Does Ron and Rand Paul Hate What Ronald Reagan Stood For? (Vanity)

I read the following (italicized) from the New York Young Republican Club this afternoon on another Thread here on Free Republic.

Ron Paul is proud of his friendship with the late Murray Rothbard, an economist of the “Austrian” school.... Paul and Rothbard shared an affinity for sound money (i.e., gold) and a disdain for the Federal Reserve System.... Rothbard, among conservatives, is mostly known for two things: 1) His authoring of a hate piece against Ronald Reagan, entitled “Ronald Reagan: Warmonger,” published in 1983, in which he roundly criticized Reagan’s policies for fighting the Cold War in South America (specifically El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) and other aspects of his foreign policy.

So, Ron Paul's close buddy, Murray Rothbard, hated Ronald Reagan. It's so strange because I had just read, earlier today, that Ayn Rand, after whom Ron Paul's son, Rand, was named, also hated Reagan.

I wonder if it's a case of "Like father; like son" with Ron and Rand Paul. I wonder if Rand admires and has buddies who hate/hated Ronald Reagan? Anyone who considers Ronald Reagan to be an enemy, is my enemy.

Based on what I know (including memory of his presidency), Reagan had the following tripartite belief system, united by his belief in the dignity of the individual as God's highest creation:

1. Economic freedom. Government intervention in the economy is almost always a mistake, period.

2. Traditional mores. By the time he ran for president in 1976 he was pro-life to the core. He was for returning prayer to the schools (something, BTW, we never hear about any more). He loved America because America was worth our love and sacrifice, and wasn't ashamed to say so.

3. Anti-communism. Communism was both a threat to America's continued existence and to the rights and dignity of people all over the world. It had to be defeated.

So what would he make of some of our modern controversies? How would he have reacted to 9/11? Devastating retaliation to be sure, but would he have tried to do all the democracy-building, à la Pres. Bush? I think he did believe that liberty was the aspiration of all people, which experience has taught me is probably not true. But the Cold War was central to his foreign-policy vision, and I don't know what he would've wanted to do with American power in a post-Soviet world.

Gay marriage? Such a thing would have been unimaginable in 1989 when he left office, so I'm not sure it's possible to conclude anything from his writings and speeches. He might have accepted it as a matter of state law on federalist grounds. But he might also have viewed it as a violation of God's law, and therefore unacceptable. Would he have made it a central issue, the way abortion and school prayer were for him? Who knows?

He almost certainly would have been anti-amnesty (which may be a minority view now), because the law matters, and he was burned in 1986. But he wasn't worried about immigration per se, the "invasion," the way some nativists have been in the last two decades. I think he saw legal immigration as a validation of the American idea.

I know in his day he opposed "socialized medicine," and I think he would've thought the ACA a profound threat to the American experiment. He'd probably campaign energetically for full repeal, and replacement with something far more market-oriented. He'd be disappointed, I think, with the increasing get-along-to-go-along attitude and lack of vision of the current GOP. This would have been huge for him.

Other people who remember his public life may have different interpretations, and I'd be glad to hear them.

No matter whether Rand and/or Ron Paul hates Ronald Reagan it is clear to me that both of the Paul’s and Ronald Reagan are not cut from the same conservative cloth. Far from it. Even if one were to try and lump both Paul’s version of Republicanism together they still would not come anywhere close to measuring up to Reagan(s appeal) and his brand of Conservatism, IMO. Reagan had a much broader appeal that the American people admired and appreciated. The Pauls appeal is mainly among liberaltarians and liberal Republicans.

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