted that 00:04:57.620 --> 00:04:59.699 Paul had delivered half the babies in the county 00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:02.160 and his medical partner had delivered the other 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:05.560 half. It proves the sheer power of local retail 00:05:05.560 --> 00:05:08.680 politics. But that localized friendly doctor 00:05:08.680 --> 00:05:11.560 persona didn't dictate how he actually operated 00:05:11.560 --> 00:05:13.560 once he arrived in Washington. No, it didn't. 00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:15.500 The moment he stepped onto the House floor, he 00:05:15.500 --> 00:05:18.240 adopted a remarkably rigid ideological stance. 00:05:18.519 --> 00:05:22.300 Which brings us to a very specific, almost antagonistic 00:05:22.300 --> 00:05:25.199 nickname he earned in Congress. Dr. No. Right. 00:05:25.980 --> 00:05:28.699 He got that moniker because he famously refused 00:05:28.699 --> 00:05:31.759 to vote for any legislation if he felt the proposed 00:05:31.759 --> 00:05:35.040 measure was not expressly authorized by the text 00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:37.420 of the U .S. Constitution. And he didn't use 00:05:37.420 --> 00:05:39.800 that as just a convenient political talking point 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:42.579 for the cameras. It was an absolute uncompromising 00:05:42.579 --> 00:05:45.579 filter for every single vote he cast. If he couldn't 00:05:45.579 --> 00:05:47.759 find the constitutional justification for a bill, 00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:49.959 he voted against it. Regardless of how popular 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:51.899 it was. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:05:52.649 --> 00:05:54.689 Because you look at his actual legislative record 00:05:54.689 --> 00:05:58.470 over his 22 total years in Congress, he sponsored 00:05:58.470 --> 00:06:01.529 620 bills. That's a lot of bills. Out of those 00:06:01.529 --> 00:06:05.149 620, only one single bill ever became law. One. 00:06:05.250 --> 00:06:07.810 That is a lifetime legislative success rate of 00:06:07.810 --> 00:06:12.529 less than 0 .3%. And what was that lone victorious 00:06:12.529 --> 00:06:15.750 piece of legislation? It simply allowed a federal 00:06:15.750 --> 00:06:18.610 custom house to be sold to a local historic preservation 00:06:18.610 --> 00:06:20.970 society. That's it. If we connect this to the 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:23.290 bigger picture, you have to realize that passing 00:06:23.290 --> 00:06:25.310 conventional legislation was never his actual 00:06:25.310 --> 00:06:28.050 objective. Right. He wasn't in Washington to 00:06:28.050 --> 00:06:32.449 negotiate or draft bipartisan compromises or 00:06:32.449 --> 00:06:34.529 bring home federal funding for his district. 00:06:34.930 --> 00:06:37.269 He was there to make a point. His votes were 00:06:37.269 --> 00:06:40.209 consistently stubbornly contrarian. He didn't 00:06:40.209 --> 00:06:43.220 even spare his own party's icons. The source 00:06:43.220 --> 00:06:46.279 points out that in 1981, he was the only Republican 00:06:46.279 --> 00:06:48.240 in the House to vote against President Ronald 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:51.000 Reagan's budget proposals. Because he was appalled 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:54.079 by the deficit spending. Reagan was incredibly 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:57.060 popular within the party, but Paul applied his 00:06:57.060 --> 00:07:00.240 constitutional and economic filter indiscriminately. 00:07:00.620 --> 00:07:03.459 You see the exact same logic years later during 00:07:03.459 --> 00:07:05.339 the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:08.579 1998. Paul voted for the impeachment, but not 00:07:08.579 --> 00:07:10.600 over the Lewinsky scandal like the rest of the 00:07:10.600 --> 00:07:13.379 Republican Party. He explicitly argued that Clinton 00:07:13.379 --> 00:07:15.800 should be impeached because his military attacks 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:18.339 in the Middle East, specifically bombing Iraq, 00:07:18.560 --> 00:07:21.720 were unconstitutional because the president bypassed 00:07:21.720 --> 00:07:23.720 Congress to launch them. So you have a politician 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:27.120 entirely unbothered by party lines and that frustration 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.899 with his own side eventually boiled over, angered 00:07:29.899 --> 00:07:32.740 by those Reagan era deficits. He actually left 00:07:32.740 --> 00:07:36.420 the Republican Party entirely in 1987. He decided 00:07:36.420 --> 00:07:39.079 to run for president in 1988, but this time as 00:07:39.079 --> 00:07:41.819 a libertarian. That 1988 campaign is fascinating. 