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January 2, 2008 1:37 PM

Atlas shuddered: A libertarian's critique of Ron Paul

I was surprised by the cover of the latest issue of The New Individualist, a libertarian magazine that comes to the office from the Atlas Society.

Inside the magazine (not available online) is one of the most scathing reviews I’ve read of Ron Paul’s stands on the issues. And it comes from someone who’s not opposed to Paul’s libertarian philosophy. It’s the details that bother Stephen Green.

He only discredits the cause of liberty by associating it with his own weird and dangerous brand of utopianism.
And I find that abominable.

Green blogs as the “Vodkapundit” and describes himself as a libertarian, but only with the lower case “l”. In the article, he says Paul, a Republican congressman from Texas, “combines some of the worst instincts of the Republicans with some of the nuttiest ideas of the Libertarians.”

He goes after one of Paul’s key claims to being a different sort of politician. Green says that Paul has won earmarks in the federal budget, including for finding and marketing American shrimp. Paul says he’s never voted for anything not specifically authorized by the Constitution.

How does Paul justify the shrimp pork? Green says by getting the money into the budget but then voting against the budget on the floor of the House.

Green covers Paul’s stand on the economy, trade, immigration and foreign policy, which he hits at hardest. Paul preaches a strict policy of non-intervention, wants a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and has been critical of domestic U.S. intelligence work.

It’s interesting too that when it comes to immigrants, he says, “The economic, cultural, and political situation was very different 100 years ago,” and thus open borders are no longer feasible. Yet he’s unwilling to admit that, just maybe, a high-tech, continental superpower of 300,000,000 people might require a foreign policy different from that of the fragile coastal nation of 3,000,000 farmers in George Washington’s time. In the weird world of Ron Paul, immigration policy should be permitted to change with the current political winds; but a retiring president set our foreign policy forever in stone in 1796.

Green says Paul's views are silly but ultimately dangerous.

The comparison between Paul’s view on immigration and foreign policy — one has to change with the times, the other doesn’t — was particularly interesting to read because I’ve thought that one of Paul’s big attractions this year is his consistent world-view. That’s what, in part, makes him look wacky to some. Most mainstream politicians pick and choose from the libertarian menu. Republicans may agree that the Endangered Species Act should be abolished, but how many think drugs should be made legal? Democrats would endorse the candidate’s Iraq plan, but not his desire to repeal Roe v. Wade.

Green has given a more strenuous reading to Paul’s platform than I have. But still, I sense that a lot of Paul’s supporters will not swayed by any perceived or proved inconsistencies. That doesn’t seem to cost other candidates their true believers, so why should it matter to what the editor of The Individualist calls the Ron-uluns or Paulistinians.

Green may have underestimated the movement that has allowed Paul to raise so much money. In a 2003 interview at an Ayn Rand fan site, Green was asked by The Atlasphere:

You’ve described yourself as a "small-L" libertarian. What do you think about the libertarian movement in the United States?

Green: Ah, there’s not a movement. Not really. Compared to, say, the Green party — which is very motivated, very well structured, and increasingly effective — there’s no libertarian movement. It’s like trying to herd cats. I mean, so much of what libertarians in general believe has to do with individualism.

You know, I don’t think we’ll ever make for much of a movement. I don’t mean we’re doomed to fail. But as a movement, no — I don’t see us ever becoming a major single force.

Paul’s backers do not yet represent a “major single force.” But somehow the great individualists have acted collectively to finance Paul’s long-shot campaign. W’ll see over the next few weeks of actual voting how long it can sustain itself.

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Posted by JimD

6:08 PM, Jan 02, 2008

I wonder if much of Paul's support is similar to Huckabee's -- ya' just like the guy for defying conventional wisdom. Few truly believe either will become the nominee, but supporting either one is a provocative, anti-establishment "F&%$ YOU!" to the candidate - and the political machine behind them - that will.
Huckabee's leading with virtually no budget or organization.
Paul's supporters have sent him more money than he knows what to do with.
Could the anti-politics message be any clearer?

Posted by Michael C

10:03 PM, Jan 02, 2008

If this "writer" actually new what Paul stood for, he would never write such tripe. I've never subscribed to This Individualist magazine nor will I ever. I have a feeling this issue will cause quite a few subscription cancelations, as there doesn't seem to be anything remotely related to Libertarianism or Freedom in it's pages.

