A good piece at Reason.com called “Rand Paul Is Out—But Libertarianism Is Finally Mainstream“:

Rand Paul beat them all after being excluded from the Fox Business debate just a few weeks earlier. I’m going to call that a comeback—one small step for mankind, another bigger step for the future of liberty. Why? Because Rand has seeded another generation of liberty-minded young people, much like his father did in 2008 and 2012. When I was a kid, there was no broad social movement for liberty like we see today. Rand juiced the build-out of this community simply by being on the presidential stage, by offering a compelling alternative to the establishment’s failed foreign policies, and by speaking about civil liberties and the failures of mass incarceration to new audiences that few Republicans have been willing to engage with.

As a conservatarian (a mixture of conservatism and libertarianism), I’m deeply indebted to Rand Paul for his fantastic work to mainstream libertarianism, or actually conservatarianism. I didn’t support him this election for a host of reasons, including his support for Mitch McConnell, his somewhat bitter attitude, and — quite frankly — the fact that Ted Cruz is simply a better candidate with a better organization, a similar principled stance on some important issues, and a better, more realistic foreign policy.

And yes, when it boils down to it, Ted is actually a conservatarian as well.

In any case, despite my support for Cruz, I am and will remain an admirer of Rand, and I hope he’ll win his Senate race this year. If Cruz becomes America’s 45th president, which I think he will, Rand will undoubtedly end up being the most powerful senator in the country, perhaps together with Mike Lee and Jeff Sessions. And that would be a great thing — for America and the rest of the world.