Ron Paul, who has frequently been elected President of straw, seems like a good idea to some college kids and many baristas. Sacha Baron Cohen’s bedroom guest just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow. 

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Question:

How do you feel about Texas banning the sale of Tesla cars? Doesn’t seem very American or Libertarian.

Ron Paul: 

It’s un-American and it’s unpatriotic and it’s bad economic policy, and it should not be any business of the government what car you can buy.

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Question:

Is there anything that Obama has done that you DO support?

Ron Paul:

That’s a narrow question. How long since it’s been since I’ve strongly supported what ANY president have done? Unfortunately our Presidents and our Congress have been systematically moving in the wrong direction. They have been undermining our freedoms and bankrupting our country and supporting perpetual war.

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Question:

What are your thoughts on free migration? Do you think restrictions against immigration violate the non-aggression principle? Do you agree with economists who say that the World’s GDP would increase by magnitudes if you allowed free migration?

Ron Paul:

That might be the ideal to seek and it should be talked about and maybe someday we can reach that. That is essentially what our 13 Colonies set up under the Constitution – we could move back and forth as freely as possible, and it’s worked out rather well. The problem that we have today deals with the economy and the Welfare State. Because if the doors are wide open and you let all individuals in, all individuals suddenly qualify for welfare benefits – and you are looking for lots of problems. In a free society that is prosperous, the doors should be open as wide as possible. Even today we could do that if we could say “Come and work, come and play, but you don’t get automatic citizenship or benefits.” Those open doors would be very beneficial to us, but it’s been messed up because of the demagoguery and welfare state. But in an ideal world, there would be an economic benefit to it.

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Question:

While I highly agree with many of your policies, can you give us an official response on your stance of separation of church and state?

Ron Paul:

Yes. The church should never run the state. They should never be synonymous. And the state should never interfere with the church. The responsibility of the government should be to protect the right to free choice, whether it is religion, philosophy, or our personal habits.

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Question:

Dr. Paul, we have seen the expansion of Libertarianism over the past several years. How much of it do you think is enabled by the internet, and what are your thoughts on the recent, repeated attempts to limit the freedom of the net and our right to privacy? 

Ron Paul: 

Well that’s a great threat – the attack on the internet – because the internet is our best vehicle. It has been the best thing for us to have to spread our message. So it has been VERY instrumental in being able to get the message of Libertarianism out. The other thing that has helped us with this message is the evident failure now of our Keynesian economic system which we’ve had now for close to 100 years, and also the obvious evidence that our foreign policy is a complete failure and people are looking for answers, especially the young people, because they see it deeply flawed.

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Question:

Why did you name your son Rand?

Ron Paul:

My wife had the children and she had the privilege of naming the children. Afterwards there was a little bit of discussing with her husband, namely me. 

But his name is not after Ayn Rand. His name is RANDALL despite some things that have been around on the Internet. He was called “Randy” at home, and he became “Rand” after becoming a physician.