This year I’ve been reading through “I Want to Live these Days with You”, daily devotionals based on the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I thought that yesterday’s (August 26th) selection was particularly appropriate to our present day: “A More Dangerous Enemy of the Good”.
 

Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than evil is. Against evil, one can protest; it can be exposed and, if necessary, stopped with force. Evil always carries the seed of its own self-destruction, because it at least leaves people with a feeling of uneasiness. But against stupidity, we are defenseless. Neither with protest nor with force can we do anything here; reasons have no effect. Facts that contradict one’s own prejudice need only to be disbelieved – in such cases stupid people even become critical, and when facts are unavoidable, they can simply be swept aside as meaningless isolated cases. Stupid people, in contrast to evil ones, are satisfied with themselves. Indeed, they become dangerous in that they may easily be stimulated to go on the attack. Therefore, more care must be taken in regard to stupidity than to evil…
 
Closer examination reveals that every strong external development of power, whether of a political or religious nature, strikes a large portion of the people with stupidity…
 
The biblical saying, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, (but fools despise wisdom and instruction)” [Proverbs 1:7] says that the internal liberation of people for responsible life before God is the only real way to overcome stupidity.
 
~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer ~

 
Bonhoeffer, writing in the 1940’s, was surrounded by the evil of Nazi Germany (this particular passage was written in prison). Yet he realized that the greater threat to “the good” wasn’t plainly obvious evil, but the susceptibility of a certain segment of the population to propaganda. He calls these people “stupid” a term that may seem rather harsh to our 21st century ears. But when I imagine Bonhoeffer watching his fellow Germans willingly following along with the Nazi lunacy – “stupid” probably seemed a pretty apt description. I suppose we could call them ignorant, sheeple, the easily misguided, but “stupid” is still the truth.
 

The Paulites and others have complained about the lack of attention for Sen. Ron Paul as a serious contender for the presidency. They believe he’s being ignored. OK then, let’s not ignore him.

Because the Paul campaign is not just a campaign for president. This is a campaign — a serious campaign — to re-educate the American people to an alternate universe of reality. A campaign that goes far beyond whatever will happen at the polls in 2012…
 
..Looming over the interesting and appealing ideas of the Paul campaign is a veritable political tornado of allegations involving anti-Semitism, racism, pacifism, far left-wingism and, at the edges, a tiny flicker of intimidation.

 
The above excerpt is from an article in The American Spectator by Jeffrey Lord;
Ron Paul and the Neoliberal Reeducation Campaign

 
Most true conservatives tend to ignore Paul as kind of crazy but mostly irrelevant. However, when you drill down into his philosophy a bit, things start to look a little more sinister.
To be fair, Sen. Paul’s fiscal positions do appeal to most conservatives. But his foreign policies lean decidedly left. Lord suggests a new label to adequately reflect Paul’s species of political animal; a “Neo-Liberal.” Or even a “Quasi-Conservative”.
 
Non-interventionism – that is, the idea that anybody else’s business is none of our business – can be downright dangerous. We learned that lesson in World War II and we shouldn’t forget it now that technology is virtually shrinking the globe. Now that nuclear weapons can cross oceans in minutes.
 
If your next-door neighbor is building bombs in his garage and ranting about your maple tree dropping leaves on his lawn, ignoring him is probably not the safest course of action.
 
But beyond Paul’s wrong-headed isolationist ideas are more nefarious tendencies. Reviewing 20th century history, Lord points out how non-interventionists always end up with a need to scapegoat their opposition. “(It) appears to be inevitable when the core premise of non-interventionism is that some dark force somewhere is pushing America into an unconstitutional interventionist war.” And somehow the “dark force” of choice is usually… the Jews.
 
And then there’s the bashing of staunch conservatives. Paul’s supporters have attacked at various times; Reagan, Palin, Justices Thomas and Scalia, Limbaugh and Levin.
 
I believe Lord’s article provides an answer my initial question. With Ron Paul we’re way beyond “annoying”, headed directly into “menace” territory.
 
Once we’re finally rid of the Master of Disaster in D.C. we’ll need a replacement who has both eyes open to the reality of evil in the world. A leader – not a Blamer-in-Chief. One with the courage and conviction to protect America from potential threats to its security, next door – or on the other side of the globe.
 
That ain’t Ron Paul.