A friend,
who I consider to be a very keen observer of the libertarian "movement"
emails:
Ron Paul
'awoke' millions, but the "liberty movement" is at least
half full of half-ass pseudo-libertarian statists. I see so many
of them that have little good to say about RP now. He failed in
their eyes. It's all about attaining the crown. So frustrating.
If there's
one thing that Ron Paul stressed, it's that we're engaged in a battle
of ideas. The goal is to convince/teach people the ideas
of liberty.
There are
no short-cuts. It's a long and winding road.
Let Ron Paul's
career in Congress act as a guide. How easy would it have been for
him to just bend a little?
But he didn't.
He knew that the ideas of liberty cannot (and should not) be watered
down.
When did the
results come in?
In the first
year? No.
In the first
decade? No.
Try around
30 years later!
The old saying
remains true: As you sow, so shall you reap.
Ron Paul stayed
true to principle, and sowed the seeds of liberty for 30 years.
As a result, he (and all of us) were rewarded with the mother of
all bumper crops!
Now is not
the time to look for shortcuts, or to trade away some libertarian
ideas in exchange for statist ideas, like they're baseball cards.
The goal is
not to obtain some vicious Crown. A famous warning must be kept
in mind: And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world
but lose your own soul?
It's time to
take the example that Ron Paul set and live it ourselves. We've
seen what one man with principle can achieve. Imagine multiplying
that by thousands, or even millions...
But it's a
choice...and we all have to make it.
One of my favorite
movie scenes came to mind that sums up the choice perfectly. It's
only 40 seconds long, but it speaks volumes: