Truckernomics
columnist: Billy Joe

Topic: Ron Paul
tReason Magazine goes to the Dark Side

---

The guardians of libertarian puritanism throw Ron Paul overboard.

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by Billy Joe
(libertarian)
Saturday, January 12, 2008

Update: see bottom for correspondence with Matt Welch

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act." -George Orwell 

The highest circulation libertarian periodical in America has joined the racist smear dog-pile on Ron Paul, or maybe they started it. It seems pretty damn suspicious Kirchick went out of his way to absolve The "libertines" at Reason and the "urbane libertarians" at Cato from any connection to Dr. No in his original TNR hitpiece. CATO is a beltway think tank. Both Cato and Reason have said from the beginning that Dr. Paul "can't win," so now they have a huge incentive to try to make their predictions come true. Funny also how the newsletters were unearthed from the Univesity of Kansas library, the university where Charles Koch, CATO funder, is a major patron.

They also guarantee themselves facetime on every cable news program in the country where they can spin their cowardly abandonment of the most pro-freedom candidate in decades as independence. They are so pure, that for them any libertarian candidate pragmatic enough to get elected is not idealistic enough to be worthy of office. The are shocked, SHOCKED to discover that the dumb things printed in old Ron Paul newsletters--things they have been aware of for months if not years-- were actually not ALL of the dumb things.

What's different about the new revelations? The context! Candidate Paul is gaining traction, so now his decades-old, well aired editorial lapse of judgement is evidence that he is dangerous, not quaint. But wait, if he can't win, why is he so dangerous?

Letting a bunch of xenophobic rot appear in his old newsletters actually does reveal something about Ron Paul. It reveals that he faults on the side of trusting people too much, rather than not enough. As a publisher, he foolishly trusted his editor to actually edit. Letting this go on for years is evidence that he is too tolerant of people and ideas he does not agree with. He has insufficient support for the thought police that keep this country on the track it is on. He naively believes that exposing people to unpopular ideas is beneficial, not harmful and that people can detect faulty resoning for themselves.

It's a good thing he can't win.

"Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good."

-Ecclesiastes 9:18

RonPaulisWrong.Com

Matt:

Thanks for the correction. I will make the approriate
changes.

I look forward to Reason covering the story of the
NAACP defending Dr. Paul.

-Joe

--- Matt Welch wrote:

> Dear Joe,
>
> Thanks for the e-mail.
>
> We didn't do an about-face on Paul, we aren't based
> in New York, and
> judging by the response to our work so far from
> Paul-supporting
> libertarians, there's a ton of people out there who
> *do* find those
> newsletters newsworthy to some degree.
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
> William Allen wrote:
> > This total about face on Ron Paul doesn't seem
> > reasonable. What candidate can live up to your
> > standards? Why are you alienating so many of your
> > readers?? What other candidate could you possibly
> say
> > supports "free minds and free markets"?
> >
> > I am starting to think that Adolf Ghouliani got to
> you
> > guys somehow. You guys are in New York, right?
> >
> > BTW, How the hell did Julie get the endorsement
> from
> > Pat Robertson?? A thrice married gun grabbing big
> > government pro-choice New Yorker! I am not a
> paranoid
> > Truther, but something smells sinister here.
> >
> > These old newsletters are not going to get
> traction
> > because it's not newsworthy, timely or relavent
> and
> > you are discrediting yourselves as a legitimate
> > libertarian news organization.
> >
> > I trust Dr. Paul when he says he is not a racist-
> more
> > than I trust you when you claim to be libertarian.
> >
> > -Joe Allen

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©2008 Billy Joe, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Saturday, January 12, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, January 17, 2008

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