Has no one noticed that the states in which Ron Paul has done the best – Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, and Washington – comprise the heart of traditional “populist” politics? Montana was the home of Jeanette Rankin – one of two congressmen voting against WWI, and the only one to vote against WWII. The anti-corporate-state, anti-war thinking that was reflected in populism is finding a resurgence in Paul’s campaign. The deeper meaning may reflect a return to “classical liberalism.” When modern “conservatives” wish to “conserve” the war system, corporate privilege, big government spending, and an expanded police state, it is clear that such people are going to find more to their liking in McCain and Huckabee.
I should add that these above-named states are the ones through which one of my entrepreneurial heroes, James J. Hill, built – and profitably ran – his Great Northern Railway without help from government grants of land, subsidies, or the use of eminent domain. The Ron Paul supporters may represent Nock’s “remnant,” men and women tied more to the spirits of Hill and Rankin than to what modern “conservatism” has to offer.
1:33 pm on February 10, 2008 Email Butler Shaffer
