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You know, based on your comments I didn't think you would post anything to get my attention. My apologies: I stand corrected.

I greatly revere Reagan, and that's not easy in my part of the world (Pittsburgh, union town). But I've also taken what you quote to the logical extreme, and haven't stepped into a voting booth since '99. Paul was going to be the first person that drag me back out to it (note: our primaries here are still a good 6 weeks or so away).

But the entire time I had a nagging feeling, and I think you just hit it. Any of these men are still just men. And even though Paul was the only candidate in my lifetime to outright say that he was running for president because he didn't want to run our lives, freedom doesn't come from him, or from any man other than ourselves. The joke I tell about my voting is that the last person I voted for is the only person I'll ever trust again to run my life. That was the year I ran for office. :-)

But I think now I can say that same thing without joking.

I used to post on FreeRepublic somewhat regularly. I left when my kind (libertarian-anarchist) became unofficial persona non grata. I only poked my head back during this election to see how FR was reacting to the doctor's candidacy. Like you said, it taught a lot. But the thing it most taught I think was what you said above.

The thing that I think that this board, and every political board like it needs to finally stop denying is this: freedom is not the property of any political party. It's not the property of any human institution of any kind, for that matter, including that human institution called the United States. Anyone who is truly a freedom fighter should know that it can and will reside anywhere it can take root, and can and will be snuffed out anywhere it did once the agents of control lock onto it.

In other words, anyone who believes in the power of freedom shouldn't give the first one-quarter of a metric goddamn which party or individual or religion or country or language or strategy or anything it is necessary to support or fight to seize it. The moment the fight becomes more about the method than the goal, the goal is lost.

I left here because that's what I saw this place turning into. Heck, I see almost the entire country turning into it. Everyone has their favorite team, and if you're not with us you're against us. And I wasn't on the team anymore.

I hope this election wakes us up to danger inherent in that. Yes, even as someone who was awed by what he did, Paul wasn't perfect, not in the least. Neither was Reagan. Neither is the GOP (should I say "was" there too?). Neither is/was the Libertarian Party that I ran under. Neither are any of the anarchists that I read these days. Nei-ther-is-fri-ckin-a-ny-one! I didn't hang our here to be a part of any golden solution to all of our problems.

I hung out here because there was a consistency in ideology that let me discuss things with others constructively. Even when I disagreed (and there was no shortage of that), there were enough common principles that I could at least engage someone. Personally, I think that's way better a use of time and disk space than 300-post threads of people patting each other on the back, even if every now and then you need one of those to blow off steam.

Now I stay away because everything I've seen, except for this debate, which really even itself was sort of forced in (and even then I saw hints about banning threads mentioning Paul's name), I don't see that anymore. And you know, if that's how Free Republic wants to stay, that's fine. I've been literally kicked out of other places before, and I don't imagine that will ever stop. It does little to me personally.

But like I said, I hung out here once for a reason. That reason still exists. So howz it going to be, Free Republic? Is a non-voting anarchist too much for you even if he has fought for many of the same things you have? Even though this isn't first a Libertarian Party board (though that's pretty much my point), I ask the same question of you that I earlier this year asked the "party of principle": which, party or principle, is more important to you?

I made my choice long ago. I'd like to see what the choice here is now.

Thanks, mnehrling. I didn't think we'd be able to come to any agreement. I'm glad to see I was proven wrong. Excellent, well-needed post.