Ron Paul : Liar

Lately, the comments on websites have been attacking Ron Paul as well as his legions of Paultards. For a decade, these attacks from the Right have been puny at best – it would be one or two social democrats versus a united front between the Paultards, libertarians, and other defenders of capitalism. Today, it's as if a lot of critics of Paul have come out of the woodwork, like termites.

I suspect it's just the RNC and some Super PACs spending their money on professional comment spammer services, like the infamously cock-blocked HBGary.

People have marveled at Paul's popularity, but it shouldn't be that much of surprise, because both the Republicans and Democrats have been pushing neoliberalism for twenty years (some Republicans for forty years) and Ron Paul is often reiterating a distilled version of the promises of neoliberal, market-based policies.

Neoliberalism has been the “Washington Consensus” for the past twenty years, and is still going strong. While the two political parties defining the left and right fight, they aren't fighting over neoliberalism. They're only fighting over which party holds power of the direction of policy.

Neoliberalism is a rehash of classical liberal economics from the late 1800s, and to discuss it, it's best to limit it to economics as much as possible. Elements of neoliberal thought have pervaded not only the two major parties, but is an element of neoconservatism, of some forms of “liberal” or quasi-progressive thought, and even religion. Neoliberal thought has been embodied by macroeconomic policies influenced by Milton Friedman since WW2.

So, when Ron Paul delivers rhetoric that conflates individual freedom and social justice with market liberalism, he's really only reiterating the gist of what both Democrats and Republicans have said for years. It's just a somewhat more doctrinaire reiteration of the ideas, with a strong dose of Southern conservative ideas that make him appealing to his audience of “rednecks” (and repellent to center-left social liberals).

** Why Ron Paul will fail, however, is a more interesting issue. **

Ron Paul's “problem” is that neoliberalism is not the actual system in place. The actual market is not neoliberal. It's constantly seeking to be deregulated, and to accumulate and concentrate wealth and power. Individuals within seek to accumulate power, and the system as a whole does as well.

Businesses will always form organizations and lobby the legislature. Their goal is always to protect their financial interests, by influencing the laws. This isn't neoliberalism. It's the real economy, which is not a “free market” at all.

The promise within Paul's rhetoric is that if only everything were forced into a deregulated free market, and government were minimized, market forces would tame the corruption. This is wishful thinking: that the way to achieve the best politics is to disengage from politics and hand it over to market forces. This is merely Neolibralism cross-pollinated with Utopianism.

Given that Neoliberalism is already a kind of economic utopianism, it makes Paul's idealism that much more Utopian and mystical.

The two Republican front-runners are both liars. Gingrich was a moralist, while he was also a philanderer and an unethical, corrupt politician. Romney was a religious idealist, and another neoliberal, but was also a master, and now defender, of the Wall Street system, and a rapacious capitalist and authoritarian.

Add to this list of liars, Ron Paul, who tells a much bigger lie, but with the conviction of a true believer in the Faith of Neoliberalism.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_consensus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism