Ron Paul?
Ron Paul?
What do you think about Ron Paul? Was he the hope and dream of our movement or just a republican quack?
The entire libertarian movement is a republican quack.
I'll die on this hill
I don't know exactly who this Ron Paul is but I really hate it when the libertarian philosophy is being reduced to a political agenda even more to an american one. Of course, one has to appreciate the important influences from america but libertariansim is by far more than that.
I liked Ron Paul. I didn't always agree with him, but he had principles that he stood by and fought for. He was one of the few people in DC fighting the Bush forever-war surveillance-state in the years after 9/11.
I lost all hope for the Republican party when I saw the crowd at the Republican primary debate in 08 (iirc) boo him for saying that the Golden Rule (do unto others as you would have others do unto you) should apply to international relations.
He was ultimately a Don Quixote figure. Nobody wants a libertarian state. The right wants authoritarianism, the Dems want crony capitalism, the progressives want socialism or social democracy. He was shouting into the wind about freedom and privacy, the public shrugged, and the two parties established a surveillance state and dragged us into a twenty year quagmire.
I think Ron Paul was pretty inspirational to me at one point. Recently, I wonder whether he's just another Russian shill.
Yeah. I'm pretty disappointed with his more recent statements and actions.
But he was at one point very inspirational to me as well. People change, so I'm just going to attribute his latter behaviors with getting older and losing his mind/principles.