Posted by Kemp

10:59 PM, Jan 02, 2008

Foolishness personified.

These "individuals" should be ashamed for bashing the lightening rod for the first mass liberty movement in our country in the past century.

Ridiculous.

Economic freedom, individual rights, individual liberty, limited government, anti-plunder, pro-rule-of-law; do these concepts mean nothing to this "man".

Posted by Gregory Richards

11:25 PM, Jan 02, 2008

Living on Mercer Island, I can say first hand that Ron Paul enjoys HUGE support around the Seattle area.

I contend that you media heads are grossly underestimating the grass-roots support for Dr. Paul. Everywhere I go I see Ron Paul signs and only Ron Paul signs, and mostly home made at that. He is the most talked about name I hear anymore.

My friend is a publisher for ROKON Magazine in Seoul Korea; he tells me that he thought Paul was the only one running, and that the American soldiers were requesting articles about him. I was playing an online video game with a gentleman in Pakistan the other night. He was staying in his house because of rioting outside. He asked me if I knew who Ron Paul was… I did. He told me that he is the focus of many a conversation there lately. They see Ron Paul as a logical humanitarian, and I think he’s right.

Coming from a large military community, a US Army Veteran myself, I am only hearing two names from military friends and family, Hero John McCain and Patriot Ron Paul. The conversations seem to heavily favor Ron Paul. As an Engineer, I travel frequently. In technology sector circles, every political conversation I hear includes Ron Paul. Not that they all favored Dr. Paul, but more he was the gage against which the issues are debated.

I would wager that more teenagers know of Ron Paul, than George Washington. He has received donations from more individual voters, than all the other republican candidates combined in Q4. That’s why I predict Ron Paul will place third or better in Iowa, and first place in New Hampshire.

Authentic, humble and honest, Dr. Paul stands out as an intellectual giant amongst his status-quo peers. He is now the Rock Star celebrity of American politics, do in part the obvious bias against him in the media. We American’s love underdogs and that will be weighing heavily in Dr. Paul’s favor come Election Day. It has become popular to donate to Ron Paul. It’s like he is putting on a rock concert, and the tickets are selling out. -Fast!

Consider if political campaigns were businesses making IPO, Paul’s campaign would be The Darling of Wall Street. His quarterly revenue growth curve is unmatched, and with 135,000 separate donors in the last quarter alone, its potential is off the charts!

“Hedge your bets gentleman. Expect the unexpected from Patriot Ron Paul tomorrow, I certainly do!”

Gregory Richards
Http://gregoryrichards.net

Posted by E Pluribus Michael

11:33 PM, Jan 02, 2008

Kooky cover. He should have used that cover for their Halloween edition. I hope Congressman Paul gets a look at it, he loves a good laugh.

This idiot is just trolling for some energized attention. He knows us Ron-uluns will get him some looks. I have a retarded cousin that does freaky shit when he is not getting the attention he thinks he needs. Same thing here.

Pay him no attention, he'll fade back into oblivion.

Posted by Dan Farrington

2:15 AM, Jan 03, 2008

Does Green know that the money that Congressman Paul earmarks has already been budgeted, and if he doesn't choose where it goes, an unelected bureaucrat will put the money wherever he pleases?

Paul advocates that the government shouldn't be taking all that tax money to begin with but, since they're taking it anyway and he can't stop it, it's his duty as a Congressman to bring as much of his district's tax money back to them.

Posted by AFarmer

2:38 AM, Jan 03, 2008

Stephen Green is an uninformed ASS, which is why he's destined to remain in obscurity. I'm surprised he can sustain himself with such trash. Perhaps one day he can get that huge promotion to "writing" for the National Enquirer. Stephen is proof that a "literate" idiot is still an idiot!

Posted by cindy Mulvey

11:39 AM, Jan 03, 2008

I think you have a dangerous opinion.

He is the only one not supporting war, and you SAY Ron Is dangerous.
Our money system is corrupt we need a change, you guys have a magazine where is your money going.
We do see where money is spent the MEDIA, the New World Sytem
I guess it is the God of this world is money and YOU support it Change support Ron Paul 2008 is our need, to set us free.
We sustain life, we carry on.

Posted by blathering michael

2:45 PM, Jan 03, 2008

Why in the hell has no attention been given by the legacy media to the support Ron Paul has and has long curried from the extreme far right?

