It will take the libertarian movement a long time to live down the Paul campaign

[KingOrfeo]

I never expected that, when Ron Paul for the first time in his career got near enough to the prize to warrant serious background investigation, he would prove to be such a repellent person. Nor that he would be surrounded at all public events by such repellent people. Nor that what we've always thought of as "libertarianism" (at least, GOP-factional libertarianism, as distinct from Libertarian-Party libertarianism) would come to be so deeply, inextricably associated with racism and border-hawkishness and paleoconservatism and even, it somehow seems at times, social-religious conservatism! It's almost like the intellectual-nerd Libertarian Party and the Dumbfuckistani Tea Party turning out to be really the same thing after all! After this, it's going to take the libertarian movement a long time to live down Paul's campaign and image. Rand Paul had better hide his head from now on, the name is poisoned.

Not for nothing did Paul make the Buffalo Beast's "50 Most Loathsome Americans of 2011":

23) Ron Paul
Crimes: More free market Muppet than man, Paul’s libertarianism is a deeply schizophrenic ideology wherein personal freedom trumps everything — especially personal freedom. Whether it’s regulating women’s uteri under the pretense of “state’s rights,” defending sexual harassers, or hypothetically voting against the Civil Rights Act, Paul’s positions display bewildering lack of intellectual coherence. Most grating (aside from his horrifically racist and homophobic eponymous newsletter, or that he’s a doctor who doesn’t understand evolution), he’s managed to posture as an economic populist, despite the fact that his Randroid quest to eliminate government is the stuff of which oligarchies are made. But he would, like, totally legalize weed, dude.
Smoking Gun: “The notion of a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution or the writings of our Founding Fathers.”
Sentence: Separated indefinitely from “The Precious.”

 

[richard_daily]

What ever happened to Ross Perot?

 

[KingOrfeo]

What ever happened to Ross Perot?

I think the Horns of Elfland called him home.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

Libertarians always attract people pregnant with Elvis' babies.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Perversely, all this is just after the Pew Center released its 2011 Pew Political Typlogy, which now considers "Libertarians" numerous enough to warrant their own typology category, comprising 9% of the general public and 10% of registered voters. But I suspect that includes a lot of people who find Paul as embarrassing as anyone else does.

 

[LJ_Reloaded]

I think the Horns of Elfland called him home.

Ross Perot was quite right about free trade, though.

We wouldn't be in any of this mess if we'd listened to him.

 

[unregistered]

 

[KingOrfeo]

Ross Perot was quite right about free trade, though.

We wouldn't be in any of this mess if we'd listened to him.

But, wouldn't his position on that be the opposite of a libertarian's?

 

[KingOrfeo]

I mentioned to Eyer that Paul has greatly damaged the libertarian cause, especially with his wacko foreign policy. Your mistake in making the Tea Party the equivalent, will prove itself in the next election.

So far as I can tell from their signs, rhetoric, etc., Tea Partiers don't have any foreign policy.

 

[Wok]

So far as I can tell from their signs, rhetoric, etc., Tea Partiers don't have any foreign policy.

I disagree. The non-Paul Tea Party faction is hawkish.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Sean Renaud]

The Tea Party doesn't have a foreign policy and nor should it. Having a foreign policy would prove that they aren't what they claim to be. A party about government spending and taxation.

 

[rosco rathbone]

I think he's going to pass the torch to his son, the most dangerous man in AMerican politics. Rand Paul will figure out how to bridge the teapublican/paulite divide.

 

[richard_daily]

I mentioned to Eyer that Paul has greatly damaged the libertarian cause, especially with his wacko foreign policy. Your mistake in making the Tea Party the equivalent, will prove itself in the next election.

Already giving up on this election, huh?


hahahah

 

[richard_daily]

I disagree. The non-Paul Tea Party faction is hawkish.

Wars for thee, but not for me.

 

[KingOrfeo]

I disagree. The non-Paul Tea Party faction is hawkish.

Well, there's nothing hawkish, nor dovish, nor in any way acknowledging the existence of foreign countries, in the "Contract from America."

 

[Wok]

Well, there's nothing hawkish, nor dovish, nor in any way acknowledging the existence of foreign countries, in the "Contract from America."

I guess you missed the part about exceptionalism.

 

[KingOrfeo]

I guess you missed the part about exceptionalism.

American exceptionalism is a silly and regrettable thing, but not inherently hawkish nor dovish. It could be used to argue for interventionism or for isolationism.

 

[Wok]

American exceptionalism is a silly and regrettable thing, but not inherently hawkish nor dovish. It could be used to argue for interventionism or for isolationism.

Yeah, it is hawkish. 'Do as we say, or else. See, look at us!'

 

[KingOrfeo]

Yeah, it is hawkish. 'Do as we say, or else. See, look at us!'

A City on a Hill, pouring its industrial wastes downhill . . .

 

[3rdparty]

I would sleep better with him as prez than the rest of the elects. They all carry damnable traits, but only one campaigns against privacy infringemets

 

[KingOrfeo]

I would sleep better with him as prez than the rest of the elects. They all carry damnable traits, but only one campaigns against privacy infringemets

But, he also campaigns against the Federal Reserve. He's nuckin' futs.

 

[FloridaSmoothie]

Perversely, all this is just after the Pew Center released its 2011 Pew Political Typlogy, which now considers "Libertarians" numerous enough to warrant their own typology category, comprising 9% of the general public and 10% of registered voters. But I suspect that includes a lot of people who find Paul as embarrassing as anyone else does.

And Obama and the Dems aren't embarrassing!?

 

[KingOrfeo]

And Obama and the Dems aren't embarrassing!?

No, they're not. You can tell by the international reactions. America is a lot more popular now than it was under W.

The Tea Party, now, that's internationally embarrassing. OWS, OTOH, has inspired international copycats. That's a good way to tell what's embarrassing and what isn't.

 

[KingOrfeo]

But, he also campaigns against the Federal Reserve. He's nuckin' futs.

And he's got Gingrich copying him now!