A note to my libertarian friends: autocracies are bad for your political health

A note to my libertarian friends: autocracies are bad for your political health. Rand Paul's rant against US support of Ukraine and blaming us for Russian invasion is not only a perversion of facts and advances Putin's cause in the US, it also is a position that is bad for libertarians' political health. There are certain libertarian positions, especially in the role of government in some issues with which I agree, but when it come to a foreign policy of isolation and democracy v authoritarianism I do not understand. Rand Paul, always marching to his on ideological libertarian beat, blamed the US for Russia's invasion of Ukraine, fear of Ukraine joining NATO, the tune played by the Kremlin, is not only twisted (Putin's own stated goal: land bridge to Crimea and to destroy Ukraine as a separate country that should be part of Mother Russia instead), it signals support of permitting autocratic rule. There is nothing more diametrically opposite to libertarianism than a dictatorship as a form of governance, . It is an extreme intrusion of government into personal and political lives whether the dictatorship is led by fascists, communists, or the simply power hungry. . As we have watched Putin's form of dictatorship, anyone who marches to a different drummer as Paul and his father have done over years, and speaks out as a leading voice against government policy, faces poison and jail . Web sites, broadcast news, ad social media that do not dance to the dictator' tune are blocked. Dissent in Putin's land is a no no..

Particularly dangerous to freedoms to speak your peace are libertarians like Paul are those who have lost grip with reality,  Putin's war shows the folly of US isolationism, thinking that the coast was clear to invade because of the four years of withdrawal from the leadership of the free world  (freedom from attacks on national sovereignty in western style democracies. Putin saw a significant number of such foreign policy adherents who wanted to destroy NATO's clause of an attack on one member is an attack on all and its purpose of defense, not aggression.  That lack of the grasp of ambitions of dictators is similar to the same miscalculation that was made with "Chamberlain's "peace in our time" as the British leader  turning over Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia would avoid World War II and satiate the appetite of Hitler.   The world stage is not just a theoretical clash of ideologies, it is about raw power and ambitions of to get or to keep that power.  

 Putin's epic miscalculation of the West's response to the Ukraine invasion has resulted in the opposite result  of   his strategy  to divide and weaken NATO,  as Sweden and Finland seek protection of their sovereignty and democracy in joining NATO and NATO is unified as never before.  The most dramatic exhibit of Putin's miscalculation was the meeting of 40 countries summoned by the US, meeting in Germany under the flags of the US and Ukraine, April 26,  to support Ukraine's military defense.  It was a diplomatic success unprecedented in history due to  the leadership of the Biden team and Biden   himself.

Rand Paul and Anthony Blinken Argue Over Ukraine's Sovereignty - Rolling Stone

Austin Says Group of 40 Nations Focused on Sending More Weapons to Ukraine | Military.com