Dave Neiwert and Sara Robinson at Orcinus have written extensively about Paul's "friends on the farthest right edges -- the tax patriots, "sovereign citizens," and proto-fascists who have supported him from the beginning and are supporting him still."

David Duke endorses him, as does Stormfront, the white supremicist home on the Web. These are people who are against the Iraq war because they view it as a Jewish neoconservative conspiracy, yet Paul hasn't renounced them or distanced himself from them in any public way.

Does this matter to anyone besides me? Why do perfectly sane liberals and otherwise rational conservatives even entertain the candidacy of this scary little guy.

Posted by jimD

3:44 PM, Jan 03, 2008

Because most of them are simply registering a "protest support". Paul (and Huckabee, who's equally scary on some social issues) are vehicles by which the disenfranchised can kick the conventional establishment in the azz.
They're engaging in anti-support of the other candidates and the old-school political machines they represent. For the time being at least, racists, homophobes and anti-Semites are excused as "my enemy's enemy" - so powerful is the dissatisfaction with politicians as usual right now.

Posted by Hinton

8:49 PM, Jan 03, 2008

Why.... why.... where's the Paulbearers? Why so quiet? That 6th place finish GALVANIZE you? The proof that you're living in a dream world help you here?

Posted by Publicbulldog

10:33 PM, Jan 03, 2008

I see the Iowa R's have given the nod to god and Huckabee.There is no chance I will vote for him.
I will vote for Obama to put an end to the R's madness. Ron Paul was their only chance to get my vote,I knew all along the Religious dorks would come out in force and push another religious hack to the forefront.No surprise here.
I will have no choice but to slip into the D's tent and vote for Obama over God.

Posted by Publicbulldog

8:58 AM, Jan 04, 2008

John, You will not agree with all that I say here, but I think you will agree with some of it. -- Uncle Duane

TOO MANY "CHRISTIANS" ARE DUMB VOTERS
By Duane V. Maxey

Once again, professed Christians voters have shown how stupid they are as voters!

In the Iowa caucuses, swooning "Christian" voters swept former Arkansas Governor, Mike "The Huckster" Huckabee to a victory.

True, this is only a small beginning of a long Presidential Campaign, but it demonstrates how gullible Christian Voters often have been, and are.

Mike Huckabee is Pro-Illegal-Alien -- in favor of all sorts of leniency for those in this nation Illegally.

Mike Huckabee was guilty of all sorts of questionable, if not downright illegal, practices during his governorship in Arkansas.

Mike Huckabee's record clearly shows him to be a Liberal, not a Conservative.

Mike Huckabee is "in the hip pocket" of the CFR-Globalist conspirators who are even now building the North American Union. Until Huckabee spoke before the CFR, he was considered to be an unknown dolt, but after he "WOWED" the CFR with that speech, suddenly his political fortune zoomed to the front.

But, BECAUSE MIKE HUCKABEE IS A BAPTIST MINISTER AND PROFESSED CHRISTIAN, NONE OF THESE THINGS MATTERED TO DUPED AND STUPID "CHRISTIAN" VOTERS IN THE IOWA CAUCUSES!

"WE LIKE MIKE!" "WE LIKE MIKE!" "WE LIKE MIKE!" "WE LIKE MIKE!" THEY SHOUTED in the aftermath of his Iowa victory.

And WHY? Because "Mike" is "one of US!" and he will uphold Christian values in America! -- SO THEY FOOLISHLY THINK!

It is high-time Christians and Conservatives of all types got their heads screwed on straight!

If, one more time, professed Christians elect a Mike Huckabee, as they did George W. Bush, they are playing right into the hands of the CFR-Globalists and put a man in the White House, who in reality is a rank liberal who will betray many of their domestic issues and who will betray the sovereignty of this nation!

MIKE HUCKABEE WOULD CONTINUE TO PUSH THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION, THE LAWS OF WHICH WILL SUPERSEDE OUR U.S. LAWS!

"Oh, but Mike will oppose Abortion!"

"Oh, but Mike will oppose Gay Rights!"

"Oh but Mike will oppose anti-Christians!"

OH, BUT MIKE WILL SELL U.S. SOVEREIGNTY DOWN THE DRAIN -- AND THEN THE GLOBALIST POWERS WILL RULE AMERICA -- AND WILL:

(a) Make it illegal to oppose Abortion!

(b) Make it illegal to oppose Gay Rights!