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.500 Because it gives you a preview of the highly 00:07:44.500 --> 00:07:46.879 eclectic coalition he was capable of building. 00:07:47.040 --> 00:07:49.779 When you run on a platform of extreme limited 00:07:49.779 --> 00:07:52.279 government, you don't attract a standard political 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:55.339 base. Eclectic is an understatement. So he leaves 00:07:55.339 --> 00:07:58.139 the GOP. And how does a buttoned up conservative 00:07:58.139 --> 00:08:00.860 doctor run a libertarian campaign in the late 00:08:00.860 --> 00:08:04.339 80s? Well, for one, the source notes that when 00:08:04.339 --> 00:08:06.620 he paid for his lifetime membership to the Libertarian 00:08:06.620 --> 00:08:10.000 Party, he used a literal gold coin. Just to make 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:12.160 a public point about the necessity of hard currency. 00:08:12.360 --> 00:08:15.000 Exactly. But even more surprising, he held a 00:08:15.000 --> 00:08:17.040 campaign fundraiser hosted by none other than 00:08:17.040 --> 00:08:19.519 Timothy Leary. Right. The famous psychologist 00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:22.860 and psychedelic advocate from the 1960s counterculture. 00:08:22.959 --> 00:08:26.660 It is such a bizarre pairing on paper. But logically, 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:30.079 it makes sense within his framework. His message 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:31.800 of getting the federal government completely 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:34.779 out of people's lives appealed to hard money 00:08:34.779 --> 00:08:38.480 conservatives who hated taxes. But it equally 00:08:38.480 --> 00:08:41.580 appealed to anti -establishment counterculture 00:08:41.580 --> 00:08:44.259 figures who hated federal drug laws and government 00:08:44.259 --> 00:08:47.519 surveillance. After that 1988 election, he steps 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:50.120 back into private life for a while. During this 00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:52.019 period out of office, he gets heavily involved 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:54.440 in several business ventures alongside his medical 00:08:54.440 --> 00:08:57.340 practice. He did. He co -owned a mail -order 00:08:57.340 --> 00:09:00.159 coin dealership again, tying back to his obsession 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.659 with precious metals. But more significantly 00:09:02.659 --> 00:09:04.879 for his career, he began publishing a variety 00:09:04.879 --> 00:09:07.519 of political and investment -oriented newsletters. 00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:10.639 And these were highly lucrative. Very. By 1993, 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:12.500 the source notes they were generating annual 00:09:12.500 --> 00:09:16.210 revenues in excess of $900 ,000. No, it is important 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.669 to note a major controversy that arose later 00:09:18.669 --> 00:09:21.250 regarding those specific newsletters. Decades 00:09:21.250 --> 00:09:23.070 after they were published, it came to light that 00:09:23.070 --> 00:09:24.730 the newsletters contained statements that were 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:28.190 explicitly racist and homophobic. It became a 00:09:28.190 --> 00:09:31.529 massive flashpoint. When this gained major media 00:09:31.529 --> 00:09:33.529 traction during his later presidential runs, 00:09:33.710 --> 00:09:36.649 it was a significant hurdle. And strictly following 00:09:36.649 --> 00:09:38.429 our source material here, we have to look at 00:09:38.429 --> 00:09:41.590 how both sides handled this. Right. His supporters 00:09:41.590 --> 00:09:44.389 argued the media was unfairly weaponizing old 00:09:44.389 --> 00:09:47.169 publications to derail his growing momentum. 