Ron Paul vs. the “Neocons”

On Wednesday, I criticized Ron Paul for being the one member of the House who voted against a resolution congratulating Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo on his Nobel peace prize. I said that the Achilles heel of Paul’s brand of libertarianism is foreign policy.
This brought a number of responses from Paulites on Twitter. One Ron Paul fan, in particular, responded with this series of tweets:

If you ever listened to Dr. Paul, he does not believe resolutions congratulating or giving gifts are under the Jx of the House.

Actually, he voted for a resolution honoring golfer Chi Chi Rodriguez.

I stopped taking you Neocons seriously many years ago. Where are the WMD’s? You should sign up to fight in the Army!

I think that is what is technically known as a non sequitur. But if you are a Paulite, it doesn’t take much to make someone a “neocon.” Apparently that term includes everyone in the House except Paul.

Your freedom efforts abroad are needed. Perhaps there’s a place in sub-saharan Africa in which you can serve.

This is almost like the good old days of 2005!

You could be used on patrol in Iraq! You want to spread some of this freedom around, don’t you?

All of this over a resolution congratulating a Chinese dissident on winning the Nobel Peace Prize! To my knowledge, no one has advocated invading China–certainly not me. It is a little hard to understand the mentality that is outraged by a simple expression of support for freedom somewhere other than the U.S.
Somehow, though, among people who are obsessed with “neocons” and see them under every bed, there seems to be a common thread. Here is the last of this gentleman’s tweets, which came in a day after the others:

Jews & non-jews are not allowed to marry in Israel. What can we do to bring these people freedom?

That is also a non sequitur, of course, but perhaps an illuminating one.

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