The Tradition of Ron Paul

Defeated in the Cold War, it is back in this current war

‘WAR is the health of the state,’ proclaimed Randolph Bourne, one of the comparatively few progressive intellectuals not to be seduced by the siren call of World War I. Bourne himself was but a momentary courier of the warning torch meant to illuminate the threat that standing armies, militarism, and foreign intervention supposedly present to liberty. “Brutus” – the author of the leading essays against ratification of the Constitution (the Anti-Federalist, as it were) – warned repeatedly that a permanent military and the strong central government necessary to sustain it were inimical to liberty at home. Thomas Jefferson famously shared similar anxieties.

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Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg is a National Review contributing editor.

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Defeated in the Cold War, it is back in this current war

‘WAR is the health of the state,’ proclaimed Randolph Bourne, one of the comparatively few progressive intellectuals not to be seduced by the siren call of World War I. Bourne himself was but a momentary courier of the warning torch meant to illuminate the threat that standing armies, militarism, and foreign intervention supposedly present to liberty. “Brutus” – the author of the leading essays against ratification of the Constitution (the Anti-Federalist, as it were) – warned repeatedly that a permanent military and the strong central government necessary to sustain it were inimical to liberty at home. Thomas Jefferson famously shared similar anxieties.