Ron Paul
End the Fed
Sound money, non-intervention, liberty.
Rooted LibertarianOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Libertarian hall →- Role
- Congressman
- Era
- b. 1935
- Region
- United States
- Social band
- Rooted
- Placement
- +75 · −52 · −15
§ Where Ron Paul stands
3 axesPaul's economics come from the Austrian school of Mises and Rothbard. He co-wrote The Case for Gold, the US Gold Commission's minority report, in 1982, wants the Federal Reserve abolished and the income tax repealed, and his 2011 Plan to Restore America proposed cutting $1 trillion of federal spending in a year and closing five cabinet departments. He stops short of anarchism, accepting a constitutionally limited state.
Nicknamed Dr No for voting against bills he judged unconstitutional, Paul opposed the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001 and the authorisation of the Iraq War in 2002, and he argues for a non-interventionist foreign policy without foreign aid or overseas bases. His libertarianism is constitutionalist rather than anarchist: he defends the federal government's enumerated powers and wants many contested questions returned to the states.
Paul is a conservative Christian and former obstetrician who opposes abortion and has repeatedly introduced a Sanctity of Life Act defining life as beginning at conception, while arguing that such questions belong to the states. He also co-sponsored a 2011 bill with Barney Frank to end federal marijuana prohibition and voted in 2010 to repeal the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, so his traditionalism is mild.
How close are you to Ron Paul?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
LivingRonald Ernest Paul (b. 1935) is an American physician and politician who represented Texas in the US House of Representatives for more than two decades. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he took his medical degree at Duke University, served as an Air Force flight surgeon in the 1960s and practised as an obstetrician in Texas. Alarmed by President Nixon's 1971 decision to end the dollar's convertibility into gold, he entered politics, winning a special election in 1976 and serving in 1976–77, 1979–85 and 1997–2013.
Paul ran for president as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988 and sought the Republican nomination in 2008 and 2012, campaigns that drew large numbers of young volunteers and set records for online fundraising. His books The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008) and End the Fed (2009), and his push to audit the Federal Reserve, carried Austrian economics into mainstream politics; his son Rand Paul entered the Senate in 2011. His defining controversy concerns newsletters published under his name in the late 1980s and early 1990s that contained racist passages; Paul said he had not written them and disavowed their content.
Notable for
- 01'End the Fed'
- 02Libertarian presidential runs
- 03Galvanised the liberty movement
Key works & moments
- 1976Wins a special election to the US House of Representatives from Texas.
- 1982Co-writes The Case for Gold, the US Gold Commission's minority report, with Lewis Lehrman.
- 1988Runs for president as the Libertarian Party nominee, finishing third.
- 2007His Republican primary campaign raises more than $4 million online in a single day.
- 2009Publishes End the Fed, calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve.
- 2012The House passes his bill to audit the Federal Reserve; he retires from Congress soon after.
§ Minds closest to Ron Paul
All minds →
§ Also in the Libertarian hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is Ron Paul's political ideology?
Ron Paul is a constitutionalist libertarian: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Rooted Libertarian. Economically he is strongly pro-market (+75), backing the gold standard, the abolition of the Federal Reserve and deep cuts to federal spending. On governance he is clearly libertarian (−52), opposing surveillance, foreign wars and federal power beyond the Constitution's enumerated limits. Socially he leans mildly traditional (−15): personally religious and pro-life, but opposed to the war on drugs and to federal policing of private morality.
Is Ron Paul left-wing or right-wing?
Right-wing on economics, but he cuts across the usual lines. Paul spent most of his career as a Republican and wants a much smaller federal government, lower taxes and sound money, which places him firmly on the market right. Yet his votes against the Iraq War and the PATRIOT Act and his opposition to the war on drugs won him admirers on the anti-war left, and in 1988 he ran as the Libertarian Party's nominee. He is best described as a libertarian of the right.
Why does Ron Paul want to end the Federal Reserve?
Because he sees it as the root of inflation, boom-and-bust cycles and big government. Following Austrian economists such as Mises and Hayek, Paul argues that the Fed's power to create money debases the dollar, acting as a hidden tax on savers, and that artificially cheap credit fuels bubbles like the housing boom that collapsed in 2008. He also says it lets Washington finance deficits and wars without raising taxes, and that the Constitution gives Congress, not a central bank, the power to coin money. His 2009 book End the Fed sets out the case.
Which minds are closest to Ron Paul?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to Ron Paul are Ron Swanson (96% alike), Ludwig von Mises (94% alike) and Friedrich Hayek (93% alike). The furthest is Pol Pot (3% alike).