My Marijuana Meds

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/86523.html

David Boaz, one of the leaders at the Koch “libertarian” think tank Cato, is actually claiming that the young will side with Gary Johnson, their socially liberal, pro-”humanitarian” warmongering (which, to me, is worse than the neo-con position, as at least the neo-cons will argue that their wars are about national defense), pro-Fed counterfeit version of Ron Paul. To be fair, Johnson is probably the 2nd closest candidate to my views, but I am offended by the very fact that he had the audacity to run against Ron Paul and attempt to split the libertarian vote and by the fact that his most vocal supporters were responsible for a vicious smear campaign against Ron Paul during the great man’s last run for President.

Recently, I watched Boaz make a fool of himself on John Stossel’s program by defending the principle that it is fine to intentionally kill innocents in a war (Stossel did as well, but Stossel admits he doesn’t know anything about foreign policy) and (even worse) actually claiming that we are “more free” today than ever before.

Boaz’s attack on Ron Paul is that his fake version of Ron Paul also advocates gay marriage and marijuana legalization. Well, Ron Paul is for getting the government out of marriage altogether and legalizing all drugs (this includes ending the FDA). You don’t ever hear Ron Paul talk about the marriage issue because nobody really cares (and he can’t do anything about it anyway, but he does talk about the drug issue (although, since the Cato and Reason crowd are “lifestyle libertarians,” they don’t take Ron Paul seriously on the drug issue since he isn’t a pothead like Johnson is).

Of course, one of the biggest differences on the issues between the real Ron Paul and the Koch-backed fake one is that the real Ron Paul is pro-life, while the pothead from New Mexico is pro-abortion. I don’t think this year’s pro-abortion Republican candidate will do any better than that pro-abortion Republican candidate from the last election (Ron Paul got far more votes and delegates than that guy, who was somehow a “frontrunner” at one time).

Ron Paul’s campaign, unlike the counterfeit version, will focus on the real issues. Specifically, Ron Paul will be talking heavily about the Federal Reserve, which is the cause of the current inflation problem and is therefore THE single biggest issue in the 2012 campaign. Dr. Paul will also focus on the debt crisis and the need to rein in government spending. I’ve watched speeches by Cato’s Counterfeit, but I don’t recommend that unless you are having trouble sleeping.

I’m part of the demographic that Boaz thinks is going to be disloyal to Ron Paul this time around. I can tell you right now that I will be supporting Ron Paul rather than any off-brand imitator. If Johnson had waited until 2016 (and either run to replace Obama or in a primary challenge against a sitting Republican president not named Ron Paul), he might have had my support in that election year. Since he decided to get into the race to intentionally attempt to undermine Ron Paul’s chances of becoming President (and make no mistake about it, Ron Paul can win, Gary Johnson can’t), I will never support him. It seems that the libertarian movement now has yet another litmus test of how principled you are, as we have the unprincipled sellouts (Johnson supporters), realistic principled libertarians (Paul supporters), and sectarian utopians (the “voting is unlibertarian” crowd). I not only support Ron Paul, but I completely repudiate Boaz’s counterfeit version of libertarianism.

The one good thing about Johnson’s candidacy is that ordinary conservative Republicans will be able to realize that Ron Paul isn’t some liberal RINO on everything but economic issues (which accurately describes Johnson). Ron Paul is socially moderate, more fiscally conservative than anybody else, and in favor of the foreign policy of the Founders. Gary Johnson is conservative on economic issues (although nowhere near as principled as Ron Paul), but is liberal on just about everything else.