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Entry: Libertarianism's Divergent Roads Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/libertarianisms_divergent_roads#29541 Post contents: Daniel Maxwell wrote: >As a side note, I love the high standards the anarchists use. By their standards, everyone is statist… Dan, you’re missing what’s happening here. I’m a ferocious and outspoken anarchist: however, I also supported and voted for (and sent a couple hundred bucks to) Ron Paul. Last time I checked, Lew Rockwell and Justin, and well-known bloggers like Karen deCoster and Stephan Kinsella, were also anarchists. We all supported Congressman Paul. Conversely, a lot of the Paul-haters were limited-government critics of us anarchists. There were anarchists and limited-governmentalists on both sides of the great Ron-Paul split. And a lot of us on the Ron-Paul side were also strong proponents of “libertarian purity.” These simply have not been the issues. I’ve been in a number of fights among libertarians during the last year on the Ron-Paul split. The issue has been almost completely as Justin laid it out: should we high-and-mighty cosmopolitan libertarians deign to associate with and support lowly Marcus-Welby-type middle-American libertarians such as Ron Paul or not? Some of us hard-core anarchists are willing to work with anyone, as long as they meet minimal standards of sanity and decency, who sincerely wishes to advance the cause of human freedom. While I can think of many social, cultural, and religious issues on which I disagree with Ron Paul, and although I am a militant anarchist and he is not an anarchist, I am proud to be a Ron Paul supporter. It is libertarians like Brink Lindsey, hardly an anarchist or a model of libertarian purity, who choose to look down their noses at Ron Paul. No, it is not anarchist purism which has kept some prominent libertarians from supporting Ron Paul. It is simply a cultural snobbery and a (false) sense of their own superior cosmopolitanism. It would be tragic if those folks mattered. But they don’t. They are just a joke. Dave Miller in Sacramento Sent at: 2008 12 02