00:09:47.990 --> 00:09:51.230 Paul himself ultimately apologized for the offensive 00:09:51.230 --> 00:09:53.990 content, but his defense was that a staff member 00:09:53.990 --> 00:09:56.090 had actually written the controversial material 00:09:56.090 --> 00:09:58.830 under his name and that he hadn't monitored the 00:09:58.830 --> 00:10:01.549 output closely enough. Regardless of the authorship, 00:10:01.769 --> 00:10:03.950 it remained a dark cloud over his campaigns. 00:10:04.750 --> 00:10:06.909 But despite that controversy, he eventually returns 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:09.190 to Congress as a Republican in the late 90s. 00:10:09.210 --> 00:10:12.049 And that sets the stage for the 2008 and 2012 00:10:12.049 --> 00:10:14.769 presidential campaigns. Yeah. Imagine you are 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:17.750 a standard political strategist in 2007. You're 00:10:17.750 --> 00:10:20.070 looking at a man in his 70s, largely ignored 00:10:20.070 --> 00:10:22.690 by cable news networks. Yet somehow he transitions 00:10:22.690 --> 00:10:26.389 into an unlikely massive viral star with an intensely 00:10:26.389 --> 00:10:29.149 loyal grassroots following. To understand why 00:10:29.149 --> 00:10:30.730 that happened, you have to look at the technological 00:10:30.730 --> 00:10:33.750 timing. This was the absolute dawn of the modern 00:10:33.750 --> 00:10:35.950 Internet. revolution in politics. Traditional 00:10:35.950 --> 00:10:38.450 media might have ignored him, but his campaign 00:10:38.450 --> 00:10:41.210 capitalized brilliantly on early social media 00:10:41.210 --> 00:10:44.370 message boards and forums. At one point, his 00:10:44.370 --> 00:10:47.070 campaign claimed he actually had more YouTube 00:10:47.070 --> 00:10:49.559 channel subscribers than Barack Obama. Which 00:10:49.559 --> 00:10:53.019 is staggering for a septuagenarian constitutionalist. 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.179 And his supporters weren't just watching videos. 00:10:55.539 --> 00:10:57.759 They were opening their wallets using completely 00:10:57.759 --> 00:10:59.919 new methods. They pioneered what they called 00:10:59.919 --> 00:11:02.539 money bombs. Right. For those who don't remember 00:11:02.539 --> 00:11:05.240 early internet political fundraising, a money 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:08.179 bomb was a coordinated, decentralized event. 00:11:08.500 --> 00:11:10.960 Instead of relying on wealthy donors at fancy 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:13.539 dinners, his supporters would pick a specific 00:11:13.539 --> 00:11:16.759 date like Guy Fawkes Day and coordinate massive 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:19.649 24 -hour influxes of small online donations. 00:11:19.769 --> 00:11:22.250 This digital energy was so potent that he actually 00:11:22.250 --> 00:11:24.710 became the highest fundraiser in the entire Republican 00:11:24.710 --> 00:11:27.950 field during the fourth quarter of 2007. He effectively 00:11:27.950 --> 00:11:31.029 crowdsourced a presidential campaign before crowdsourcing 00:11:31.029 --> 00:11:33.289 was really a mainstream concept. And those supporters 00:11:33.289 --> 00:11:36.370 didn't just donate. They figured out how to aggressively 00:11:36.370 --> 00:11:39.009 hack the political system. He really did. The 00:11:39.009 --> 00:11:41.490 source details how they pursued a very specific 00:11:41.490 --> 00:11:44.230 delegate strategy. They realized that while they 00:11:44.230 --> 00:11:46.529 might not win the popular vote in a state primary, 00:11:46.830 --> 00:11:49.730 they could flood local caucuses and state conventions 00:11:49.730 --> 00:11:52.070 with organized supporters to secure the actual 00:11:52.070 --> 00:11:54.409 national delegates. It was a true insurgency 00:11:54.409 --> 00:11:56.830 within the party ranks. They were reading the 00:11:56.830 --> 00:11:59.269 obscure party rule books and using them against 00:11:59.269 --> 00:12:02.250 the establishment. Predictably, this