They say common sense is not common, and the bien-pensants' treatment of Ron Paul surely underscores that unhappy observation. Clearly, we live in a fallen world.

I am reminded of The Power Elite author C. Wright Mills' epithet for right-thinking nincompoops like Josh Harkinson. Libertarians like Ron Paul are cranks, nutters, utopians, loons, neo-Confederates, and (of course) racists and anti-Semites. As for Harkinson and his ilk on the "responsible" left and right, they're crackpot realists.