I just reread my post and realized my message wasn't clear.

I absolutely agree all defense of RP by alleged libertarians should cease immediately and never return.

No I understood. It would give me more faith in the libertarian party if more would as well. Most of what I don't get agree with wrt to the libertarian party is RP and the Alex Jones type's wing nut beliefs and the social issue stuff. I think most democrats wanting to get out of wars feel the same way but are weirded out by the fringe stuff. Not to mention the demands for dismantling the IRS and ****.

That's another thing. For as often as they harp on dems for supporting the NDAA, and drones, the only time I see them bringing it up is to degrade the socialist and when backed in to a corner after they get called on all the fringe stuff I was just talking about. Then I'm like yeah I hate that too bro.

RP is an anarchist

Please, Ron Paul is a states rightsist. At most, absolute most, you can call him a minarchist. He certainly isnt an anarchist.

Interesting OP. I am skeptical that a philosophy antithetical to big government can divorce its aspersions to the economic control evinced by that coercive power. On the other hand, why do we assume we can trust the individuals?

DOMA repeal will not happen as long as GOP controls the House. Ordering the DOJ to stop defending DOMA is an improvement from the status quo, albeit an insufficient improvement.

This is untrue on its face.

WA, CT and NY all made gay marriage legal in the legislature. MA made it legal in the courts, with judges appointed and confirmed by elected politicians. Surely, you must be aware of this.

I'm not sure about the other states, and I am too tired and too tipsy to look it up tonight.

Anyway, my point is that liberal pols make this happen, conservative (libertarian) pols don't.

EDIT: looks like VT and NH both legislated gay marriage as well.

hes a politician, so he says minimal government crap so people will vote for him. but he comes from the anarchist wing of the libertarian movement, rothbard and lew rockwell being his biggest influences.

no.

you can't be an anarchist and a politician at the same time. that's like saying you're on a diet but eating at mcdonalds every day.

I know he gives off that kooky weirdo vibe, and it's hard to listen to him speak for over 2 minutes without asking "Where's this man's tinfoil hat?" But that's not, in and of itself the qualities of an anarchist.

He's definitely got the Lew Rockwell racist thing down though.

Charter schools may be a lot more prevalent than you think. From what I've heard in LA pretty much anyone who wants to get in one eventually does. They may not get their first choice, but they can at least get out of the horrible regular district.

It's getting that way. It's not always the case. But this is an example of changing things up but keeping the public system alive.

I'm glad to see some libertarians itt beginning to reject Ron Paul (or, if they did so all along, at least be more vocal about it). As a distant observer, I always thought he was a very poor standard bearer for the libertarian cause.

It's more of a realizing of society being able to accept that type of candidate. He got things rolling very well, not sure how anyone can think otherwise.

Someone is always going to have to take the hard-case kids in the urban districts that don't care enough to try to get out. I know that sucks, but it's reality. I'm a lot more concerned with providing opportunity for the kids who want to a real education than spending disproportionate resources dealing with the problem kids.

I agree. Or at least direct resources toward the problem children in a cost effective way and direct them differently in ways that might influence them.

Re: DOMA, even the House Republicans want to hire their own lawyers to defend it, the idea that the law could be repealed is just insanely wrong.

And yeah, on popular vote gay marriage lost 30 times in a row until Tuesday. Until this week all the movement on the issue was coming from legislatures and not from direct democracy.

He didn't get anything rolling. Even stuff like marijuana legalization isn't get passed because of his "states can do anything they want from banning sodomy to legalizing pot" logic. It's from liberals and middle of the road people who don't think the federal government is evil but just think pot isn't either. He's basically pulled a reverse Kennedy and got alot of money and fame from libertarianism without doing much for it.

It's not the pot stuff that I'm talking about. It's more of the anti-Fed and anti-militarism stuff that he exposed a lot of people to that normally would not have even considered it.

Well, if you want to say he got things rolling like Alex Jones maybe thats true. But that isn't a good thing either.

Or he provided a less effective avenue for people who otherwise would have been drawn to more established left-wing groups? None of the kids who got drawn in really understand or care about the Fed. They just want to get high and not have their friends get killed in a stupid war. I think those aims would have been better served through other political groups.

Ron Paul "spent" $40M this election cycle.

lol @ saying ron paul comes from the anarchist wing of libertarians. that's just absurd.

he thought he could change the system by acquiring a bully pulpit.

rothbard and lew rockwell are anarchists