Students for Liberty, UC Berkeley

With the Republican presidential primary in full swing, we libertarians have been doing what we do best—squabbling! This year’s object of infighting is Congressman Ron Paul, the constitutionalist candidate who is trailblazing the race riding the rhetoric of freedom. So many questions have surrounded this underdog, not the least of which comes from within our movement.

Is Ron Paul truly beneficial to liberty? Are his positions on immigration and abortion libertarian enough to be worthy of support? Or, is he a just rambling old racist who will only wreak havoc on outsiders’ image of our movement? These questions and many more permeate an endless array of articles, blog posts, and Facebook threads scattered across the Internet. At the end of the day, these debates often boil down to one central question regarding how to implement libertarian social change. Namely, should the movement engage in political action through endorsing a candidate like Ron Paul? Or, should it remain content with the educational niche it has carved out for itself through think tanks, lectures, and literature?

Quite frankly, I find this debate to be completely futile because it is premised on the misguided assumption that education and political action are mutually exclusive. On the contrary, it is perfectly possible—and, in my opinion, healthy—for the libertarian movement engage inboth education and political action. Indeed, it’s already happening! As the old saying goes, it is never wise to “put all your eggs in one basket.” So, why are so many libertarians seeking some one-size-fits-all strategy to social change? Dare I say, that sounds rather statist!

Rather, for liberty to truly flourish, our movement should resemble the market principles we so loudly laud through encouraging individuals to engage with their comparative advantage. The more education-oriented among us can work at universities, think tanks, and nonprofits dedicated to promoting liberty through intellectual means, while the election-oriented can take action through political parties, campaigns, special interest groups. In this manner, the two camps of education and politics can happily coexist. In fact, like the yin yang concept of Chinese philosophy, this coexistence often give rise to each other.

Education and politics: the yin and yang of libertarian social change.

To illustrate this elusive concept and return to Ron Paul, I’d like to share an anecdote from Students For Liberty‘s first Campus Coordinator Retreat in July 2010. During the icebreaker session on day one, SFL’s first class of Campus Coordinators were asked to introduce ourselves and briefly explain how we were introduced to libertarianism. Personally, reading Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as a teenager made me “see the light,” and I expected most students to answer with a similar story of some educational experience that caused them to convert. Instead,almost all of the SFL leaders present that day proudly proclaimed that it was Ron Paul who introduced them libertarianism, and since his 2008 campaign, they had been thoroughly engrossed in the philosophy of freedom. In other words, it was Ron Paul’s political presidential campaign than inspired them to educationally explore liberty.

Thus, contrary to the common misconception, education and political action are not mutually exclusive. Rather, like the yin and yang, they strengthen and give meaning to each other. Just as political action is meaningless without an underling ideology, so too are ideas useless without attempting to implement them in action.

So, while it may seem unlikely that Ron Paul wins this year’s Republican primary, it is a disservice to liberty to ignore his “r3VOLution.” Ron Paul singlehandedly reinvigorated the libertarian movement in 2008, introducing thousands, if not millions, of people to the philosophy of freedom—probably including most of SFL’s leadership! This year, he is doing the same with an even stronger campaign and popular support. That is why I as an individual am both a proud leader of SFL and donor to Ron Paul 2012—because I recognize that education and politics are not mutually exclusive but rather are two counterparts to a unitary libertarian movement.