Why the Paul newsletters aren't very important

As I wrote in 2008 during an earlier iteration of the newsletter story cycle, somewhat obliquely, I think this stuff is far from the most important thing to consider or talk about when it comes to this amazing moment where a very libertarian politician seems on the cusp of actually winning the first caucus in a Republican presidential contest. Libertarians, as a rule, especially if you’ve been in this game for decades before Paul, are used to the fact that peculiar political beliefs attract peculiar people, that there is a sociological overlap between the radical politics of libertarianism and certain other radical beliefs that don’t have anything intellectually or necessarily to do with libertarianism, and that isn’t the problem or the fault of libertarian ideas, nor is fighting those unpleasant ideas that some people in the libertarian orbit hold the primary responsibility of libertarians. Standing up for political liberty is.

And, more importantly, I believe it’s less important to beat up on and condemn a certain set of powerless and marginalized people who think and believe some nasty things everyone agrees are wrong than it is to beat up on and condemn the set of incredibly powerful people who actually act to commit crimes and rights-violation and damage to life across the globe who everyone thinks are perfectly right to do so. And Ron Paul is the only candidate with any public traction and fans who condemns and would fight to stop such crimes, from the drug war to non-defensive overseas wars to attacking people with guns because they sell raw milk to rampant violations of American’s civil liberties and privacy to an organization in charge of our money supply that uses that power to scuttle the entire world economy and bailout its buddies.