Thursday, January 12, 2012

Robert Reich on The Youthful Magic of Ron Paul

Robert Reich writes in a post titled "The Youthful Magic of Ron Paul":
No other Republican candidate has come nearly as close to winning over young voters – and the GOP desperately needs young voters.
Very true. Reich is also correct when he writes
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.
But, he is dead wrong when he writes:
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.
Reich is simply spinning here, trying to keep the message away from economics. But, Ron Paul has the young following because, as he puts it, his message is about freedom. Both social freedom and economic freedom.

Ron Paul's best selling book is End the Fed. The Fed is now a topic of conversation. Former presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann claimed she took the books of economist Ludwig von Mises to the beach, in an attempt to grab some of his loyal followers.

Yes, the young are for his anti-war stance, but they are also for his anti-Fed stance.

It's clear that Reich knows that Ron Paul is going to be a presence. He knows that he can't stop Dr. Paul. All that's left for Reich is a desperate attempt to spin the absurd tale that Ron Paul supporters are supporting only half his message. Note to Robert Reich: You don't work as hard as the youth are in the Ron Paul campaign and you don't do it with the enthusiasm they do, unless they are all in. End the Fed, and three cheers for Ludwig von Mises and Austrian economics.

Who would have thought that even six months ago that Robert Reich would be forced to mention both Austrian economics and Ludwig von Mises, in his blog? Ron Paul is doing that. What next, the mention of Murray Rothbard?

15 comments:

  1. As a 25 year-old Paulbot, I'd be surprised if the youth weren't pushing the Austrian trend. We all watched Zeitgeist in 2007.

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    1. The first Zeitgeist certainly pulled in many folks (I won't lie, I thought that it was interesting). However, those who understood economics soon learned that Zeitgeist was nothing more than a marketing ploy for 'The Venus Project' (aka, Marxism with robots).

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  2. Robert Reich is an intelligent and articulate individual. He knows exactly what is going on, and he does not like it one damn bit.

    He is a product of Oxford, Yale (classmate of Bill and Hill's), and taught at Harvard, and is a career bureaucrat which the Wall Street Journal placed on its list of the "Most Influential Business Thinkers", even though he has never even run so much as a lemonade stand.

    Mr. Reich is the consumate Washington insider, so anything he says should be suspect even before he says it... Is anyone surprised he will do all he can to disparage Ron Paul???

    The reason young people are drawn to Dr. Paul is that he is the first honest public figure their have seen in their lives. Simple, straight forward, no BS. Mr Reich has been shoveling it for so long he thinks it's the way things are suppose to be. Imagine his astonishment when it turns out that its not just the young, but the old, the middle aged, Republicans, Democrats, Independents - dare I say it - Americans, who are going to vote for him in overwhelming numbers.

    He knows this, there's just nothing he can do about it. His time has come and gone. He is now an anachronism. Just another old geezer with failed ideas, the product of a failed system, shaking his clenched fist into the oncoming storm of freedom and renewal.

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  3. I am surprised that the bratty little parasite didn't call Ron Paul supporters "Childish for wanting liberty".

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  4. And to prove that he can attract Democrats, Dr. Paul took second place in the NH primary. The DEMOCRATIC primary that is. He wasn't even on the ballot!
    http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2832102/posts

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  5. "the" Phantom CapitalistJanuary 12, 2012 at 7:15 PM

    "What next, the mention of Murray Rothbard?"

    If the major news outlet ever have to start talking about Rothbard I think their heads might explode.

    Definitely something to look forward to.

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  6. As a 23 year old I support Ron Paul mainly because of his strict adherence to Austrian economics. Everything else Robert Reich describes falls into place from the logic of human action.

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  7. I am 32 now, but I was 27 when I first became aware of Ron Paul. As a veteran (2002-2006) I was immediately attracted to his stance on foreign policy, especially blowback. I was already someone that studied economics in their spare time, as well as other subjects, but when Ron Paul started throwing out names like Bastiat, Mises, Rothbard, Böhm-Bawerk, Locke, and many more (from multiple areas of study), I became curious.

    The majority of the people who make up Ron Paul's base are people who listened to what he was saying in 2007 and actually read some of the work from the thinkers that he mentioned. Four years later, those people who listened to Paul back then have now not only read the Austrians, classical liberals and libertarians; but, they have also read Keynes, Friedman, Samuelson, Krugman, Buckley, and many more "mainstream" thinkers. This is why you cannot go to any blog, forum or comments section related to political economy without running into Austro-libertarians or Misesians; and often, they are very sharp people who are well-read. Never before have so many "regular Joe's" been able to debate with guys with PhD's and actually win the argument.

    The establishment simply doesn't know what to think of Ron Paul's base, so they smear them as leftists, gays, fringe characters, potheads or any other smear that they can think of. They also like to paint Paul as some sort of "cult of personality", which is false. Sure, we admire this man, but not because of some "cult of personality", but because he challenged us to learn and think for ourselves.

