@Eugene, I used to follow at least 99% of all RP content I could find. He’s an outspoken anarchist by other names, and yet he’s an outspoken statist. He’s said he thinks government should be as decentralized and local as possible, to the point of there being “6 billion governments.” But then he says we need to return to the constitution for the sake of limited government. He’s said several times he’s a voluntaryist and is for free markets. Rothbard wrote the intro to Paul’s gold book, and Ron Paul has spoken highly of Rothbard and recommended him by name when given the opportunity at least once that I remember distinctly.
But at the same time he’s a politician, and that has rubbed off on his son, whom appears fairly corrupt to me (not even close to anarchist in rhetoric and probably not in voting either).
Ultimately, I think Ron Paul is an epic hero, but nobody’s perfect and hindsight is 20/20 and in my opinion if he doesn’t pull some anarchist stuff in a huge way then he has wasted a chance that only rare legends get in history. That doesn’t mean he’s a failure by any means, but he knows the truth and if you listen to him he’s completely selling out like a preacher, he advocates strongly for one of the purest evils imaginable: limited constitutional government.
This has been my view since I started arguing it on Ron Paul’s own C4L forums years ago. It must have been at least that long ago when he said the 6 billion governments thing.