If Paul were to win, that would rehabilitate conservatism in my eyes. The libertarian message is facile and callous, but it isn't insane. There's a reason most intelligent males go through a libertarian phase in their teens -- it seems to hang together and it seems just. Once you enter the real world, have a family, and start observing people as more than dots on a scatter plot the inanities of libertarianism become obvious, but when your life experience consists of math, science fiction, and a smattering of superficial social psychology, it looks like the most efficient solution to an engineering problem.
If only all conservatism were that benign. The virtues of the libertarian mindset, as distinct from the more malevolent brands of conservative thought, are: it leaves racism, sexism, and homophobia behind; it attempts to follow a "first, do no harm" principle (in reality it is lethal, but the people who follow it can't know that yet, they're too sheltered -- they're not monsters, they're just naive); it is an honest attempt to adhere to America's best instincts about the inherent equality of everyone.
Yes, it is irreparably infected by big money interests as well as a gender skew that ought to give pause to even its greatest adherents. Yes, it is yet another Utopian solution, which the world has had about enough of after the failure of the other Great Schemes. And yes, it in incredibly uncaring in the face of real world suffering, out of condescending True Believer bluster that the "great leap forward" always involves great pain (though, conveniently, not to them). But compared to the Neocons and the Theocons, it is the least poisonous form of current conservatism.
