Following the various primary campaigns has revealed that Ron Paul and his ideas are seen by many as loony. Ofttimes there is the admission “I like some of his ideas” but I think that people fear that Ron Paul, if elected, would “get us kilt” or something similar.
Ron Paul tends to be libertarian. Ron Paul was in fact a Libertarian (big “L”, meaning a member of the Libertarian party). What non-libertarians fail to consider is that libertarians desire a libertarian society.
That is, we want libertarian policies but we want therm in the context of a libertarian society. So, while libertarians want, for example, open borders, they do not want open borders in our current welfare state society where any Tomaso, Ricardo or Harrietta who can cross the border is given free services at the expense of American taxpayers.
“Open borders”, given the current state of affairs, is indeed a loony idea.
As for Paul’s foreign policy, I’m not so sure it is rightly categorized as “isolationist”. I think he just wants, as do other libertarians, the USA to stop meddling in the internal affairs of other countries. (Show of hands — How many of you think the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were a good idea? A libertarian would never have done that.)
Does America need to be protected against terrorism? You betcha. But it could be done more effectively and on a much smaller budget.
Naturally, the transition to a libertarian society could not happen overnight. Some things could be done quickly, like abolishing the Department of Education. But others would require a gentle transition from the nanny state to independence.
Even Big-L Libertarians have no desire to throw the country into turmoil.
So, when thinking about Ron Paul’s ideas, try thinking about them in the context of a libertarian society. If they still seem loony to you, then I’m reasonably sure a libertarian society itself seems loony as you are an authoritarian — the opposite of a libertarian.
As I’ve written before, liberals and conservatives are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.
“Both Liberals and Conservatives want to mold society to their liking. Conservatives want a moral, God-fearing society while Liberals want us all to be nice to each other (or else!) and share everything like good socialists. Both Liberals and Conservatives are willing to use police powers (government) to enforce their idea of a perfect society and proper behavior. Viewed in the three-dimensional universe, “conservative” and “liberal” are actually pretty close together. They are two sides of the same authoritarian coin.”
When you consider how many of “society’s” problems are caused or exacerbated by government’s good intentions, a minimalist libertarian government makes a lot of sense.