Is there any reason to hope?

I'm sure you were wondering what our friend Ron Paul has been up to lately. Turns out he's been on the lecture circuit when he's not in Congress or in his district campaigning. He recently visited Baltimore's Goucher College, then paid a follow-up call-in to the Ron Smith Show on WBAL. Judging from this report from a listener to the show, there isn't much reason for hope if Goucher students are in any way representative of their generation.

"They almost universally like what he says about the war, but they simply don't understand constitutional government. Almost without fail, they could not help but ask him what he'd replace things with.

”For example, one girl asked, ‘Since No Child Left Behind has been such a failure, what would you replace it with?’ Ron answered about how it could do nothing but fail and how it was absurd for Washington to get so involved in education. The girl still didn't get it, she restated her question – ‘but what would you do instead?’ Ron replied, ‘I think we've done too much already. I would get Washington out of your hair.’

“Another girl asked about the wage gap for women (obviously not aware that there really is no such thing), and what Ron would do about it. ‘Nothing’ was his basic answer. He said he couldn't wrap his head, as a Libertarian, around treating one person differently than another. She walked away with her head held down.

“One of the boys asked about how Ron would create jobs. Once again, Ron talked about how that is capitalism's job, not government's.

”The kids just didn't get it. They can't really grasp the idea of Washington doing nothing about a problem, as Paul is undoubtedly the first politician they've ever heard propose doing nothing, insisting rather that you can do it better than they can. You could see the confusion on their faces when he said ‘As president I would get Washington out of the abortion business, putting the decision back in the states, where it belongs.’

“The realization that all these kids know is politicians promising to fix everything, never having seen one tell the truth - that they can't fix it, filled me with shame.

”The one thing they do understand, however, is that the central bank is a problem. I found that very illustrative.”

Well, at least they understand that the Central Bank is an unmitigated disaster. But...and I can't stress this strongly enough...can you really blame the kids? After all, their stupid parents still think that government has all of the answers. I mean, look at the three steaming piles of disaster we've got left in the race for the White House. There's no way anyone who understands the principles of limited government could vote for ANY of them. Not even for dog catcher.

This story -- the story of the US of A -- is going to end badly. Very badly.