{"id":364,"date":"2007-11-19T22:49:59","date_gmt":"2007-11-20T03:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/19\/ron-paul-the-2002-szasz-award-winner\/"},"modified":"2007-11-19T22:49:59","modified_gmt":"2007-11-20T03:49:59","slug":"ron-paul-the-2002-szasz-award-winner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/19\/ron-paul-the-2002-szasz-award-winner\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Paul, the 2002 Szasz Award Winner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some supporters of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0may not know that congressman Paul was a champion of civil liberties even in the era\u00a0before the U.S. government legalized torture.<\/p>\n

Paul won the Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to Civil Liberties<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>in 2002.\u00a0 He is the only politician to ever win the award (named after the legendary psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, one of the great heroes of modern liberty).<\/p>\n

Here are the comments I made at the award ceremony in\u00a0November 2002 in Washington:\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is my honor on behalf of the Szasz award committee to present the award this year to Congressman Ron Paul.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ron Paul speaks truth to power.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Congressman Paul\u00a0 takes the high ground – stands on principle – and he often stands alone.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Last year, Paul was one of only three Republicans to vote against the Patriot Act\u00a0 and the only member of the House to vote against the money laundering provisions of the Patriot Act.\u00a0\u00a0 Paul denounced that portion of the bill as “a laundry list of dangerous, unconstitutional power grabs…”\u00a0 The type of honesty that is\u00a0\u00a0 damn near nonexistent in Washington.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ron Paul has made it clear from Day One where he stands on the War with Iraq. He stands on the Constitution on this – not on the public opinion polls. He is not finessing the issue.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One thing I like about Paul is that he is wiling to question people’s motives – something that happens far too rarely in Washington.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Back in mid-September, I was flipping on the TV at\u00a0the end of the day – after a few beers – trolling on C SPAN.\u00a0 And I happened to come upon a House hearing on the pending war with Iraq.\u00a0 I think I missed the first couple hours of the hearing because chairman Henry Hyde announced that it was Congressman Paul’s chance to ask a question.
\n\u00a0
\nPaul scorned the hearing as “very one sided” and said “This turns out to be more propaganda for war than anything else.\u00a0\u00a0 We’re willing to go to war over phantom weapons.”
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And then he asked the two witnesses – Richard Perle and James Woolsey – whether they would personally be wiling to risk their lives for the war they so strongly advocated.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Woolsey answered first.\u00a0 He mentioned that he “flew a desk” during his two years in the army – but then stressed that it was not up to private citizens to decide whether to go to war – it was up to Congress.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then Perle answered. Perle was in London at the time – and they had a giant video screen up there for him to be seen.\u00a0\u00a0 The hearing setting looked like a scene out of Dr. Strangelove.\u00a0 And there was a giant flag just to Perle’s right\u00a0 – sort of like the Fox News Network on amphetamines.
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Perle opined: “Well, I find the question a particularly troubling question because the suggestion is that somehow it is illegitimate to make recommendation with respect to what one believes is in the best interest of the country and all of our citizens except in some intensely personal context.\u00a0 And if I were in a position to serve, I would do so. But, that seems to me quite the wrong question, Congressman.\u00a0 The question is how do we best protect the citizens of this country.\u201d
\n\u00a0\u00a0 Woolsey chimed in: “This so-called chicken hawk argument does seem to me to be an extraordinarily unworthy argument.\u00a0 And I think Senator John McCain has put it exactly where it belongs.\u00a0 For one thing it says that if an American women or an openly gay American man supports the war that an opinion is unworthy or an over age, military age, American man, that that is an unworthy and ought to be an unconsidered opinion because none of those people are going to serve in combat. And I join Mr. Perle in saying that I think that it’s an extraordinarily unworthy ad hominem argument<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now – congressman Paul had not accused the two distinguished witnesses of being chickenhawks – they were the ones that brought this up.\u00a0\u00a0 But simply to directly challenge them made both Perle and Woolsey go strutting as if they had suffered some terrible insult.\u00a0 I mean – since they were advocating killing foreigners – of course they had good intentions, right?
\n\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paul has done great work for freedom for decades – as far back as the mid-70s.\u00a0 His foundation for\u00a0 Foundation for Rational Economic Education (FREE) has done cutting-edge work- such as its recent publication of his speech,\u00a0 “The Case Against the Police State.”\u00a0\u00a0 His Liberty Committee has worked mightily to educate fellow congressmen on the danger of Leviathan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some supporters of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign\u00a0may not know that congressman Paul was a champion of civil liberties even in the era\u00a0before the U.S. government legalized torture. Paul won the Szasz Award for Outstanding Contributions to Civil Liberties\u00a0in 2002.\u00a0 He is the only politician to ever win the award (named after the legendary psychiatrist Thomas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-bovard"],"yoast_head":"\nRon Paul, the 2002 Szasz Award Winner - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/19\/ron-paul-the-2002-szasz-award-winner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ron Paul, the 2002 Szasz Award Winner - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some supporters of Ron Paul’s presidential campaign\u00a0may not know that congressman Paul was a champion of civil liberties even in the era\u00a0before the U.S. government legalized torture. 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