{Editor's note: This is the 3rd installment of a series of testimonials by Lions of Liberty bloggers detailing our personal journeys of how we arrived at our beliefs, and why we support Congressman Ron Paul for President. You can check the others out here and here.}All the signs are there: The Facebook posts. The Tweeting.  The late night YouTube-ing.  The bumper stickers. The rants that can seemingly springboard from any subject and somehow always wrap up with something about "The Fed". The blogging.

I can't hide from it any longer.  It's time to accept the Truth.My name is Marc, and I'm a Paul-aholic.Some might call it an unhealthy obsession.  Others probably just think I'm a right-wing loonie.  Or maybe even one of those "conspiracy theorists"!  After all, Ron Paul's just that wacky guy who's always yapping about the Federal Reserve and blaming the US for 9/11.  Some of you probably think I've just plain lost it and need to find a new hobby.I can't deny any of the above. After all, "perception is reality".  Our perceptions in regards to political discourse have largely been shaped by the media and politicians to make everything nice and simple for us.  All that you have to do is decide which "side" you are on - left or right, Democrat or Republican - walk into the booth and click away! But how to decide which "team" you're on?  Let's break it down:

Democrats aka "the left" are for the "little guy", support unions, want to tax the rich, defend civil liberties, are pro-choice and for gun control, and are anti-war (ish).

Republicans aka "the right" are for the corporations, hate unions, want lower taxes, champion the Police State, love God and guns, and are really itchin' to "bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran".

Man, this voting stuff is as easy as making delicious Pillsbury Biscuits!!! Mmmm...biscuits.

"Marc! Stop pandering for a blog sponsor! Yeah, we get it, the political system in this country is dumbed-down, over-simplified and stupid.  This Ron Paul bro is just another one of those politicians - a Republican no less! - so who cares?"Well, Imaginary Contrarian Voice In My Head, how about a quick little back story so you get where I'm comin' from, eh?

I was raised in what one might call a "typical Republican household".  My father is an Air Force veteran, having served  in Vietnam, and worked very hard to make his way through college and support himself and his family. I remember always being told about self-reliance and personal responsibility, and that a small, Republican form of government was the best. My typical response to hearing this was probably something to the effect of "neat, now if you don't mind 'Perfect Strangers' is on and Balki and Cousin Larry are about to do the Dance of Joy" In 2000 I voted for George W. Bush.  I can't even remember why.  It was probably just that synapse in  my brain that reminded me I was raised to think "Republican good, Democrat bad".  Not long thereafter, a college friend who had been a Congressional paige as a teenager told me about this one Congressman "Ron Paul" whom he had met and would speak with from time to time.  I didn't think too much of it, but he sent me a link to his weekly column, "Texas Straight Talk".I can't recall the particular topic of the first column I read, but I was certainly intrigued. What I was reading on the square monitor of my fancy new 8 gig Dell computer was unlike anything I had ever heard in the political realm. It was devoid of the standard "talking points" and seemed more like an old friend just "shootin' straight" with me.  I kept reading, and would soon find that this Ron Paul guy was one of the most thoughtful and intelligent politicians I'd ever encountered.  He approached every issue through the lens of the singular philosophy of libertarianism; the ideas of individual liberty and freedom  were weaved into every single issue.  I certainly didn't become an overnight libertarian, but for the first time I was interested in what a politician was saying.Despite my weekly dose of libertarianism from Congressman Paul, I was still devoid of a strong stance polically. I spent some time studying abroad in the UK, which gave me a bit of a different perspective on things.  They sure weren't fans of that George Bush guy! I can mark my experience in Great Britain, where many of my flatmates at the time would tout their "free health care" and "free education" as the beginning of a very brief "liberal" phase (sorry, Dad!). All of that being said, I still wasn't a very "political" person and saw these discussions as more of a fun, rant-over-a-few-beers distraction than anything serious.That all changed on 9/11/01. 

