Ron Paul makes last call for freedom in farewell to Congress

Rep. Ron Paul's farewell to Congress, which took place a short time ago, is worth seeking out online to watch.

We have, for the past five years, occasionally devoted this space to issues regarding the Texas Republican, most of the time arguing that he has been unfairly marginalized because much of what he says isn't comfortable to hear - even if we happen to think it's true.

He was marginalized by his own party because he was always his own man. He was marginalized by the media because he was marginalized by his party and because he wasn't hesitant to use new media to drive his message and his fundraising. The salt in the wound was that the approach was effective.

The problem is that Paul cleaves closer to the ideals upon which the nation was founded - that the individual, not the government, is paramount. There are many who understand that to be the truth, but they are helpless against a government that has long overstepped its bounds and for whom individual rights are inconveniences to be shaved whenever possible in order to expand that government's power.

And we Americans have long let government get away with it, because the lockstep assurance from those sitting in the political chairs is that such actions are in our best and the nation's best interests.

But Ron Paul has repeatedly stood up and said, "not necessarily so," which has for long years been our stance as well.

We'll let him say a few things now:

"Many are now acknowledging that a financial crisis looms, but few understand it is, in reality, a moral crisis. It's the moral crisis that has allowed our liberties to be undermined and permits the exponential growth of illegal government power," Rep. Paul declared on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday.

"If it's not accepted that big government, fiat money, ignoring liberty, central economic planning, welfarism, and warfarism caused our crisis we can expect a continuous and dangerous march toward corporatism and even fascism with even more loss of our liberties."

Paul never much worried about rankling his fellows in Congress, but this is gloves-off, riding-into-the-sunset artillery fire.

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Ron Paul makes last call for freedom in farewell to Congress