Ok, I know, it's ridiculous, but being a libertarian means both being an outrageous optimist and a terrible pessimist. And as such, I'm feeling both very despondent and very excited about the snowballing run of Ron Paul towards the White House.
Yes, he'll probably have a terrible car accident or go down in a plane if he actually ever gets in with a sniff of real power, in the novelesque mode of Neal Stephenson; and let's face it, he'll probably get pushed out of the race before even that due to a conspiracy of neo-con deadbeats.
But there's just that little word, 'if'.
If he makes it through the nominations to beat Il Duce Moroni Giuliani, and if he then beats El Laviscia Clintonia in 2008, and if he can make it to a second term to get eight years in office, and if he lives that long in face of all those mysteriously exploding planes and Washington coups against him, there is the merest glimmer (and I mean the merest glimmer) that we super-Jeffersonians could once again see the faintest re-birth of a golden liberal civilisation.
There's an awful lot of ifs in that, and an awful lot of conjecture, and Dr. Ron Paul will need to find a successor to follow his legacy (Can you imagine President Rockwell?), but although it is all a soap bubble and I refuse to believe any more in democracy, I just can't believe how excited I am that Ron Paul is actually making waves in America.
As an atheist I can't believe I'm saying this, but I keep praying that the Ron Paul dream can go all the way. As long as he's in the race, there's the tiniest chance that humanity may have turned the corner.
I may be spending too much time on the Central Line again, the heat may be melting my brain., and you'll have watch out for my terrible depression if and when he drops out. However, in the meantime:
Go Ron, Go!