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 | The Revolution: A Manifesto
Author: Ron Paul
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Binding: Audio CD
Released: 2008-04-30
Sales Rank: 34796
ISBN: 160024355X
Edition: Unabridged
Cover
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 2008-08-08 - Paul to the Rescue
Ron Paul stands out for one simple reason. He is the only politician of national stature who absolutely sounds like he means what he says. Others may be just as honest as he is, but Paul has the sincerely thing down cold. One absolutely believes him even if you don't believe in him. I was impressed by his passion and deep patriotism. What a breath of fresh air. Compare the oily rivals for out attention. Paul never says things that just sound good, he doesn't need cue cards to help him remember his positions or policies, he is bright and clear and sincere. Compare the rest of the candidates who can't even remember their positions, let alone explain how they got there. And they change positions everyday after reading the paper. This goes for the current crop but basically all of them are the same all the time. And this is just the beginning of what it is that makes Paul stand out. He was very impressive in the debates, although one certainly never believed that he would go far. Even his anti-war policy is portrayed by the press as off-the-wall. This guy sounds like he means it when he says we must get out. It would be hard to say with confidence what the others might do. This is a salt of the earth, tried-and-true spokesman for the truth.
 2008-08-07 - Overly simplistic anti-government tirade
I can see both good and bad in Ron Paul's book THE REVOLUTION, but let me say right off the bat that I do not support his unrelenting libertarian attitude that government is the source of all evil. Paul rightly points out many problems that we face today - high federal budget deficit, runaway health care costs, belligerent foreign policy, presidential illegalities, and on and on - but in my view these are not the result of government per se, but rather are the fault of the astoundingly bad leadership we in the U.S. have suffered from in the last 10 or so years. There is an increasingly common view, which I sympathize with, that Republicans have deliberately tried to ruin government functions in this country in an attempt to cause more people to reject ALL government. See John Dean's 2007 book Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches for a good example of this argument.
To take one illustrative example of the problems described in this book, Paul entirely blames government for the high cost of health care in the U.S. Here he quotes his hero, the economist Ludwig von Mises, who said that "government interventions create unintended consequences that lead to calls for further intervention, and so on into a destructive spiral of more and more government control." Yet one glaring discrepancy here is that most developed countries have much MORE government intervention in their health care systems than we do, yet health care costs in the U.S. are much HIGHER than anywhere else in the world! Nor does he mention the abuses of health insurance companies in this country. What can I as an individual do to deal with those companies? We need government to set some fairness standards here. But Paul would never propose such a thing, since that would dilute his black-and-white view that government is all bad and private enterprise is all good. So he just ignores the problem. The same is largely true with the environment, where he at least supports the concept of environmental protection, yet barely discusses the matter, and does not mention how to deal with the worldwide problem of global warming. Might we need government to do something here? Heavens!
But as I said at the beginning, I do agree with Paul in some regards, such as his emphasis that we must roll back our foreign empire for both economic and practical reasons. He has been an adamant foe of our invasion of Iraq, and here is an issue that we agree. What I am opposed to about THE REVOLUTION is Paul's relentless anti-government tirade that extends to virtually all issues, and which I believe is overly simplistic, sometimes to the point of absurdity.
 2008-08-05 - Should be required reading in our nation's high schools
The United States has managed to go from being the biggest creditor nation (a good thing) to the biggest debtor nation (a bad thing) in a mere 30 years. We have our politicians and the federal reserve to thank for this. We can all continue pretending that there is not an 800 lb gorilla in the room and just wait for a total collapse or we can heed the advice of Dr. Paul and people like him. It's hard to believe that we fought for our independence from England less than 250 years ago and we've apparantely forgotten why we did so. The constitution is that reminder. It is startling how many personal freedoms and liberties we are willing to keep giving up. We need someone to fight for us. The government is supposed to serve the people; not the people serve the government. This book is a great reminder of the way things were intended to be and where we are straying from the path.
2008-08-05 - Another liberal who calls himself a conservative
In short, a liberal manifesto (although not nearly as liberal as the Bush/Cheney crowd.)
the bad:
* conservatives, by definition, do not go around calling for 'revolutions'
* his take on free trade is liberalism on steroids -- a conservative believes in free trade only as far as it benefits the interests of the home country. Ron takes it too philosphically, and believes in trade with no restrictions.
* liberals always have their heads in the clouds, and looking to establish utopias on earth. Conservatives roll up their sleeves and deal with the reality we have to face. Ron has his head in the clouds, just like Bush.
the good:
* I agree with his take on the military, the gold standard, and minding our own business
Overall, a good read with some good moments.
2008-08-04 - Every American should read this.
What an enlightening book and excellent call to action. It reminds voters why associating yourself with a 'party' is as politically productive as investigating why dirt has a bad taste. A real wakeup call to how far the US Federal Government has gone to ignore, destroy, and bastardize the Constitution. Fire Congress and lets elect some law-makers who will obey the law!
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