Friday, January 13, 2012

Quote Of The Day

From the ignominy of last month's smackdown, Robert Reich has recovered enough of that magic to be the quote of the day:
The Republican right thinks Paul’s views on the economy are responsible for this fire among the young. Yesterday evening, on Larry Kudlow’s CNBC program, I squared off with Larry and the Wall Street Journal’s Steve Moore. Both are convinced young people are attracted by Paul’s strict adherence to the views of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, and Paul’s desire to move America back to the gold standard.

Baloney. The young are flocking to Ron Paul because he wants to slice military spending, bring our troops home, stop government from spying on American citizens, and legalize pot.

The Youthful Magic Of Ron Paul
Let me just break in here and point out the obvious - this isn't quite true. There are some people that age who have just read Atlas Shrugged and now think they should be selecting their luggage and travel kits for when they go Galt. In the meantime, they are no doubt fans of Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Whatsisname. Still, I'm pretty sure Reich's correct, if only because those were the things that mattered to me back in those days, and I don't think things have changed that much in the intervening years. In fact, if anything, civil liberties and ending the drug war are more of a priority now than they were back when I was part of the youth vote. Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore are almost certainly seeing what they want to see, and ignoring the fact that much of what is appealing about Ron Paul to anyone who doesn't have his head up his ass has nothing to do with his crackpot theories of economics.

Reich concludes:
[I]f Republicans — or Democrats, for that matter — want to win over much of the nation’s young next November, they’d do well to listen carefully to Paul’s positions on national defense and civil liberties.

The Youthful Magic Of Ron Paul
I think that if there's one sure thing about the 2012 election, aside from the futility of swapping Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, it's that damn few in either party will listen.


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