Ron Paul as Prophet (Mark Sunwall)

Mark Sunwall says bringing the remnant together may well be Ron Paul's lasting legacy:

Those who fancy themselves part of what Albert J. Nock called "the remnant," i.e., the die-hard advocates of natural rights and civilized values, may sense, as this winter campaign stretches on and the spring of victory seems to recede, a feeling that it has all been in vain. Indeed, it would have been in vain if either we or our candidate had embarked on a campaign for political plunder, rather than what I prefer to call a "prophetic pantomime." The remnant may remain firm in its anti-political creed…but it has been a long season of acting out the part of men and women hungry for the spoils of victory. Even so, we should remind ourselves that it was never a game of win or loose, it was a game of speaking truth to power…which is more of a prophetic than a political function. Now it’s perfectly understandable that many people (and by no means just the fans of Senator Obama) would warm to the advent of a "great" president. But Ron Paul supporters wouldn’t want the good doctor to be quite as "great" as a Teddy Roosevelt, or even a Franklin Pierce, a William Henry Harrison, a Millard Fillmore or a Rutherford Hayes. I’m not sure how Thomas Carlyle would have answered Tina Turner’s assertion that "we don’t need another hero" but the Scottish curmudgeon at least had the perspicacity to point out that heroism comes in a variety of forms, some of them less dangerous to life and limb than others. For example if one consults the Bible one will find a distinction between the office of a seer and of a king, the latter being what today we would call a "politician," with some not too subtle hints that the former is more reputable than the latter. Note, in this regard, that Samuel usually comes off in a better light than David.

Read the rest