Ron Paul did something bad. Horribly bad? No, but bad for our perfect standards. NEWSFLASH: Politicians aren’t perfect! The whole endrun of politics, especially national, is horse-trading and cutting deals. let Ron be what he is 99% of the time: a thorn in the establishment’s side and a gateway drug to get mainstream republicans (eventually) onto anarchism.

And no, I don’t consider what Ron Paul gave an “endorsement”, because it is obvious to anyone who knows what Ron Paul believes that he doesn’t endorse anyone, he endorses principles. Particularly when he as much as declares that he’s only “endorsing” because he’s under duress.

Wrong analogy, Shayne. You and I pay our income taxes only because we face confiscation of our assets, imprisonment, both, or worse if we don’t – in other words, violence at the hands of the State. The worst thing Paul faces if he sticks to his principles and swim against the cesspool’s current is the loss of his congressional seat. And yes, he is endorsing Lamar Smith. If urging his base in West Central Texas to vote for Smith isn’t endorsing (pay particular attention to definition number 2) that candidate, then I don’t know how else you would define the word.

I really don’t see what you are complaining about.

Where Ron Paul is concerned, my own opinion is that I couldn’t care less if he didn’t get a single piece of legislation successfully passed or didn’t bring a single dollar of stolen pork back to his district. AFAIC, his greatest effect on that cesspool called Congress would be to serve as a contrarian viral infection, a bone in its collective throat, a perennial troublemaker that gums up the works (a.k.a. “business as usual”) as much as his limited presence and resources allow. If nothing else, let him make symbolic gestures of defiance against the majority! On that subject, rather than pandering pathetically to his base by urging them to endorse one of Texas’s rotten incumbents (the despicable Lamar Smith, in whose district I had the displeasure of residing for his first two-year term of office), Paul needs to be building an army of like-minded fellow representatives. Rather than endorsing a man who has done everything in his power to undermine everything that Paul (supposedly) stands for, he needs to be putting his money where his political mouth is by stumping non-stop for Stephen Schoppe, the challenger to Smith’s congressional seat and a man who shares Paul’s (supposed) core values.

Bottom line: It’s time for Ron Paul to step up to the plate and REALLY put his money where his mouth is, DAMN THE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES TO HIMSELF! Otherwise, he’s just another professional politician fraud!

(BTW and FWIW, I intend to send a hardcopy letter to Paul’s congressional office detailing not only my extreme disappointment in his performance in the aforementioned video clip, but reminding him of what his base is, how he is perceived by millions of liberty-loving Americans, and that he has a choice of either being a principled man of liberty and limited government or a self-serving politician hypocrite – there is no middle ground!. Sure, no one on Paul’s staff, let alone he himself, will ever likely read it, but he needs to receive such messages in tremendous number to let him know that he is not God and that any betrayal of his libertarian ideals will cost him. He WILL be held accountable!)

Ron Paul is but one man fighting against Leviathon. He’s not an angel or a saint – he’s a human being. By choosing to join an organization one also accepts you are part of a team and cannot demand every issue go your way. He honestly answered why he is supporting who he is. Politics makes strange bedfellows. Political strategy is about advancing incrementally to build a foundation upon which future gains can be made. It is not an exercise in idealogical purity nor is it mearly a debating club.

Speaking of Libertarians, did you vote for Bob Barr? As a federal prosecutor and congressman he was an anti-drug zealot if there ever was one. Now that the para-military police state to combat “drugs” has been constructed, he suddenly “sees the light” and becomes libertarian?