Ron Paul Sells Out

Ramesh, from a few years back, on Frank Meyer:

The influence of fusionism has not been wholly positive. Meyer contributed to an unfortunate tendency among conservatives toward theoretical maximalism, as in his casual reference to “the totalitarian implications of the federal school lunch program.”

David Freddoso, yesterday, on a sense-of-the-House resolution to the effect that public schools should offer healthy lunches:

What to make of Ron Paul's "aye" vote? Is he selling out to win the presidential race?

A Paul staffer informs me: "It was a sense of Congress [resolution]. It was harmless. It didn't do anything." Also, he said, Dr. Paul figures that as long as there is a school lunch program, the least we can do is make sure it isn't doing too much damage to American children.

Well, okay. I would have still thought of this vote as a teachable moment for the American people. After all, it's not often that someone like Paul gets all this attention. The wave of interest in him as the anti-war Republican gives him a nice platform from which to explain to liberals why socialism is bad.

Indeed. I know that whenever I try to explain to my liberal friends why I'm not a socialist, I usually start with the case against healthy school lunches and work my way forward from there.

Photo by Flickr user Bookgrl used under a Creative Commons license.