Rand Paul, Once Again
By Walter E. Block
The Bionic Mosquito is a relative newcomer to the first ranks of libertarian commentary. He is a theoretician of the highest order in our anarcho-capitalist movement. When he writes something, anything, I pay attention. He almost always comes up with new insights, makes me see the world in a different way, forces me to dig deeper into libertarian theory. His latest essay is no exception. I pay it even more attention since it is addressed in part to me, and, in his estimable gentle manner, he is even slightly critical of my views.
To put matters in my own words, he upbraids me for my continual support of Rand Paul’s candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. More specifically, he calls upon me to renounce my previous advocacy in behalf of the senator from Kentucky, given that foreign policy is the most important of the big three (the other two are economics and personal liberties), and that Donald Trump has recently been sounding better than Rand Paul on these issues.
Let me quote El Senor Mosquito, so there can be no doubt that I fully understand his concerns:
“It is due to the topic of war and foreign intervention that Walter Block has endorsed and encouraged others to support Rand Paul. I assume the same underlying reason for Justin Raimondo and his on again, off again (right now off, but am not sure) support for Rand – after all, Raimondo writes at a site call(ed) Antiwar.com!
“Despite Rand’s significant failing when it comes to taking a non-interventionist position – or even a position noticeably different than that of most of his competitors – I haven’t read anything from Block that suggests his advocacy for Rand has diminished. At least Raimondo has backed off recently.
“This post was prompted by a piece by Raimondo, Trump vs. Jeb: I know who I’m rooting for! When I first saw the headline, it registered as “Trump vs. Rand.” I even began reading the post that way. I thought – finally, a libertarian writer was going to openly deal with this issue of Rand Paul’s failings regarding foreign interventionism (relative to other candidates) in this presidential primary season, and thereby perhaps change his support. As Raimondo in the past supported Rand, he would now be obliged to change his support to Trump.
“But I do wonder: if Raimondo and Block felt it so important to suggest supporting Rand primarily for his antiwar views, why would they now not suggest supporting Trump? Sure, Trump is a disaster on other issues, but this was not the criteria that Block spelled out; and Raimondo writes at Antiwar.com.
“If there is any political objective toward which a libertarian spends his energy in the modern world, the objective is to reduce the likelihood of war. For this reason, I was somewhat sympathetic to Block’s position – because even a difference of one degree between Rand and the others might mean a few thousand lives not lost.”
“Yet today we have Trump. I won’t suggest that libertarians support him. However, other libertarians – noticeably Block and Raimondo – have suggested supporting Rand when they believed Rand was better on war.”
Sir Mosquito asks me to respond, and I am delighted to do so.
First, let me pick out four of his words for special emphasis: “relative to other candidates.” Here, I think, my friend Bionic has hit the nail on the head. If we libertarians are to root for any of the candidates, apart from Ron Paul himself when he was running for office, it always has to be a relative matter. None of them, certainly not Rand or The Donald, fully fits the libertarian bill. The perfect is the enemy of the good. We must not whine that Ron is not now running for President (although if ever there were a justification for violating the NAP and compelling him to do so, this would be it). It behooves us to choose the person who most closely adheres to libertarian principle. Joke: An economist was asked, “How is your wife?” Came the response: “Compared to what?” Precisely. Handicapping politicians is an exercise in comparatives. I am delighted that the Bionic Mosquito agrees with me on this vital point.
Second, I acknowledge that Mr. Trump has been really good on foreign policy of late. He is no Ron Paul, but, then, no one else in the running is either. The Donald has questioned U.S. foreign policy in a plethora of instances, and pretty much always takes the correct libertarian point of view in terms of militarism, imperialism, foreign adventurism, etc. I acknowledge the correctness of the Mosquito’s demonstrations on this matter.
Third point. But, Rand, too, has been doing pretty well on this score! Here is a letter recently sent to me that strongly makes this case:
Dear Dr. Block,
John Nichols of The Nation wrote a decent article on Rand’s performance in the second debate.
Rand’s points:
1. A no-fly zone over Syria risks WWIII.
2. Talk to the Russians & Chinese, just as we did during the Cold War.
3. The Iran War backfired, I was always opposed to it.
4. “If you want boots on the ground, and you want them to be our sons and daughters, you’ve got fourteen other choices. There will always be a Bush or Clinton for you if you want to go back to war in Iraq.”
These points seem sufficiently libertarian and anti-war to me, if Rand sticks to them. I think they bolster your position on him as the best candidate for libertarians in 2016.
Best regards,
(Name withheld to preserve anonymity)
Fourth. So, which shall it be? Rand or Trump? I am really not sure. I still lean toward Rand. I used to “stand with Rand.” Now, because of the improvement in Trump’s recent views, I only lean in Rand’s direction. There are no measurements on the basis of which we can say, “Well, Rand gets an 82 on the libertarian-o-meter (foreign policy division), and Trump earns an 81 or an 83. There are no such precise quantifications as to which of them more closely represents the libertarian position of a purely defensive, non-interventionistic policy. It is a matter of prudential judgement. In my view, the two of them now stand head and shoulders over anyone else on the Republican side of the aisle. (My old high school classmate Bernie Sanders is far better than Hillary on these issues, and thus I support him, not her, as the Democratic nominee).
Right now, I would like to see the Republicans nominate Rand Paul for President and Donald Trump for Vice President. Why this rank order and not the opposite? Rand is a senator, Donald has never held public office; I think these two in this, not the opposite order are more likely to prevail over the Democrats, and I prefer them to either Bernie or Hillary. (Of course, I am now limiting myself to the two major parties. If the Libertarian Party nominates former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, or someone else of his ilk, and neither Trump or Paul wins the Republican nomination, I would support the LP candidate.) Also, Donald is more of a Johnny-come-lately to the libertarian banner on foreign policy; Rand has been pretty good, not excellent, for a far longer time period. Then, there is the fact that even though foreign policy is more important than the other two dimensions, Rand is certainly more of a free enterpriser, free trader, opponent of government, than is Donald. The latter is just horrid on socialized medicine and free trade. When we have a virtual tie between the two of them on military adventurism, these two other arenas can serve as a tie breaker. Here, Rand, clearly, wins.
But should not the fact that Donald Trump is now way higher in the polls than Rand Paul incline me in the direction of the former? Should this not be the tie breaker? No, at least not for the libertarian. As I understand what we are now doing when we choose who to support, we are supposed to be picking the person, out of an admittedly poor lot, who is most congruent with the non-aggression principle (NAP). Who is now riding highest in the polls simple has nothing to do with this issue.
I am sorry to be such a wishy-washy wimp. If I had any decency, I’d be picking either Rand or Donald. The Mosquito, I think, wants me to choose the latter and eschew my previous support for the former. Unhappily, as much as I would like to comply with this desire of Mr. Bionic, I cannot see my way clear to doing that. It is not for nothing that I am known far and wide (at least in my own mind) as Walter Moderate Block.
I’m sure that Mr. Mosquito, and, indeed, all libertarians, will look forward with great interest as to what will happen next in this fascinating run up to the election of 2016.
5:18 pm on October 26, 2015
