Maybe we ought to consider a Golden Rule in foreign policy: Don't do to other nations what we don't want happening to us. We endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us?
No one talks about the real ethics disaster in Washington. It's that many members of Congress will listen to any argument against a bill except for two: that it's not moral or that it's not Constitutional.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the ethical failures in Congress regarding the importance of morality and constitutional integrity in decision-making.
Ron Paul's quote critiques the political landscape in Washington, suggesting that lawmakers often disregard fundamental ethical considerations when debating legislation. He argues that members of Congress are open to various arguments opposing a bill, yet they seem to dismiss those grounded in morality or constitutional adherence, highlighting a concerning trend in political discourse where ethics are sidelined.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate, one might reference this quote to emphasize the need for moral considerations in legislative discussions.
More from Ron Paul
All quotes →Liberty is lost through complacency and a subservient mindset. When we accept or even welcome automobile checkpoints, random searches, mandatory identification cards, and paramilitary police in our streets, we have lost a vital part of our American heritage. America was born of protest, revolution, and mistrust of government. Subservient societies neither maintain nor deserve freedom for long.
If we are not even free anymore to decide something as basic as what we wish to eat or drink, how much freedom do we really have left?
I wish I could say I was shocked at the reports the NSA is secretly spying on the private phone calls of millions of Verizon customers. However, this is a predictable result of a government that continues to erode our liberties while promising some glimmering hope of security.
They ask me if I'm going to quit. I thought we were just getting started. We have a revolution to fight, a country to change.
When one person can initiate war, by its definition, a republic no longer exists.
Similar quotes
I like to be involved in politics. I like to be involved in government. I've been in politics all my life. I would like to remain in government. I don't think that's so sinister.
The founding fathers, in their wisdom, devised a method by which our republic can take one hundred of its most prominent numbskulls and keep them out of the private sector where they might do actual harm.
As long as in this territory west of the Jordan river there is only one political entity called Israel, it is going to be either non-Jewish or non-democratic. If this bloc of millions of Palestinians cannot vote, that will be an apartheid state.
Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. - The world would foment with revolution.
I believe that democracies do not go to war; that's the lesson of history, and I think that a democratic Pakistan is the world community's best guarantee of stability in Asia.
Yup, the whole birther movement was racist.