"My name is Joe Roberts. I work for the state."

Thursday, cigarette #1
Outside Bass Library
MUSIC: "Highway Patrolman," Bruce Springsteen

Well, I chased him through the county roads
Till a sign said Canadian Border Five Miles from Here.
I pulled over to the side of the road
And watched his taillights disappear.

I catch him when he's straying, like any brother would.
If a man turns his back on his family, the man just ain't no good.

Things I Did Not Expect to See in Reason This Month: a sidebar in praise of Copperhead Road-era Steve Earle.

Things I Expected to See in Reason Two Months Ago: Brian Doherty's cover story, "Scenes from the Ron Paul Revolution".

Coincidence?

Probably. Still, Doherty's article makes a big deal of the fact that "I don't want to run your life" has equal appeal for Red State rustics like Steve Earle and urban libertarians like himself — more of a big deal than the alliance deserves. Reason needs to slow down before rushing into an alliance with rural gun-and-guitar types, because my enemy's enemy is not always my friend when that enemy is the State.

James Agee, who felt at home in both worlds, managed to sneak a very tidy summary of the intersection between populism and libertarianism into a review of The Postman Always Rings Twice:

. . . it is also interesting as the third current movie — the others are From This Day Forward and Deadline at Dawn — which represents the Law as an invincible and terrifying force before which mere victims, whether innocent or guilty, can only stand helpless and aghast. Of course this could at a moment's notice shift over to the one about the state being far greater than the individual, because stronger, smarter, and more inscrutable; and I suppose that before we know it, if not sooner, we shall have it that way. But so far the attitude is almost 100 per cent contemptuous of organized justice and is accepted as such, with evident pleasure, by the audience. I could almost believe that this indicates a Trend. I hope so.

To the extent that the two groups share an aesthetic aversion to the state, this image of "government as inscrutable and unaccountable edifice" is the nightmare driving both camps into the warm embrace of the Paul campaign. But not in the same way. Rural conservatives are afraid of the government dealing out any kind of judgment-with-a-capital-J because it's so unlike divine Judgment: I stand in terror of God's justice because he knows exactly who I am; I stand in terror before the faceless edifice of the Law because it doesn't, and doesn't care to. Libertarians reject both kinds of judgment equally, and, while it's unfair (though fun) to accuse every libertarian of being a gin-swilling polyamorist, their reasons for not being on board with any moral judgment outside the self probably wouldn't fly at a tent revival, or, for that matter, a blue-collar bar.*

Jesse Walker and Brian Doherty shouldn't be so quick to assume that they have any real common ground with Bruce Springsteen, people who look like they just stepped out of a Bruce Springsteen song, or (in the case of Steve Earle) people who think they're Bruce Springsteen. There may be more than divides than unites them.

*Cover Law Down has posted a haunting version of "Highway Patrolman" performed by Dar Williams (who isn't just for coffeehouse folkies anymore), and the song lays out better than I can the difference between why libertarians scoff at the law and why the rural working class does. Grab the MP3 while it lasts.