(c) PERSECUTE CHRISTIANS AND PUSH THE AGENDA OF CHRIST-HATERS!

And this will happen if any of the "Top Tier" Republican Candidates is elected: either, Huckabee, Romney, Thompson or Guiliani, or McCain!

Our nation is in the process of being destroyed! LOSE OUR SOVEREIGNTY, AND WE LOSE ALL!

But, those pushing the Globalist Agenda want this fact kept in the background, and they are SO PLEASED THAT SO MANY "CHRISTIAN" VOTERS IN IOWA WERE SO STUPID!

Mark the words of this 70-year-old, retired preacher:

"IF OBAMA, HILLARY, HUCKABEE, ROMNEY (or any of the current, "Top Tier" Candidates) is elected President of the U.S.

(1) Millions of more Hispanics and OTM illegals will continue to flood into the U.S.

(2) The 4 HUGE SPP-NAU Corridors, linking Mexico with the U.S. and Canada will be built and operating no later than 2012-2020.

(3) By 2012-2020, the NORTH AMERICAN UNION BE THE RULING POWER OVER THE U.S.

(4) Those duped voters themselves, their children and their grandchildren will be subject to ALL OF THE EVILS FROM WHICH THEY THINK HUCKABEE WILL SAVE US!

WAKE UP! AMERICANS!

The issue at stake in the 2008 Election will be:

"WHETHER THIS NATION, OR ANY NATION, SO CONCEIVED, AND SO DEDICATED, CAN LONG ENDURE" with the very real threat of a subjugating North American Union just about to conquer us!

Generally, I do not like an email I receive to end with: "If you care about this, Please Pass It On!" This time, I am going to make that request: "IF YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT WHAT BECOMES OF THIS NATION AS THE RESULT OF THE 2008 ELECTION, PLEASE PASS THIS ON!"

If you are one of those who says: "God will take care of everything quite nicely without my participation," THEN YOU WILL HAVE NOBODY TO BLAME BUT YOURSELF WHEN YOUR RIGHT TO PREACH THE GOSPEL, OR EVEN READ THE BIBLE IN PUBLIC IS GONE.

Just the other day, a Seventh Day Adventist mother who was reading her Bible aloud to her children on a city bus going to church was asked to stop reading it. When she refused, she and her children were forced get off the bus!

MIKE HUCKABEE WILL NOT STOP THE MOVES IN THIS DIRECTION! BY ALLOWING THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION TO OVERRULE U.S. LAWS AND RIGHTS, HUCKABEE WILL BRING ABOUT THE NAU, THE LAWS OF WHICH WILL ADVANCE, NOT DEFEAT, THE AGENDA OF CHRIST-HATERS IN THIS LAND!

The Globalists pushing his candidacy know this, but apparently a number of duped "Christian" Voters in Iowa did not. Do YOU know it?

Posted by OhOh

11:52 AM, Jan 04, 2008

Oh you did it now Postman. You insulted the great god, Ron Paul. The Paultards will be out with pitchforks and torches.

Posted by JimD

10:30 PM, Jan 04, 2008

Ron Paul has as much chance of becoming president as Ron Popeil.
Both got folks to send them millions of dollars for something they thought would work.

Posted by torpal

11:24 PM, Jul 19, 2008

lol....this blog is so underread that we paultards couldn't even find it.

btw, how's the ex-neocon Barr doing for the Big "Ls"

as far as I'm concerned, I'll do everything I can, to damage Barr, and that piece of garbage running mate of his Wayne Allen Root.

Any respect I had for the Libertarian Party is in the shitter for the foreseeable future.

Stephen Green has done more harm to his fellow Big Ls then he can know.

3 months now of Barr promotion at the various RP sites, have shown almost no effect.

Had Green shown one iota of forethought, he would have realized that Paul was on a mission to educate, and many "in the know" realized far in advance that RP's chances of getting elected slim...but his chances of building a lasting core group of liberty minded individuals was quite high. Had The Libertarian Party at the very least, humored RP supporters early on, much less support them, they could have many of us RP supporters throwing our weight to Barr, now that RP's run has transitioned into a purely symbolic 'campaign for liberty'. But I've posted this little picture in all the right spots to remind everyone.

Fuck the Libertarian party. Individualists? Nah. Looks like a microcosm of good ole fashioned party politics. -Demonize the other guy.

fine by me.

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