RON PAUL - THE ALTERNATIVE

Ron Paul rides in the back of a campaign van that’s rolling toward the New Hampshire seacoast for a town hall meeting. He’s fastidious in a dark-blue suit. He’s not the standard presidential candidate — he lacks the factory-built appearance of Mitt Romney or Rick Perry. He’s thin, bony, a bantam rooster. He’s 76 — the only one in the race who was born during the Great Depression.

He doesn’t wear his seat belt. “I never have,” he says, and doesn’t explain whether it’s a matter of back-seat comfort or a deep, philosophical aversion to nanny-state meddling in our lives.

There are a lot of things he doesn’t do, such as make small talk, or touch the tray of cookies at his feet, or doff his suit jacket and try to relax. What he’s eager to do is talk about ideas. The Texas congressman doesn’t have “positions” on “issues.” He has a philosophy.

The one big idea: Government tramples liberty. He’s by far the most radically anti-government candidate in the running. He’d boil the federal government down to a few, skeletal functions.
He’d end the welfare state, cut every dime of foreign aid, halt overseas military action and bring home all the troops. He’d return to the gold standard and abolish the Federal Reserve.

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