Evan McLaren

Since stumbling upon his articles at LewRockwell.com several years ago, my place, with respect to intellect and understanding, has been in Paul Gottfried’s shadow. Reading his obligatory volumes on twentieth-century politics is a precondition for serious conversation about the way we now are as a Western society. His polemical pieces are always timely nourishment for those of us starved for theoretical balance and sanity. And he has been a personally gracious mentor.

But even mentors make mistakes, glaring ones. In this case his was at once analytical and personal. Paul recently went ballistic on an undeserving colleague, in whom he evidently sees a callow minicon spear-chucker whose aim is “making nice to the Left.” Unlike the penitential apology of an intimidated, retreating Somers, however, Gottfried’s outburst raises more questions than it answers.

For starters, if Somers is indeed such a shallow suck-up why was he busily soliciting Nick Griffin’s visit in the first place? Somers did so mostly on his individual initiative in the isolated setting of a rural Ohio campus. Was this part of his long-term design to win approval from the campus Left? Or perhaps this gesture was calibrated to impress the hierarchical masters of the GOP, who joyously pushed Griffin to the speaker’s podium at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.

Ron Paul’s victory in the CPAC straw poll triggered renewed discussion of his message, a discussion typically styled as an a la carte acceptance or rejection of his various recommendations and stances. So, for example, Jonah Goldberg will go along with auditing the Fed, kind of, and he isn’t part of the neoconservative cabal, and...

I am dying to know how each individual movement lackey feels about Paul. Really I am. Yet the overall verdict already is in and it’s not necessarily wrong because it’s being expressed by the neocons or the establishment or the GOP hacks or whoever. It’s that Ron Paul doesn’t function well as the leader of one of the two governing parties.