Ron Paul Visits MSU

By Michael Gerstein

Monday afternoon, thousands of ardent Ron Paul supporters packed into the Auditorium to hear the Republican Presidential Candidate speak. Political adherents funneled in from the bitter cold, making their way inside and filling nearly every one of the 4000 seats, excitedly chanting their support and thrusting “Don’t trust the liberal media!” signs into the air along the way.

Constituents in various pockets across the country have fervently shown their support throughout his campaign, and no lacking amount of enthusiasm came from Michigan State.

A multitude of reasons are cited for his sporadic popularity, but some of the most crucial among them are his perceived deep separation from the usual Republican platform, leaning heavily on a call for maximum civil liberties, a non-interventionist strategy regarding foreign affairs and a laissez faire economic policy.

Indeed, one of the central themes recurring throughout his speech was a call to return our “God given rights” by repealing recent legislature such as the Patriot Act and the even more recent Defense Authorization Act which enables the indefinite detention, without the right to a trial, of any American citizen suspected of involvement with a terrorist organization.

The crowd applauded uproariously with any mention of restoring our civil liberties or ending the American pattern of “non-stop war.” This facilitated a tremendous amount of popularity among traditionally non-conservative voters.

But where more liberal constituents start to fall off is with the mention of his traditional, and arguably uneducated view of economics. Paul supports the abolition of many integral federal organizations such as the FDA, FEMA and the Board of Education, holding to the view that capitalism, when left to its own devices and not interfered with by any government organization, will be able to effectively regulate itself and adhere to the wishes of the public.

Opponents of this view would point out that one need only look to the abuses of human rights during the beginning of the industrial revolution to see the oppressive nature of unfettered capitalism.

Regardless, the overwhelming majority of those present seemed ecstatic to be there, chanting and cheering their support all the way down the street.