Spangler's advice: "keep pushing harder"

The question arises, should radical libertarians (i.e., anarchists) throw their time, money, and effort into Ron Paul’s presidential campaign? After all, by traditional political standards, Paul’s pretty “far out there,” at least on foreign policy and on issues of civil liberties. He may be the best we’ll ever get, at least until politics itself is finally dissolved.

Not surprisingly, the question came up last Thursday during the Spangler-Long-Conger appearance on Angela Keaton’s “The Liberated Space.” And Brad Spangler answered —and closed the show — with a wonderful explanation of both the role radical libertarian leftists play in the political arena and where their efforts right now should proceed:

“Radicals define the moderate position. By having the courage to talk about anarchism, by being out there and saying every day as much as you can, wherever you can, ‘We need to abolish government, we need to abolish it for reasons X, Y, Z and 1, 2, 3,’ you’re going to change what the boundaries of permissible debate are. And as a consequence, progressive developments like Ron Paul become more possible in the sense of you’re shifting where the center of gravity is.

“Centrists don’t have principles per se. They are simply at, literally, the political center of gravity in the political discourse of the nation. Radicals change what centrism is in the long run, and that’s why Ron Paul’s star has ascended right now, because we have shifted the level of political discourse in this country to a much more libertarian direction. Now is not the time for people who know better, who know we can get rid of the State, who know that that would be a more ethical system, who know that would be a more efficient system, to leave off what they’re doing and support Ron Paul. Now is the time to keep pushing harder and harder in a more radical direction.”