Ron Paul and Drugs

One of George W.  Bush's lying propaganda phrases was "compassionate conservatism," another neocon disguise-term for the  welfare state, so destructive of society and so enriching and empowering of the power elite like the Bush crime family. But it struck me today, in thinking about Ron, that he exemplifies something real: compassionate libertarianism.

The Obama administration is moving, as Bush did, to try to outlaw medical marijuana. They hate and demonize California and other state nullification on pot, as they do any foreign country that refuses to bend the knee. It makes no difference, and Ron has spoken so movingly of this, of the good that pot can do for desperately ill people. It can't be patented by big pharma, and using it sticks a finger in the federal eye. So there are hundreds of thousands of innocents in government cages for using it, for medical reasons or recreation, which is also their right. God bless Ron Paul, the good physician, for being the one elected official to advocate the federal decriminalization of all substances, for wanting to treat adults as adults, and not as helots of prohibition. And he has taken this courageous stand for freedom and decency for 40 years.

Thanks to Ayn Rand, libertarians have the reputation of being hardhearted. It's not true, and Ron Paul--in so many ways--shows that. He is the Compassionate Libertarian.