Rand Paul: “I have asked for this time to spend a little bit of time talking about the assessment of our American Republic. Mr.…”

“I have asked for this time to spend a little bit of time talking about the assessment of our American Republic. Mr. Speaker, the beginning of the 21st century lends itself to a reassessment of our history and gives us an opportunity to redirect our country's future course, if deemed prudent. The main question before the new Congress and the administration is, are we to have gridlock, or cooperation? Today we refer to cooperation as bipartisanship. Some argue that bipartisanship is absolutely necessary for the American democracy to survive. The media never mentions a concern for the survival of the Republic, but there are those who argue that left-wing interventionism should give no ground to right-wing interventionism, that too much is at stake. The media are demanding the Bush administration and the Republican Congress immediately yield to those insisting on higher taxes and more Federal Government intervention for the sake of national unity because our government is neatly split between two concise philosophic views. But if one looks closely, one is more likely to find only a variation of a single system of authoritarianism, in contrast to the rarely mentioned constitutional non-authoritarian approach to government. The big debate between the two factions in Washington boils down to nothing more than a contest over power and political cronyism, rather than any deep philosophic differences.”