No, We Are Not

MarketWatch:

This is horrible news for the Rand Paul campaign.  I've said several times already: he only has a chance at the nomination if he can keep quiet on the drug legalization topic.  He will flame-out the moment he is tied to this, as his other priorities will soon be forgotten.  If it hasn't happened already, then wait.  Watch.  And see.

The Libertarian movement is made up of two frustrated camps: conservatives and liberals.  They can't acknowledge this unstable state, or their movement would explode like a Helium atom holding onto 25 electrons.  The glue that holds them together: "Both Parties Suck!" 

I've ventured down the trail that leads to Libertarianism.  I am more sympathetic to their origins than they will give me credit for.  But on that trail, I took the fork in the road that turned away from the cliff. 

This doesn't mean I don't pay attention.

Ask a Libertarian to tell you his (they are almost exclusively male) top priority and you'll learn his true ideology.  "End the Fed," or "Limited Government" will come from my allies, the conservatives.  "End the Drug War," or "Release Non-Violent Drug Offenders," or "Legalize Pot/Meth/Heroin because Personal Responsibility," or "End Foreign Wars and Disband the Military Industrial Complex," and you have a disgruntled hippie Democrat who, like all liberals, is anxious to dilute this nation's family and religious values.

Each side can articulate and defend the other side's arguments, but their top priority will tell you what they really are.  And if a Ron Paul-type were to somehow get elected, these divisions would come out on day one of his administration.  And 4 years later none of the Libertarian priorities would have been accomplished.

I think Rand Paul is a solid guy overall.  I will vote for him is he wins the GOP nomination.  But I don't even consider him because he won't get past his socially-liberal flaws in the GOP.  Maybe he could in another time, but not after 8 years of Obama. 

I'd advise anyone who cannot see the difference between the Democrat Party and the Republican Party in 2016, nor the stakes in this coming election, to step away from the bong.

My $0.02.