led to massive 00:12:02.250 --> 00:12:04.669 clashes. The Republican establishment pushed 00:12:04.669 --> 00:12:07.129 back hard, which even escalated to a lawsuit 00:12:07.129 --> 00:12:10.120 in 2012. where Paul's supporters alleged election 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:12.980 fraud and rule rigging at state conventions specifically 00:12:12.980 --> 00:12:15.700 designed to shut them out. And true to form, 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:17.919 his response to the establishment wasn't to play 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:21.080 nice. In both 2008 and 2012, when he ultimately 00:12:21.080 --> 00:12:24.320 lost the primary, he flat out refused to endorse 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:26.600 the Republican nominees. John McCain and Mitt 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:28.929 Romney. Right. He told his followers there was 00:12:28.929 --> 00:12:30.929 essentially no difference between the two major 00:12:30.929 --> 00:12:33.230 parties and even encouraged them to vote for 00:12:33.230 --> 00:12:35.929 third -party candidates in protest. This is a 00:12:35.929 --> 00:12:37.610 crucial point for you to consider as a listener. 00:12:37.929 --> 00:12:41.350 Why were these followers so intensely loyal? 00:12:41.710 --> 00:12:44.610 Why did he refuse to compromise, even when it 00:12:44.610 --> 00:12:47.889 alienated his colleagues? To grasp that, you 00:12:47.889 --> 00:12:51.159 have to really dig into his actual... platform. 00:12:51.259 --> 00:12:53.700 Because on the surface, his policies can seem 00:12:53.700 --> 00:12:56.480 completely paradoxical. Absolutely. So what does 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:58.519 this all mean? Let's do a mission check and really 00:12:58.519 --> 00:13:01.259 break down his core stances objectively based 00:13:01.259 --> 00:13:03.559 on the source material, because it's not a standard 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:05.860 left wing or right wing checklist. Let's start 00:13:05.860 --> 00:13:08.500 with economics. Economically, his goals were 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:12.320 absolute and unyielding. He didn't just want 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:15.519 to lower taxes. He pushed to abolish the individual 00:13:15.519 --> 00:13:18.299 income tax entirely. Wow. He wanted to return 00:13:18.299 --> 00:13:20.139 the country to the gold standard, as we discussed 00:13:20.139 --> 00:13:22.779 earlier. And his ultimate target was to completely 00:13:22.779 --> 00:13:25.259 eliminate the Federal Reserve, essentially stripping 00:13:25.259 --> 00:13:27.220 the government of its ability to manage the money 00:13:27.220 --> 00:13:29.299 supply. Then you move over to foreign policy, 00:13:29.419 --> 00:13:32.039 and he was a strict non -interventionist. He 00:13:32.039 --> 00:13:34.279 was one of only three Republicans to vote against 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:37.139 the Patriot Act after 9 -11, arguing it violated 00:13:37.139 --> 00:13:40.000 civil liberties. He adamantly opposed the Iraq 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.429 War. He advocated for withdrawing the United 00:13:42.429 --> 00:13:45.129 States from the United Nations and NATO, and 00:13:45.129 --> 00:13:47.769 he heavily criticized all U .S. foreign aid, 00:13:47.889 --> 00:13:50.610 a stance he maintained right through to the recent 00:13:50.610 --> 00:13:53.809 conflicts, criticizing aid to Ukraine. But where 00:13:53.809 --> 00:13:55.710 it gets really complex is when you look at social 00:13:55.710 --> 00:13:58.490 issues and states' rights. Right. On one hand, 00:13:58.509 --> 00:14:01.649 he opposed the federal war on drugs, arguing 00:14:01.649 --> 00:14:03.909 that the federal government had no constitutional 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:08.000 authority to ban substances like marijuana. He 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:10.320 also opposed federal regulation of marriage, 00:14:10.580 --> 00:14:12.799 explicitly stating the government shouldn't be 00:14:12.799 --> 00:14:14.919 involved in defining or restricting same -sex 00:14:14.919 --> 00:14:17.039 marriage at all. But on the flip side of that, 00:14:17.120 --> 00:14:19.139 his views on abortion were highly restrictive. 