Ardent constitutionalist, Texas congressmen and presidential candidacy hopeful Ron Paul, R-Texas, spoke about the freedoms of unrestrained personal liberty, small government, low taxes and an American Constitution that has been disrespected.

He addressed a filled South Ballroom at the Memorial Union on Thursday. Paul, also a physician, has served in Texas’ 14th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1997, and on the House Financial Services Committee, the International Relations Committee and the Joint Economic Committee.

“Iowa is a good example of what the founders intended with the caucuses, letting the people speak out about their government,” Paul said.

As a Libertarian constitutionalist, Paul fumed about the current administrations’ “disrespect of the Constitution,” including regulations on free trade and the Internet, the neo-conservative planned and executed Iraq war, the rapid inflation of domestic imports and the decreasing American dollar in the global economy.

“Times have changed, and we no longer really respect the Constitution, but when we ignore small parts of the Constitution, there really is nothing left,” Paul said. “I hear plenty of people in Washington disrespecting the Constitution, saying that this part doesn’t apply, that this part is anarchistic.”

Paul spent a large portion of his speech on the current political climate of an empowered Executive Branch over the Legislative Branch, with presidents writing laws and declaring war without the consent of Congress, and that “only Congress can declare war, and only if they thought it to be very important,” he said.

Paul believes Bush broke constitutional law when he invaded Iraq, saying he “ignored this prohibition to not go to war,” without congressional authorization.

“The lead-up to the Iraq invasion illegally and unconstitutionally transferred this power [to go to war] to the president. The Congress should decide. I had a lot of information available to me that said the intelligence was false. There was no evidence of any threat, and that is what people from the CIA told me,” Paul said.

A large point of his speech focused on the “maximum amount of personal freedom, minimum amount of government” staples of Libertarian values and a free market economy.

“I don’t believe in minority rights, women’s rights or gay rights. I think there should just be personal rights and everyone should be left alone,” Paul said.

Andy Heriot, of Bemidji, Minn., traveling with his parents to visit Iowa State, attended the speech, saying that he had heard Paul speak before.

“I thought he was a phenomenal speaker, I think that hearing him speak is the modern day equivalent to hearing Thomas Jefferson speak,” Heriot said.