Rod Long on electoral politics

Written by Dixie Flatline

This post was originally made at Praxeology.net, as part of a “To Paul or not to Paul” series about Ron Paul. I think it’s interesting that 18 months ago, Rod Long defined his position as such (emphasis mine),

I don’t support Ron Paul’s candidacy, then, because my own talents, proclivities, and commitments lie with the Agorist and left-libertarian projects, and I value the promotion of those projects over the short-term benefits that Paul’s candidacy might gain at the expense of those projects. But I can’t see that this preference is compulsory for everybody. Even if every libertarian ought to be an Agorist and a cultural lefty (and so they ought! – there are limits to my Aristotelean pluralism), it seems to me that it does not follow that every libertarian ought to make the trade-off between those long-run projects and the possible short-run gains from Paul’s candidacy the same way I do.

I’m all for people changing their mind or revising their assessments, but in light of Rod Long declaring that he will run for the LP Chair in Alabama, I can’t help wondering if he no longer values agorist and left-libertarian projects over politics.

A shift in time preference may be afoot.  Perhaps the left-libertarian capital stock has been depleted, and long term projects have to be abandoned by the master builder.

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 2:26 pm and is filed under Activism, Liberty, Philosophy, Politics. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.

6 Comments »

  1. Roderick T. Long

    Well, it’s worth noting that part of the vision of the slate I’m running with is to separate the roles of Chair and chief administrator, making the Chair primarily an ideological spokesperson rather than a party manager. So the trade-off is not quite what you may have been assuming.

    Comment — June 22, 2009 @ 3:10 pm

  2. Dixie Flatline

    I only assumed the trade-off you indicated. I’m quite sure Ron Paul as President would not be a manager, but an ideological spokesperson.

    Comment — June 23, 2009 @ 4:22 pm

  3. GS

    LS, how long is my ban for?

    Comment — June 27, 2009 @ 6:44 pm

  4. Dixie Flatline

    I wouldn’t know. I am on vacation from the community. I will be back next Monday. Try asking Irenicus.

    Comment — June 27, 2009 @ 6:50 pm

  5. GS

    I can understand that, anyway, thanks for the quick reply. Sorry to hijack the blog.

    Keep up the good work on the blog.

    Comment — June 27, 2009 @ 7:22 pm

  6. Roderick T. Long

    I don’t understand your response to my comment. Oh well.

    Comment — July 9, 2009 @ 6:37 pm

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