00:14:19.779 --> 00:14:23.419 As a former OBGYN, he personally believed life 00:14:23.419 --> 00:14:26.620 begins at conception. And while he argued for 00:14:26.620 --> 00:14:28.860 states' rights on drugs and marriage, he actually 00:14:28.860 --> 00:14:31.460 pushed for federal legislation called the Sanctity 00:14:31.460 --> 00:14:33.960 of Life Act. This act was designed to legally 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:36.179 define human life as beginning at conception. 00:14:36.759 --> 00:14:39.100 which would effectively negate Roe v. Wade at 00:14:39.100 --> 00:14:41.320 the federal level and strip federal courts of 00:14:41.320 --> 00:14:43.720 their jurisdiction over abortion. You also have 00:14:43.720 --> 00:14:46.549 to factor in his stance on the environment. He 00:14:46.549 --> 00:14:49.110 was described as a free market environmentalist. 00:14:49.190 --> 00:14:52.029 He firmly rejected the scientific consensus on 00:14:52.029 --> 00:14:54.509 climate change, relying on the belief that private 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:56.889 property rights rather than government regulation 00:14:56.889 --> 00:14:59.769 are the best way to handle environmental damage. 00:14:59.970 --> 00:15:03.129 In a 2009 interview, he actually called global 00:15:03.129 --> 00:15:06.509 warming an outright hoax. So you have a platform 00:15:06.509 --> 00:15:09.350 that champions drug decriminalization, attacks 00:15:09.350 --> 00:15:11.730 the Patriot Act, wants to eliminate the central 00:15:11.730 --> 00:15:14.580 bank. and pushes to define life at conception, 00:15:14.899 --> 00:15:17.899 it just doesn't fit into the standard boxes we 00:15:17.899 --> 00:15:20.539 are so used to seeing on the news. What's fascinating 00:15:20.539 --> 00:15:22.919 here is like, whether you find his policies brilliant 00:15:22.919 --> 00:15:26.879 or deeply flawed, his platform is fiercely internally 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:30.049 consistent. With a few highly debated exceptions, 00:15:30.470 --> 00:15:32.789 almost everything stems from one foundational 00:15:32.789 --> 00:15:35.250 belief. That the federal government is constitutionally 00:15:35.250 --> 00:15:37.389 mandated to provide national defense, a court 00:15:37.389 --> 00:15:39.389 system to settle disputes and almost nothing 00:15:39.389 --> 00:15:42.789 else. Exactly. Every contrarian vote traces back 00:15:42.789 --> 00:15:45.230 to that strict interpretation. And that rigid 00:15:45.230 --> 00:15:48.129 consistency didn't just define his time in Washington. 00:15:48.509 --> 00:15:50.889 It defined his post congressional life, too. 00:15:51.710 --> 00:15:54.049 After he finally retired from Congress in 2012, 00:15:54.450 --> 00:15:56.830 he didn't fade away into a quiet retirement. 00:15:57.049 --> 00:15:59.590 No, he founded the Ron Paul Institute for Peace 00:15:59.590 --> 00:16:02.470 and Prosperity to continue promoting his non 00:16:02.470 --> 00:16:05.230 -interventionist foreign policy views. He created 00:16:05.230 --> 00:16:08.809 a free market online homeschool curriculum. And, 00:16:08.909 --> 00:16:10.970 of course, he heavily supported the political 00:16:10.970 --> 00:16:13.889 career of his son, Senator Rand Paul. He also 00:16:13.889 --> 00:16:16.570 maintained a very unique, somewhat humorous place 00:16:16.570 --> 00:16:19.370 in American political trivia long after he stopped 00:16:19.370 --> 00:16:21.960 running for office. Oh I love this detail from 00:16:21.960 --> 00:16:24.740 the source. During the 2016 presidential election, 00:16:25.039 --> 00:16:28.490 a faithless elector in Texas made history. For 00:16:28.490 --> 00:16:30.889 context, a faithless elector is a member of the 00:16:30.889 --> 00:16:32.990 electoral college who decides not to vote for 00:16:32.990 --> 00:16:34.850 the presidential candidate that actually won 00:16:34.850 --> 00:16:37.230 their state's popular vote. Well, one of these 00:16:37.230 --> 00:16:40.110 electors in Texas decided to cast their official 00:16:40.110 --> 00:16:43.629 electoral vote for Ron Paul. Since Paul was 81 00:16:43.629 --> 00:16:45.789 years old at the time, that single protest vote 00:16:45.789 --> 00:16:48.330 made him the oldest person in U .S. history