The back-and-forth between Gov. Christie and Sen. Paul over foreign-policy fundamentals, initiated by Christie’s blanket brush-off of libertarianism in that arena as a “dangerous thought,” died down earlier this week — if only for a little while. As Allahpundit already noted, Christie has all kinds of reasons for wanting to keep this thing going and set himself apart from what many in New Jersey likely interpret Paul’s fringe-y national security views — but on ABC on Sunday, George Will made the point that he might want to tread a little more cautiously on that front due to its national context. Paul has been arguing that having these open discussions is a great way to attract young people to the party, and that it might not be a wise idea to dismiss the ideas out of hand — an argument that Will basically reiterated. Starting around the 7:30 mark:

There is a rising libertarian stream that Chris Christie has said is a very “dangerous thought,” so let’s be clear about what libertarianism is and what it isn’t. It is not anarchism, it has a role for government. What libertarianism says, it comes in many flavors and many degrees of severity. It basically says, before the government bridges the freedom of an individual, or the freedom of several individuals contracting together, that government ought to have, A, a compelling reason, and B, a constitutional warrant for doing so. Now, if Mr. Christie thinks that’s a “dangerous thought,” a number of people are going to start saying Mr. Christie himself may be dangerous.