Ron Paul is Not the Future of the GOP

Ron Paul is an evolutionary dead end for the Republican Party, conservatives, and libertarians, and I don't care if this pisses off those fools at Lew Rockwell.

That's not to say that Congressman Ron Paul doesn't play a role in the evolution of conservatism and isn't someone to be admired. He does have his good points- he is a good loyal libertarian, he brings up solid points at times and maintains good arguments about issues that others have decided are already decided, and he is an important critic of our current government. Plus, unlike most libertarians who work hard to get communists and fascists elected by voting Libertarian, Ron Paul understands that it is important to be a Republican.

But Ron Paul is not the direction that the Republican Party should go, and young people, conservatives, and Tea Parties should be fully aware of why Ron Paul is not a serious candidate for anything beyond "Important Congressional Critic of Stuff."

Ron Paul engages in and encourages conspiracy theorists, his newsletters of the '80s and '90s were filled with anti-Semitic and racist rants, and he sometimes shoots at his allies in Congress more than he does his enemies. Sometimes I indulge in fantasies about returning to the gold standard, withdrawing all troops from abroad, and living in a libertarian fantasy world, and then I wake up and grow up and realize that a lot of that stuff that Paul preaches is childish and unrealistic, and that's okay except that he doesn't realize that it is childish and unrealistic.

I guess when I was younger, I was a libertarian, but as I am getting older, I am becoming a solid conservative, and looking less and less at Ron Paul as someone who is a valid model to emulate. A lot of my students read his stuff and get enthusiastic about him, and they did about Obama too, and that bothers me, because both have visions of the world that don't match reality. It's okay, they'll grow up someday too and become conservatives.