to 00:16:48.330 --> 00:16:50.870 ever receive an electoral college vote. And his 00:16:50.870 --> 00:16:53.710 relevance really hasn't vanished, even in today's 00:16:53.710 --> 00:16:56.659 political climate. The source brings his timeline 00:16:56.659 --> 00:17:00.210 right up to the present. noting that he recently 00:17:00.210 --> 00:17:03.889 offered praise for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., specifically 00:17:03.889 --> 00:17:06.970 regarding Kennedy's non -interventionist foreign 00:17:06.970 --> 00:17:10.430 policy stances. Furthermore, in 2024, Paul had 00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:13.049 a highly publicized exchange with Elon Musk. 00:17:13.190 --> 00:17:15.730 Right. They discussed the idea of Paul potentially 00:17:15.730 --> 00:17:18.170 joining a proposed Department of Government Efficiency 00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:21.549 to help ruthlessly cut federal spending. Which 00:17:21.549 --> 00:17:23.869 is classic Ron Paul. He declined an official 00:17:23.869 --> 00:17:25.970 government position because, of course, he would. 00:17:26.109 --> 00:17:28.180 But he stated he'd be more than. than happy to 00:17:28.180 --> 00:17:31.059 offer advice on cutting government waste. Decades 00:17:31.059 --> 00:17:33.160 later, the delivery method changes, but he is 00:17:33.160 --> 00:17:35.319 still singing the exact same tune. Precisely. 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:37.880 The ideology never wavered. Well, as we wrap 00:17:37.880 --> 00:17:39.680 up, I want to thank you for joining us on this 00:17:39.680 --> 00:17:42.240 deep dive. We have traced an incredibly winding, 00:17:42.480 --> 00:17:45.289 unlikely journey today. We really have. We looked 00:17:45.289 --> 00:17:47.509 at a Texas doctor who delivered thousands of 00:17:47.509 --> 00:17:49.589 babies, who stepped into the political arena 00:17:49.589 --> 00:17:52.329 purely because of a wonky shift in global monetary 00:17:52.329 --> 00:17:55.950 policy. He essentially ran a decades -long educational 00:17:55.950 --> 00:17:58.869 campaign that was disguised as a traditional 00:17:58.869 --> 00:18:01.430 political career. He became a viral internet 00:18:01.430 --> 00:18:04.069 sensation before most politicians even had email 00:18:04.069 --> 00:18:07.210 addresses. A constant thorn in the side of his 00:18:07.210 --> 00:18:10.269 own party's leadership and a champion to a fiercely 00:18:10.269 --> 00:18:13.220 loyal grassroots movement. This raises an important 00:18:13.220 --> 00:18:14.619 question, and it's something for you to really 00:18:14.619 --> 00:18:17.079 think about. When you look at Ron Paul's actual 00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:20.859 record, he passed almost no legislation. He actively 00:18:20.859 --> 00:18:23.660 alienated his own party's leadership over and 00:18:23.660 --> 00:18:26.000 over again, and he never came close to actually 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.819 winning the presidency. Yet political historians 00:18:28.819 --> 00:18:31.099 credit him with laying the groundwork for the 00:18:31.099 --> 00:18:33.700 Pea Party movement, pioneering digital grassroots 00:18:33.700 --> 00:18:37.700 fundraising, and entirely reshaping modern libertarianism. 00:18:37.779 --> 00:18:40.390 It makes you wonder. In the long arc of history, 00:18:40.569 --> 00:18:42.710 what is actually more powerful for creating lasting 00:18:42.710 --> 00:18:45.450 political change? Is it compromising your ideals 00:18:45.450 --> 00:18:48.750 so you can pass incremental moderate laws? Or 00:18:48.750 --> 00:18:51.710 is it refusing to compromise an inch in order 00:18:51.710 --> 00:18:54.549 to build a fiercely loyal ideological movement 00:18:54.549 --> 00:18:57.190 that shifts the entire conversation? That is 00:18:57.190 --> 00:18:59.009 a brilliant question to leave off on. Something 00:18:59.009 --> 00:19:00.809 for you to mull over the next time you look at 00:19:00.809 --> 00:19:03.109 the incredibly fractured political landscape 00:19:03.109 --> 00:19:05.369 we have today. Thank you so much for joining 00:19:05.369 --> 00:19:07.589 us on this deep dive into the source material. 00:19:08.430 --> 00:19:10.730 questioning, keep exploring and we will see you 00:19:10.730 --> 00:19:11.210 next time.