Reply #65: Actually, much as I loathe Thatcher...

[LeftishBrit]

I think that she did have honour and integrity in her own way. She was absolutely financially honest (though she created a culture which enabled financial corruption, and though her son is a total crook); and though one cannot say that like the George Washington legend she 'never told a lie', I think one can say that she very rarely told a lie in which she herself did not believe.

A closer analogue to Ron Paul might be the maverick and racist politician Enoch Powell, whose anti-immigrant venom and hatred of Europe, etc. may have attracted the tabloids and the mobs, but actually damaged his political career. He clearly believed in what he was saying. And like Paul, he was occasionally accidentally right about certain issues (can't remember which at the moment!, but I know he opposed a few of Thatcher's policies).

Being principled is not on its own a good thing, though being unprincipled is generally a bad thing. People can have evil and dangerous principles and strongly and genuinely believe in them.