 

Without any prior notice,  in one passing moment,those fun distracting conversations at the bar mattered.  Buildings were falling down an hour from where I grew up. I didn't have much sense of who or what was happening, but it was clear to me when those towers fell that something was wrong. Seriously wrong.  And not just on the micro scale of a tragic event, but on the larger scale of world events.  And my mind was racing: How did this happen? Why would anyone do this?

Watching television (still my main source of news at the time, which is truly amazing to think back on), things were happening faster than anyone could process.  Before anyone could even take in what had happened Congress hastily passed something called the PATRIOT ACT (and with a name like that how could it be anything but grand and wonderful?!) and the United States was launching a full-scale invasion of Afghanistan.  Everything seemed to be moving  so fast....and again my mind was racing.I became slightly obsessed.  I found myself watching less and less tv, and doing more and more research online.  I became obssessed with history, the kind of history we don't hear about in government schools or from the "foreign policy experts" we see on cable news.  As bombs were dropping in Afghanistan, I was learning about the CIA's  training and funding of Osama bin Laden and the mujahideen that would later be known as "Al Qaeda" and be blamed for 9/11.  As the PATRIOT Act was passed into law, I was learning about Hitler's Enabling Act and the shocking similarities between the two pieces of totalitarian legislation.  As I saw Colin Powell go on television and proclaim Saddam Hussein a threat to the world thanks to his "weapons of mass destruction" programs, I was learning about how the United States installed Saddam Hussein in Iraq, sold him weapons of mass destruction, and even tacitly encouraged him to invade Kuwait. And as the bombs dropped over Baghdad, the most frightening thing to me of all was that it seemed like I was the only one I knew that had any awareness of these things or thought there was a problem. I felt like I was taking crazy pills!By the time the 2004 election rolled around, I was thoroughly disenchanted with the system.  It was clear to me there was no difference between Democrats and Republicans.  Sure, John Kerry seemed to think the Iraq War "wasn't a good idea"; of course that was after he voted to authorize it.  Neither candidate had any moral opposition to wars, neither had a problem with the PATRIOT Act.  Besides, these guys were in the same creepy fraternity in college - this was really supposed to pass as a "choice" in the Land of the Free? I casted what I knew was a pointless "protest" vote for the Libertarian candidate,  and decided I was done with politics.  The system was designed for certain people, but it was clear to me that I wasn't one of them.Fast-forward to March 2007.  While doing my daily internetting, I did a double take as I thought I read the name "Ron Paul" on the Yahoo! home page.  It couldn't be right, why the heck would Ron Paul's name be on there? Nobody even knows who he is! But one back-click later and sure enough, there it was: "Ron Paul Announces Candidacy for President".  Surely I was dreaming. This libertarian straight-shooter was actually running for President? I'll admit...I got chills up my spine.  3 years earlier I'd denounced all participation in politics but here I was, shaking with glee because this Ron Paul dude was running for President.Dr. Paul was fresh on my mind, as he appeared in a documentary I'd recently stumbled upon titled "America:Freedom to Fascism".  This film, along with the book  "The Creature From Jekyll Island",  opened my eyes to the Federal Reserve system and how it is privately controlled and operates largely in secret, devaluing our currency by creating money out of thin air to finance government spending.  For the first time in my life, I actually became interested in finance and how money works.   What was equally as baffling as realizing the value of our money was controlled by a private group of banks was the fact that I had never even heard about it.  Not in grade school.  Not in Econ 101.  Not from "Mad Money" or any of the other financial propaganda shows.  And certainly not from a Presidential candidate.But suddenly here was Ron Paul, a lone voice at the debates raving about the Federal Reserve's money printing as other candidates and pundits chuckled and acted like he was a 4 year old talking about Santa Claus and unicorns while the adults talk about the "serious issues" - you know, like gay marriage, abortion and those evil, evil Muslims! But to me, Ron Paul was the only adult in the room.  The only one willing to tell the truth about our financial system.  The only one willing to openly talk about the concept of blowback - the CIA's own term for terrorism caused by our interventions overseas.  The only one standing up for our  rapidly deteriorating civil liberties.As the media laughed him away and stuck him at the end of the debate stage, hoping people would just forget about him, it became all too clear to me that the debate that mattered wasn't Democrat vs. Republican or left vs right - it was truth vs. propaganda.  And, as Ron Paul himself stated in his book "The Revolution: A Manifesto" , "Truth is treason in the empire of lies".  This is why Ron Paul is painted as a "kook", a "crazy uncle", and "unelectable".  When the media repeats these smears, what they are really saying is "You can't handle the truth". Well call me crazy, but I beg to differ.  After years of Presidents lying about everything from promises to give us "no new taxes" to flings with interns to lying us into wars to lying about ending them, I'd had enough. And I soon found I wasn't alone.  Occasionally I'd email a Ron Paul video to a friend or bring up the Federal Reserve in conversation.  Most people still hadn't even heard of him months into the campaign, and it mostly seemed like my attempts to bring some of these issues up weren't going to go anywhere either.  But every now and again I'd get a positive response.  Whereas once I felt alone in the wilderness questioning everything I was being fed by the media, soon I was finding that others were starting to see the same things I was.  I didn't know it at the time, but I was witnessing first hand the early stages of what would soon be dubbed by supporters the "Ron Paul Revolution". 

