Jacob: Gary Johnson’s comments are a reminder that, with libertarian thinking in the ascendancy — and, thanks to Ron Paul, in the popular mind — there will be all kinds of politically-ambitious people eager to take that label and twist it into one form or another of a statist program. Wanting to end the drug war, standing by itself, is not sufficient. Let’s not forget how the socialists were able to take the concept “liberal” and corrupt it into an ideology that, today, bears almost no similarity to classical liberalism. The burden will be upon each person to analyze the substance of what another advocates, a task made unavoidable by the slippery nature of labels.

The Best of Butler Shaffer