Guess Who Was Called a Crank, and Who's Now a Covid Hero

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From the Tom Woods Letter:

There have been a lot of bad guys over the past year and a half.

But there have been good guys, too.

And there’s something interesting that the two best guys have in common (and it has to do with my subject line for today).

By my estimation, the best U.S. senator — by far — throughout this fiasco has been Rand Paul, and the best member of the House has been Rep. Thomas Massie.

Both have been excellent on lockdowns, masks, vaccines and vaccine passports. Both have pushed back against Fauci. Were it not for Rand, we probably wouldn’t know a thing about gain-of-function research and Wuhan.

Ain’t no way a product of the GOP establishment was going to come out swinging like Rand.

Mitt Romney standing up to Fauci? Don’t make me laugh.

John McCain standing up to Fauci? This is the guy who assured us he was learning about economics because he bought Alan Greenspan’s book — an indication of utter hopelessness if ever there were one.

Most Republican governors were horrendous through this ordeal.

But Rand Paul and Thomas Massie? A+ throughout.

Yes, both men represent Kentucky, but that’s incidental.

The key: both are products of the Ron Paul revolution.

Now let’s recall: when Ron Paul himself was running for president, both the media and the Republican establishment — and, to their eternal shame, some “conservatives” — ridiculed him. He’s a “crank”! We demand someone who will flatter us and speak in platitudes we recognize!

It was embarrassing.

Here was the man who, on the House floor in 2001, predicted exactly what would happen with the housing boom and bust. He said the Federal Reserve was replacing the dot-com boom with a real estate boom, which would surely unravel.

He knew Fannie and Freddie’s days were numbered.

Not one other person running for president in 2008 or 2012 had had the first clue about any of this.

And of course he was right: when the market tried to send people red lights in 2000 and 2001, the Fed turned them all green. So people persisted in the same bad investments, making the eventual crash all the worse, and perpetuating the myths that “housing prices never fall” and “a house is the best investment you can make.” (The 2001 recession is the only one on record in which housing starts actually increased.)

Dr. Paul was withering on the U.S. warfare state, and this of course turned “conservatives” against him. The idea was: we favor limited government, but exporting feminism to Afghanistan and running a world empire? Sign us up!

Not exactly the conservatism of yesteryear, that.

Now, after COVID, perhaps some conservatives are willing to entertain the idea that the whole regime is dangerous and rotten and run by liars, and that that just might also include the people who run the foreign policy.

Incidentally, has anybody been checking in on where Rick Santorum stands on lockdowns? Or the utterly forgettable Tim Pawlenty, whom Sean Hannity promoted? Or any of the other empty suits?

Ron created something lasting. Unlike the suits, he took on rather than aped the establishment. He raised issues like the Federal Reserve that no focus group told him to mention, simply because he considered it urgent for the American public to know about them.

He told a Florida audience that free trade with Cuba was the morally correct position, even though he knew that meant a lot of people would never consider voting for him.

Who else does that?

Who else just honestly tells us his views, and is consistent in those views over a 40-year period?

Even if you disagreed with him on this or that, those disagreements are trivial when compared to the big picture: here’s someone who’s honest, who will stand up against anyone, and who actually is what all the other Republicans only pretend to be?

Yes, it’s that kind of man who inspires a Thomas Massie — and, of course, a Rand Paul.

And Ron himself, on his daily Liberty Report, has been outstanding on COVID from day one.

For old times’ sake, here’s the TV ad I wrote for Ron in 2012, summarizing his merits in a mere 60 seconds, and which ran on CNN:

And of course, here’s the K-12 homeschool curriculum I created 400 videos for at Dr. Paul’s request:

http://www.RonPaulHomeschool.com

 The man is a hero, and his anti-establishment stance — the very thing that got him called a “crank” — has now been vindicated a thousand times over.

LibertyClassroom.com