Chris:  The neocons and other establishment voices don’t dare credit — or even mention — Ron Paul in connection with the collapse of people’s support for statism.  Ron, the Austrian school, LRC, and a host of other individuals, express a principled, coherent criticism of political systems.  Their ideas might be infectious, resulting in a widespread,  fundamental re-questioning of how societies ought to be organized.  They must be isolated; quarantined; kept marginalized. Most of the Tea Party people, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, et al. can work the language of “liberty” into their rhetoric: even Ronald Reagan referred to himself as a “libertarian.”  But beneath the superficiality of their sloganizing can be found the same firm attachment to corporate-state policies expressed by all statists.

The Best of Butler Shaffer