    Dr. Paul truly did cure my apathy, as well as that of many others. That's why we admire him.

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    1. Another great comment. The cult of personality stuff is pure projection, Joseph. Obama was the defining case. Let's be honest, Ron Paul doesn't have much charisma, so the COP charge is a joke. It's the ideas and ideals that have people supporting him.

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  8. [Full Disclosure: I have been an ardent Ron Paul fan for decades and continue to sing his praises wherever I can.]

    "Reich is also correct when he writes

    The young are flocking to Ron Paul because he wants to...legalize pot."

    May I make an important distinction here? I have never heard Ron Paul say he wants to legalize pot. Ever. He says there should be no federal laws concerning pot and I fully agree. This is a matter for the several States to legislate.

    Herein lies the problem. Those with a desire to control and coerce like the idea of centralized (read Federal) legislation for the masses. Those with any sense of liberty understand the incredible opportunity it is to live in a nation where real diversity can exist. For any issue: If this State wants it this way, fine. If another State wants it slightly skewed, fine. If a third desires a completely separate approach, fine too.

    I do not smoke pot but I would not infringe on your decision to. I might suggest the downside but I understand that coercion will only make matters worse. So I would gravitate to a State where the attitude is different from the State where all the pot smokers live. I don't see a problem with that.

    Extrapolate that attitude to most any issue you like. I can hear the control freaks now: "Well that would mean you'd have States where murder and torture was legal."

    Okay, bad example. I should have chosen something we don't already do at the Federal level.

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  9. I think TPTB are waking up to the fact that Millenials + Gen X > Boomers.

    This probably scares the crap out of them, as they are also starting to understand that the Boomers have largely denied succeeding generations the wherewithal to support them in their dotage, when medical expenses start climbing for increasingly marginal results.

    They may be also be increasingly aware that their piss-poor treatment of Gen Xers hasn't made them many friends. If it comes down to Gen Xers (in general) siding with the past they've been flogged with their whole lives (Boomers) or the future they've helped build (Millenials and after), they're more than likely going to side with the future.

    The youngsters thought they were getting change in the last election. They didn't, and they're frustrated and so they're moving to the next opportunity to make a difference and force the system to face their entirely valid concerns. They may not understand the mechanisms of how PE and LBOs, regulators abnegating their duties, legislators changing the rules for their friends, financiers not doing their due diligence, naked CDS, crap CDOs and CLOs, cancerous mortgage brokers, profligate deficit spending (by pretty much everyone), lawyers gaming the system, BOHIC swaps, and countless other malefactors all worked to loot this country, but they can look around and see that there are real problems with the economy and our society. In school they were told that this country is about freedom and democracy. A place where goods, services, and ideas were free to compete for acceptance. And yet they're getting fondle and irradiated at the airports. The National Guard is not in the nation; why is it overseas? When they assemble to voice their grievances they're met by paramilitarized police units ready to crack their heads at a moments notice. And that their tax dollars pay for. They are allowed to defend themselves against criminals, thugs, even terrorists. But if they defend themselves from the "lawful authorities" beating on them, they're hosed, big time.

    The frustration of the youth may be inchoate, but it's not without merit. Ron Paul offers what may be the last best chance for a while to put our country back on the road to what it is supposed to be, not what it is now. We're supposed to be the good kid in the neighborhood, the one who leads by example, who does the right thing even if it hurts, who is always ready to lend a hand in time of need, who walks the path of truth and justice even for the least among us. We've become the bully of the world neighborhood, and the kids aren't happy about that.

    Ron Paul 1988 (my first chance to vote for President) 2008 2012

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  10. Reich is an obvious statist terrorist demanding that we all live for him very similar to the Jim Jones cult. He is just another infantile academia parasite who has diminished the lives of millions of people with his ideas of state planning/slavery.

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  11. Anonymous above mentions Yale, Oxford, etc. as cesspools of statist ignorance and elitist tripe. He is correct as far as it goes. However, I am 27 and have a degree from Yale, and it certainly was a very lonely place for a strict Rothbardian with two Mises U stints under my belt; however, while at Mises U, I met two other Yalies! I had the honor of dusting off Yale's copy of Mises' "Socialism." I was the first person to open it since 1974.

    Austrianism has already infiltrated the Ivy League! It is only a matter of time.

    And for the record, the day that Murray Rothbard's name is broadcast on the airwaves, I will know that liberty is inevitable.

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  12. I am 33, but learned about Dr. Paul four years ago during the 2008 campaign. I don't feel like I qualify as a young person (a wife, kids and a mortgage further tell me that), but it was the economic side that hooked me. After reading The Revolution, A Manefesto, I read some Schiff, and Rothbard and have been hooked ever since.

    Don't underestimate the life changing that occurs by understanding true economic thought from the Austrian school.

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