[SeekAndFind]

Author concludes:

Ron Paul may be delusional, but he is a consistent. Neither mass murder, terrorism, the advance of militant Islam, nor nuclear weapons in the hands of fanatical regimes will shake a libertarian’s faith in his dogma: We have no foreign enemies. If certain states want to kill us, it’s our fault. Nothing is worth fighting for — unless it’s abolishing the Federal Reserve System.

[Leep]

If you believe its ok for adults to choose to use “street” drugs then there should be a way for those same drug users to sign off on receiving any medical related health issues that result from that use.
Then I would say legalize all drugs.
In other words the philosophy sounds good on paper but the reality is something quite different. Its the same problem I have with modern liberalism.

[A_perfect_lady]

Consistency is a virtue until it becomes inconvenient. Then, suddenly, it’s time to quote Emerson.

[baddog 219]

[servantboy777]

>>legalized abortion, freedom to use soul-destroying drugs<<

Abortion is already legal in this country, that was not Paul.

Freedom to use soul-destroying drugs...you mean, like alcohol?

POT..KETTLE..BLACK

[marktwain]

I was a Libertarian for decades, before reality caused me to stop supporting the party. The problem with Liberterianism is that some of its basic assumptions are at odds with reality. One of the assumptions is that “everyone is the same all over the world”, when the reality is that no, everyone is different all over the world. That assumption is what drives Ron Paul to say that the Iranians want the bomb because in their situation, we would too. Of course, in a very general way, he is correct, but he fails to see that the Iranians have a completely different world view and assumptions from Americans, and many of the leadership's assumptions include that the world would be a better place if America did not exist, no matter what our foreign policy was.

It is the same problem with open borders. Open your borders and let enough people in who have not assimilated into American society, and America will cease to exist as a free society.

Libertarians have this vision that all people all over the world are really libertarians under the skin. It is simply not true.

[MtBaldy]

Good read. It won’t matter at all to the Paultards.

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Ron Paul's libertarianism? Old technology. Introducing the new libertarianism: Obama/Cass Sunstein total nuthouse Stalinist libertarianism.

libertarian paternalism

I don't want to miss the opportunity to mention what the behavioral economists loosed upon us by Obama are doing; to wit, the czars and their fetters.

Obama's regulatory czar Cass R. Sunstein writes:

"The idea of libertarian paternalism might seem to be an oxymoron, but it is both possible and legitimate for private and public institutions to affect behavior while also respecting freedom of choice."

more..

"Often people's preferences are ill-formed . . . In these circumstances, a form of paternalism cannot be avoided [to overcome the decision-makers' limited knowledge and just plain stupidity otherwise known as] bounded rationality . . . libertarian paternalists should attempt to steer people's choices in welfare-promoting directions without eliminating freedom of choice . . . It is also possible to show how a libertarian paternalist might select among the possible options and to assess how much choice to offer." [End of quotes]

IOW Cass R. Sunstein and the Obamanists decide the options from among which you are permitted to choose. You get to be a libertarian! and they get to be the slave masters. What a deal!

[nathanbedford]

Believing they alone are possessed of the ultimate key to understanding the way humans are or should be organized, Marxist deny the legitimacy of the nationstate and would impose their own new system of rule, not according to national lines, but according to an economic doctrine.

Libertarians are likewise convinced of their unique apprehension of the key to everything. They believe that the organizing principle should be individual liberty and the economic outworking of untrammeled commerce done by free individuals. To the degree that a nationstate imposes limitations and requirements on individuals and obstructs their freedom, the nationstate is illegitimate, except in extremely limited circumstances.

Since Ron Paul lives in America, he discusses the illegitimacy of the nation in which he lives. It is not so much that Ron Paul blames America first, he blames the institution of the nationstate first and he happens to live in the most powerful nation state on earth.

At this gut level the libertarian is no less a revolutionary than the Bolshevik except that the libertarian will not resort to violence to do away with the nationstate. He does not fear the takeover of the nationstate by the Bolsheviks because he believes that his organizing principle must ultimately and inevitably prevail so there is no use shedding blood to obtain that which will come anyway.

Likewise, he does not fear sharia because it is built on a false foundation, a false organizing principle which must, like communism, give way to the greater truth owned by Libertarians.

[elhombrelibre]

Feder points out something I've been saying about Run Paul's worldview. It's essentially dumbed down Ayn Randianism, not views she held. It's also an escapist outlook that allows its believers to live outside the difficult choices that must be made in the real world.

[blueunicorn6]

Libertarians - Democrats who don’t want to pay any taxes, but are OK with you paying taxes.

[rellimpank]

—bflr—

[mjp]

Inspired by Ayn Rand (Ron named his son, the future senator, Rand Paul)

Ayn Rand considered evasion of reality as the greatest vice a person could have. Paul evades the fact that Moslims are committed to a policy that will harm the freedom and natural rights of Americans. Islam by nature has the ultimate goal of global Islamic theocracy which is an affront to reason and objectivity. Reason and objectivity which are the things that Ayn Rand most admired.

[raccoonradio]

I've heard in the past that Ayn Rand was not the inspiration for Rand Paul's name. I know we can't always trust Wikipedia but the entry for Rand Paul gives his birth name as "Randal", he went by "Randy" growing up and his wife shortened it to Rand. Who knows.

Years ago I heard "Libertarians are Republicans who want to legalize pot"...

[JohnKinAK]

The roots of American Libertarianism doesn’t go to the 1960’s............American libertarianism finds its roots in the 1770s. Only a Big Government Statist would try to tie it to 1960s radicals as opposed to the likes of George Washington. Libertarian thought gave us our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights. Big Government Statists are destroying our Constitution. America’s founders well understood that a government’s power can be used to destroy as well as to protect; that when government uses force against its own peaceful citizens, it becomes just another criminal gang. We live in an age where every Government Agency has a highly armed SWAT team at the ready to enforce it’s will.

We currently live in a mobocracy were we argue over which Mob Boss should be elected our Supreme Boss. I no longer have any hope for the Federal Govt, it is so thoroughly corrupt that it is beyond rehabilitation. My hope now lies at the State and Local level, which is the level at which the American Libertarian thought first started back in the 1770s.

[Redleg Duke]

I really admire “Atlas Shrugged”, but in no way am I a libertarian.

[freespirited]

Ron named his son, the future senator, Rand Paul

I don't think Rand was named for Ayn Rand. His full name is Randall but like a lot of people, he uses a shortened version of his name.

[hedgetrimmer]

What do you have to get to understand to get the globalists’ insanity? I’m really curious.

[righttackle44]

The craziest man I personally have known in my life was a Libertarian. It was more than enough when he told me other believed the same things he did. If they believe as he did, then they are truly nuts.

[Freedom_Is_Not_Free]

Rats! The author focuses on foreign policy to the near exclusion of all else. I was hoping to read what Libertarians believe on taxes, government, education, gun control, transportation, tariffs and free trade, banking, offshoring, welfare, government support of the arts, etc.

The article let me down. Shame.