I soon found myself doing crazy things.  Posting more videos.  Sending more emails. Even registering Republican and donating my hard earned Federal Reserve notes to the campaign.  And slowly more and more people started to come around. Whether it was my father, who went from telling me to "save my money" when hearing I'd donated to Ron Paul to donating himself; or a friend who supported Bush's wars waking up from his neoconservative coma; or a former Democrat friend breaking free of the left-right paradigm and joining the Ron Paul Revolution. It was becoming more and more clear that the Ron Paul campaign and my efforts to influence others weren't for nothing and were making a difference, even if it was only on a small scale.Needless to say, Ron Paul didn't achieve much electoral success in 2008.  But four years later it is more apparent than ever that the Ron Paul Revolution has been more succesful than even the most die hard supporters could have imagined.  Once disregarded as "unelectable", the media is scrambling to explain away his ever increasing poll numbers and blow off a possible Iowa caucus victory as "meaningless" , while at the same time other candidates now pay lip service to auditing the Federal Reserve and maybe possibly bringing some troops home.I don't expect everyone who reads this to become an overnight libertarian.  Learning about liberty is a process, and the concepts often run contrary to everything we are taught from Day 1 by our schools, the media, and even well-meaning parents who were indoctrinated by the same system.  I don't expect everyone to become a "Paul-aholic" or start blogging or even to vote for Ron Paul.  But what I do hope is that everyone will seriously consider the issues he is discussing, and think about why nobody else, whether it be our current President or the other establishment Republican candidates, is concerned about the Federal Reserve, or the trillions we spend per year maintaining a global military Empire, or the vastly expanding police state.We need to set the fringe issues aside.  We all have our opinions on abortions, gay marriage, tax rates and a whole variety of political "hot button" issues.  Meanwhile, issues that effect everyone in our society on a much grander scale go unreported.On December 31, 2011, under the cover of New Year's Eve, President Obama signed the NDAA which allows the military to indefinitely detain any American citizen without charge.  Last year it was revealed that the Federal Reserve gave out $16 Trillion in secret bailouts - greater than the entire national debt that Congress spent months debating!Ron Paul is the only one standing up against the powers that control our banking system and devalues our money.  The only one standing up against an unsustainable foreign policy that is both bankrupting us and putting us in greater danger.  The only one warning about the dangers of the encroaching police state and how it can only lead to greater tyranny, not greater safety.  Ron Paul is the only one telling the truth. And that, more than any other reason, is why regardless of what happens in this political cycle, the Revolution will go on.  Once you "take the red pill" of truth, it's impossible to go back.I know everyone reading this won't necessarily run out and become a Ron Paul Revolutionary, and that's okay. But I do hope that you'll listen to what we're saying.And who knows? Maybe one day you'll admit to being a Paul-aholic too.Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!