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The prophecies of Ron Paul

In 2002, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas made a series of predictions about the US and the world. DCDecoder looks at Ron Paul's prophecies and his consistency.

Just under 10 years ago, Ron Paul took the floor of the US House and laid down a few predictions for the coming decade. Among them, these gems 鈥� remember, this was 2002, after the invasion of Afghanistan but before the invasion of Iraq.

• 鈥淒uring the next decade, the American people will become poorer and less free while they become more dependent on the government for economic security.鈥� See: A long, steep drop in American鈥檚 standard of living.

• 鈥淎gitation for more class warfare will succeed in dividing us domestically.鈥� Although Paul has , one could argue they are doing this trick in spades.

• 鈥淭丑别 United States, with Tony Blair as head cheerleader, will attack Iraq without property authority and a major war, the largest since World War II, will result.鈥�

• 鈥淓rosion of civil liberties here at home will continue as our government continues to respond to political fear鈥� by making generous use of the powers obtained with the Patriot Act.鈥� The , everybody!

• To paraphrase Paul, government will grow to record levels, satisfying both left and right as liberals gain an expansion of the welfare state and conservatives see more security spending.

• A broad oil boycott hasn鈥檛 happened yet - and it鈥檚 unclear who is going to be imposing the boycott - but if Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for US sanctions boycotting Iranian oil, oil prices would skyrocket and you could count this one, too.

A few that are about halfway there:

• Paul says some 鈥渕oderate Arab allies鈥� will be overthrown by 鈥淚slamic fundamentalists.鈥� While revolutions have come, they have not come at the hands of Islamic fundamentalists in most cases. Time will tell what governments emerge, but for this he鈥檚 perhaps half right.

• China will 鈥渁lign itself with the Arab nations鈥� through arm sales and political support, Paul argues. Generally the US and China end up on opposite sides of Middle East issues - particularly Libya, for example - but Paul makes this connection seem that it will be much more forward than it currently is.

• 鈥淭丑别 Karzai government will fail and the United States will be forced to leave Afghanistan.鈥� While the US is on the way out, you can鈥檛 say the Karzai government has actually 鈥渇ailed鈥� - it still stands, though many critics would say it is so riven with corruption as to be largely ineffective.聽

• 鈥淎n international dollar crisis will dramatically boost interest rates in the US. Price inflation with a major economic downturn will decimate US goverment finances and exploding deficits and uncontrolled spending.鈥� Those higher interest rates may be coming, but for now the US isn鈥檛 in a dollar crisis and interest rates are at historic lows. However, deficits have grown.

• 鈥淕old will be seen as an alternative to paper money as it returns to its historic role as money.鈥� Gold prices have soared but it isn鈥檛 anywhere near returning to its 鈥渉istoric role.鈥�

Why does all this matter?

In terms of his beliefs about how the world functions, it鈥檚 not hard to say that Paul is in a class by himself among the current GOP field in terms of his consistency.

As Shortformblog from (BuzzFeed鈥檚 Andrew Kaczynski), John McCain鈥檚 2008 presidential campaign wrote the book on Mitt Romney鈥檚 changes of heart. Whether you think those alterations in Romney鈥檚 positions are real or not, they are definitely less stalwart than what Ron Paul has achieved over his long political career.