Holding Fast To The Tradition

Which casts into stark relief claims by modern-day “conservatives” like the hacks at Redstate.com that Ron Paul supporters are “a bunch of liberals pretending to be Republicans.” Seven years ago, no one would have disputed that Ron Paul was a conservative Republican in the Buckley/Goldwater/Reagan mold. But nowadays, the primary criteria for membership in the conservative coalition seem to be loyalty to the president’s agenda and a general suspicion of foreigners. ~Tim Lee

Tim is right.  It still surprises me a little that the same people who continually prattle on about finding the “new Reagan” are so thoroughly hostile to the man who was among the first to endorse Ronald Reagan for President (in the 1976 cycle, before it was trendy).  I have already commented on how strange and absurd it is that Ron Paul’s ideas are now seen as being wildly out of step with most conservatives.  Ron Paul obviously hasn’t changed, so that says a lot about the transient and malleable character of conservatism for a lot of people that they literally cannot recognise a political position many of them used to treat with respect less than ten years ago.  It is also remarkable how more than a few libertarians regularly belittle someone who takes a hard line on having a gold-backed currency, a view endorsed by no less than Murray Rothbard.    

Or, what Dave Weigel said.