As Ron Paul Leaves Congress, "Outside of Washington, I Am Very Optimistic"

The Hearst newspapers profile Ron Paul as his long political career ends. They lard it with a fair amount of completely point-missing stuff about "numbers of bills he passed" as a legislator and, in this author's estimation, ahem, grossly understate the importance of the mind-changing he's done as the most effective libertarian proselytizer of the past couple of decades (though it does mention it). I stand by my prediction that the only really important political story for America's future of the past 5 years, when looked at from the perspective of, say, two decades from now, will prove to be Ron Paul's rEVOLution.

 

The story refers to his political campaigns as "low cost" without mentioning that his official (non-SuperPAC) 2012 haul was only slightly less than that of two of his more prominent competitors, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, combined.

The wrap up of the story is nice though, including the indomitable Paul's refusal to call his leaving Congress a political retirement:

Paul doesn't apologize for shunning go-along, get-along politics.

"Tweaking a bill?" he asked rhetorically. "I never got much of a charge out of that, and that's how Washington works."

As he prepares to depart from Washington after three separate stints in Congress over the past 36 years, Paul is gloomy about the state of liberty in America.

"Leaving Washington, it's in a lot worse shape than when I first came there," he said, thinking back to his first special election victory in 1976. "Everything's worse. Our liberties are less. We are in endless wars. The economy is in shambles. And the government is dysfunctional."

Still, the Pennsylvania native sees hope for the nation in the tens of thousands of young people who have embraced his message of liberty and are slowly infiltrating the American political system.

"Outside of Washington, I am very optimistic," he said.

After leaving office, Paul says he will divide his time between his home in Texas and his Campaign for Liberty, based in Alexandria, Va. He says he will continue "stirring up the grass roots" and will spend more time doing something he loves — "going to as many college campuses as possible."….

Ron Paul says he's not ready to vanish from the political scene, and he's definitely not ready to speculate about whether another Paul will seek the presidency.

His response: "Who knows?"

Bonus Pauliana: The Houston Chronicle collates 50 of his best lines.

More than 50 great Paul lines can be found in my book, Ron Paul's Revolution: The Man and the Movement He Inspired.