Once upon a time there was a scorpion who had need to get to a central island in a lake. Being a scorpion, he was not able to swim, so he decided to enlist the help of a frog. So he went to the bank of the lake to find one.
"Mr. Frog" he said, "I need to get to that small island out in the middle of the water. Can I ride on your back?"
Mr. Frog, being wise in his old age said, "But Mr. Scorpion, if I allow you on my back, you will sting me and I will die."
The scorpion said, "But Mr. Frog, if I sting you I will not be able to get where I am going. It is in my best interest for you to live, so that I may reach to the island."
"Mr. Scorpion, you make a good point. Go ahead and hop on my back. I will swim you over to the island." said the frog.
So the scorpion climbed onto the back of the frog and they both took off across the water. Once they reached the island, the scorpion crawled off the frogs back, turned around, and stung him right in the face. Gasping for air as he lay on the ground dying, the frog asked, "Mr. Scorpion, why did you sting me? You said you would let me live!"
To which the scorpion replied, "What did you expect? I am a scorpion. It is my nature."
And the frog died in a loud, grotesque, military manner. THE END
This parable was the first thing that popped into my head when I heard that Rand Paul had endorsed Mitt Romney for president. He turned his back on the liberty movement that helped put him in office. Even worse he turned his back on his father; even though we can be almost certain this act was condoned by Ron Paul or his campaign staffers.
People are infuriated. The blogosphere, twitter, and facebook have gone crazy with this news. The liberty movement has become unhinged at this all-out betrayal by Rand. Some folks do not understand why he would do such a thing. To them I say, "What did you expect? He is a politician. It is in his nature!"
Since I am all out of vitriol for the moment, I am trying to step back and look at the positive side of things, and the upside to this move by Rand is tremendous. For all the budding libertarians who have just signed on to the liberty movement, and the folks who have just recently become involved in the Ron Paul campaign, this event should serve as a prime example of what electoral politics is all about. Politicians will almost always sell out their principles if they think it will gain them a little political favor. That is, if they had any principles to begin with. The existence of Rand Paul's principles will be a hot debate point for some time to come.
It is impossible to unlearn a concept, and once a person has caught the liberty bug, it does not go away. It is doubtful that Ron Paul republicans or libertarians will follow suit and vote for Romney now. Much more likely, they will take this experience as an opportunity to learn, chalk one up for big government, and move on to something better. Most people only get burned once. If Ron Paul is the starting point on the road to libertarianism, his son has become the prime example that leads to voluntaryism.
Remember this, you are the frog, and all politicians are scorpions. They will ride on your back to get to where they are going and then turn around and sting you in the face. It is their nature. To expect anything less from them is foolish.
Rand Paul, in one single act, just turned an huge amount of libertarian minarchists into full blown anarcho-capitalists. I don't support the means, but the ends might work out for the best in the long run.
See you at Galt's Gulch!
Required reading:
The Constitution of No Authority by Lysander Spooner
Our Enemy, The State by Albert J. Nock
2 comments:
I have mixed feelings about this endorsement. On one hand, I am appalled that a self professed liberty minded Senator would back a beauracrat like Romney, as it has undoubtabley ostracized many libertarians. On the other hand, you make a good point about the ends justifying the means. If by some chance Romney is elected and appoints Rand to a cabinet position, maybe he can do some good. I hate to say it, but it would be better than nothing. In any case, I will still vote for Gary Johnson if Ron Paul is out of it.
Excellent blog Nacho.
-Ryan M.
I was curious what your take on this was going to be.
Mormons are highly overrepresented at the law school here. It was entertaining to watch them effectively pull the same trick. They talked a mighty fine game about liberty and I'd spent more than a few days at the range with them, but they jumped hard on the Romney train after it hit the station.
Equally entertaining was how they just as loudly proclaimed that blacks were voting for Obama because he was black, but argue their hearts out that they aren't voting for Romney because they're all Mormons.
God, politics is dirty. You know there's something wrong with a system when men sell out their beliefs to even ride the coattails of men with power.
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