Kokesh on Rand Paul's Apostasy – and Why He Ought to Emphasize Money Power

Dominant Social Theme: Ron must renounce Rand.

Free-Market Analysis: Adam Kokesh is really upset with Rand Paul, and probably Ron Paul, too. In this interesting video, Kokesh essentially tries to psychoanalyze Ron Paul and his failures as a father.

But we ask Mr. Kokesh with all due respect: Why bother?

Rand Paul is not an important person (no disrespect intended) and his father's importance will NOT be measured by his political acumen. In fact, over time, people shall remember Ron Paul for his economic writings not for his failed political campaigns.

It doesn't really matter what either Paul does politically. Perhaps that's not clear now, though it will be.

Right now, admittedly, it is giving freedom's enemies a good deal to celebrate. Even the alternative media "monopoly-paper money crowd" is engaged in celebration. As more and more of various pre-war national socialist platforms are apparently adopted by elements of the alternative media, Rand is being positioned as a whipping boy for a populist vision.

We don't endorse Rand Paul's endorsement of Mitt Romney. And if Ron Paul gave it his blessing, we don't bless that either. But here is the thing: Ron Paul has proven an effective and valuable educator for free market thinking. No doubt he will continue to do that and go down in history for the monetary education he has provided at a critical time.

That is his legacy. That was why he got in the race. He said as much long ago.

He struggled as a non-entity for decades. He was derided as a kook and a bumbling extremist. His colleagues such as Murray Rothbard and Lew Rockwell were equally derided, when they were mentioned at all. They had no power and no publicity. Only with the advent of the Internet did free-market thinking begin to rise.

And the Internet was a mistake from which the elites are still trying to recover. The powers-that-be hate gold and silver because they allow the common man the ability to retain control of his own destiny. On a local level (neighbor-to-neighbor) gold and silver cannot be traced, tracked or manipulated. Inflation leaves it untouched.

In the US, the power elite of its day in the 1930s engineered the confiscation of gold because it was afraid of the exposure of its paper money schemes. Great thinkers like Ludwig von Mises authored books on socialism and human action that showed logically it was the individual himself that needed to take action – and that people should not rely on Money Power's Leviathan to run their lives.

Pillorying Ron Paul for not doing all he could to "win" the election is a bit like damning Ulysses for tying himself to the mast when passing by the isles of Scylla and Charybdis so that he would not be lured by tempting sirens' songs.

One cannot damn Paul for not fighting to the bitter end – and bitterly at that. What do people really think would have been gained?

Do they REALLY believe that one grandfatherly figure could have tamed Leviathan? The US is a $3 trillion behemoth with millions of intrusive regulations, 16 separate domestic spy agencies and an enormous standing army with 1,000 overseas military bases engaged in about six separate, illegal wars.

Ron Paul was supposed to trim this? How exactly? Former republics such as the US never go back. The people who have subverted the republic are alive and in positions of power. They will stand in the way of any return, fearful that their machinations would be exposed.

It is a life and death struggle for them. Anyone who seriously attempts to change the course of the US in a political way will likely end up dead or at least badly injured. That's simply a fact.

So ... we celebrate the education that Ron Paul has provided without deifying the man himself. He is a human being with human flaws. But he has helped (and continues to help) people re-learn what freedom meant, and means.

• He explained that commodity money (especially gold) has been valued throughout the ages and that the current monopoly fiat-money shall eventually give way to money metals once again ... at least alongside other solutions.

• He pointed out that the state is invalid in the sense that every law and regulation is a price fix distorting the economy and transferring wealth from those who created it to those who did not.

• He presented, convincingly, the idea that the human action – individual people taking individual actions on behalf of themselves, their families and their communities – was preferable to the regulatory solutions of Leviathan, imposed by force.

• He reminded people in a principled fashion that fighting endless overseas wars was neither productive nor principled. It injured millions without any real benefits and was not based on legitimate self-defense.

Freedom's enemies are legion. The apologists are crowding the exits. The attack has been especially vociferous from those who have developed a full-fledged alternative scheme that twists history toward a renewal of government power.

The idea is that government should either print or redistribute monopoly paper money at the behest of the "people." How "the people" are supposed to run a US$ 3 trillion behemoth is never made clear.

Money Power shall always run government, especially complex government. The actuating enterprise is "mercantilism" and the only way to starve it is to reduce the size of the public bureaucracy. Providing the bureaucracy with MORE power is surely not the answer.

Remove central banks, allow money systems to compete and let the best money win. Chances are gold and silver shall provide at least one solution, circulating at interest as they have for thousands of years.

People themselves should try to regain their own power. They should seek to live in smaller communities and should develop life-solutions that emphasize independence, not dependence. They should seek religiosity over regulation and spirituality over consumerism. They should arm themselves and defend themselves, not rely on a standing army controlled by Leviathan to do so for them.

Complex government-oriented money schemes now being advanced by the alternative media should certainly be given a chance in a free-market environment. But they should not be emplaced by force. Let people regain the choices they once had about the kinds of transactions they want to use.

Victory is never assured but the engagement is certainly worthwhile.

Here's Kokesh's video from his YouTube user channel (AdamKokesh):