Essay describes Paul activism

Salon last week published a short essay by a Reno man, Edwin Lyngar, on his experiences in the 2008 Washoe Republican convention as a supporter of libertarian Ron Paul. Titled “Why I fled libertarianism—and became a liberal,” the essay wrote of his discomfort with libertarianism in practical action.

“I came by my own libertarian sensibilities honestly,” he wrote. “I grew up in a mining town that produced gold, silver and copper; but above all, Battle Mountain, Nev., made libertarians. Raised on 40-acre square of brown sagebrush and dead earth, we burned our own garbage and fired guns in the back yard.”

“Many members of the [Paul] group were obsessed with the gold standard, the Kennedy assassination and the Fed. Although Libertarians believe government is incompetent, many of them subscribe to the most fringe conspiracy theories imaginable. Airplanes are poisoning America with chemicals (chemtrails) or the moon landings were faked. Nothing was too far out. A great many of them really think that 9-11 was an inside job. Even while basking in the electoral mainstream, the movement was overflowing with obvious hokum. During the meeting, a Ron Paul staffer, a smart and charismatic young woman, gave a tip to the group for the upcoming convention. ‘Dress normal,' she said. ‘Wear suits, and don't bring signs or flags. Don't talk about conspiracy theories. Just fit in.' Her advice was the kind you might hear given to an insane uncle at Thanksgiving. …

“Yet I don't want to gloss over the good things about libertarians. They are generally supportive of the gay community, completely behind marijuana legalization and are often against ill-considered foreign wars, but a few good ideas don't make up for some spectacularly bad ones. … The Ron Paul delegates were able to take over the Nevada convention in 2008, howling, screeching and grinding it to a painful halt. I was part of the mob, and once we took over, we were unable to get anything done.”

He said he found that most libertarians involved were the working poor working against their own interests. “They were contortionists, justifying the excesses of the capitalist elite, despite being victims if libertarian politics succeed. If you think that selfishness and cruelty are fantastic personal traits, you might be a libertarian. In the movement no one will ever call you an asshole, but rather, say you believe in radical individualism.”

Within hours after his posting, Libertarian commentators around the nation began trashing Lyngar. Basically, they seemed to feel that his experience with real life application of libertarianism to politics should not discredit libertarianism in its pure, doctrinal form.

One wrote, “If Lyngar truly were a libertarian … he would have probably found that individual liberty could help the poor as opposed to well-intentioned, but doomed-to-failure government programs.” Another wrote, “Lyngar's error is in assuming that because libertarians are tolerant of people with different beliefs, that those beliefs are characteristic of libertarianism. Not so. Just because some libertarians are conspiracy theorists does not imply most are. The same is true for religion, or atheism. Some libertarians are evangelical Christians, and some are rabid atheists.”