Ron Paul’s economic advisor, Don Luskin, has left to join the McCain campaign. I don’t know much about Luskin, except that Paul Krugman once accused him of stalking, and he seems to share Ron Paul’s gold bug tendencies, which makes me nervous. However, the merit of Luskin’s economic views is irrelevant here. What interests me is the reaction from Ron Paul supporters. There are currently 284 comments discussing the issue on Paul’s website, and almost all of them are apoplectic. A small sample:

“GOOD…He was def not part of the Revolution anyways”

“HE’S A FLIP FLOPPER, A LIAR, A TRAITOR, A CHARLATAN, LIKE MCCAIN. BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLY TOGETHER.”

“You couldn’t write a script any better than this. It almost makes me want to laugh. Almost. Ron Paul all the way”

“Every revolution has its traitors, its Benedict Arnolds. This is ours. Better to get rid of dead weight early as possible.”

“On the Ballot or not, I am voting Dr. Paul in primary and in Nov. b.c. guys like this traitor have made me ashamed to call myself a Republican. Now they will pay by losing my VOTE……………FIGHT UNTIL THE END and NEVER QUIT!! F them all! I will not cave in and vote for anyone else NO MATTER WHAT!!”

“Luskin is a fool and typical traitor who needs to be lined up with the rest and exicuted for treason”

I really don’t understand this mentality. You would assume that the spread of Paulite thinking to other Republican campaigns would be a good thing. Surely even the most ardent Ron Paul supporters have realised that Paul now has no chance of being elected president? (McCain’s likelihood of winning in November is a matter for debate, but suffice to say it’s substantially higher than Ron Paul’s.) They should be happy that someone from Ron Paul’s camp will be in a position where they might be able to influence policy. Instead they want to have him “exicuted for treason (sic)”.

This is symptomatic of a larger problem with libertarianism: libertarians have good ideas, but they often seem more interested in maintaining ideological purity than actually translating their ideas into public policy. This probably stems from frustration over the compromises that libertarians, as representatives of a minority position, must inevitably make when they get involved in politics. Why compromise when you can retreat into insular ideological movements, create libertarian parties, and set up Paulville gated communities.

This is a pity. Politics in liberal democracies is not a struggle in which you can achieve a final victory; a reality than Paulites, with their “revolution” rhetoric, seem to miss entirely. Democratic politics is a protracted series of small battles that allows for, at best, incremental progress towards a more desirable situation. Fighting these battles can be exhausting and demoralising, but it is also important and necessary. Everyone loses when libertarians walk off the battlefield.