It's Conservatism Stupid! (Or, Why I Won't EVER Support Ron Paul)

Tuesday, August 2, 2011 at 5:30PM Matthew Monos


During the past few years, the American people have witnessed the strikingly meteoric rise of two politicians on both sides of the political aisles. These two burst onto the political scene during the '08 Presidential Race, and have impassioned individuals in a manner not seen in recent memory. The Liberals got Barack Obama. We all know how that turned out. The Conservatives got stuck with Ron Paul, a deadweight if there ever was one.

Now, as we enter into the full swing mayhem of the next presidential race, it's interesting to note the similarities between "Paul-ites" and the '08 "Obama-ites". The support Paul has on the Internet is probably only second to Obama, and Paul's supporters (you know who I'm talking about!) are some of the most dedicated and rabid ones around. I'm not going to mince words here, Paul fans are as impaired and emotionally unstable as the Obama supporters were (and still are). After jumping onto the passing "Ron Paul Revolution" bus, people have lost their political sanity. The Paul movement is stronger than ever, and people are joining his campaign everyday. I have major problems with him, and I'm going to lay them out here.

#1) Ron Paul is NOT a Conservative: Ron Paul is not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination. He is a staunch libertarian, and those ideas don't match up with conservative principles. So, the appeal of his small government ideas always catch people's attentions, but it's his other ideas that are imbecilic. People need to understand that conservatism is NOT the same as libertarianism, and supporting those ideas isn't being "conservative". As Jonah Goldberg said, libertarianism is "a form of arrogant nihilism."

[i]Cultural libertarianism basically says that whatever ideology, religion, cult, belief, creed, fad, hobby, or personal fantasy you like is just fine so long as you don’t impose it on anybody else, especially with the government. You want to be a Klingon? Great! Attend the Church of Satan? Hey man, if that does it for ya, go for it. You want to be a “Buddhist for Jesusâ€