It’s true that Ron supported the libertarian-sounding Reagan of 1976 against Rockefeller Republican Gerald Ford, but when Reagan was in office, Ron Paul battled his endless spending, deficits, and six tax increases. Reagan’s one, lonely tax cut, Ron did back, of course.
I’ll never forget the night when the president called Ron in his congresssional office, and tried to twist his arm about some murderous military boondoggle (the B1 bomber?). But Reagan soon learned what other Republican pols have learned, from Ford to Gingrich to Bush II: Ron Paul’s arm is not twistable. He cannot be pressured into doing what he believes to be wrong.
Even Reagan was not a “Reagan Republican” in the sense that term is used today, but a neocon. Besides, one has to be under 50–and Ron’s support is youth support–to have some significant involvement with Ronnie. For most young people, Reagan is as distant as John Quincy Adams. It is less inaccurate to call Ron a Taft Republican. But that won’t get any votes either.
Let’s face the fact, and the blessing, that Ron Paul is sui generis: he is the first Misesian-libertarian statesman in American and maybe world history. That is hardly a useful political slogan either! But Ron Paul is no Reagan, no Taft, no Goldwater; he is far better, and far more significant.
