Here’s one example. And I remember when Dick Armey came to DC in 1985. He talked about Austrian economics, libertarianism, and Ron Paul. He was going to stick to his Texas principles, and not go along to get along. He even slept on the couch in his office, to show how different he was. But it was not long before he “grew in office,” in the DC phrase for selling out. Then came the front-page ode to Dick in the neocon Wall Street Journal. Armey was a promising young man who had learned that just opposing was a dead end. You had to be practical. You had to work within the system. The WSJ even praised him for getting a nice apartment. Soon Dick was in the leadership, talking a libertarianesque game while expanding the state. Then he became a rich lobbyist. He’s not unusual, of course. It’s Ron Paul who’s the unique one.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.