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Last Respects

Over the weekend, I said goodbye to two friends: Ronn Neff and Mike Gravel.

Ronald Nelson Neff passed away September 26th, at age 72, after “a prolonged illness,” wrote his longtime friend, Tom McPherson, at The Last Ditch, a libertarian/​anarchist newsletter the two co-founded.

Neff, a well-​respected editor of numerous books and publications throughout his career, was perhaps best known as managing editor of Joe Sobran’s newsletter from 1994 to 2007. Ronn also authored important libertarian essays, including “Polite Totalitarianism.”

Jacob Hornberger, president of The Future of Freedom Foundation, remembered Neff as “one of the most committed, passionate, knowledgeable, and principled libertarians you’d ever meet.”

Ronn was that sort of Christian, too. Before ever meeting him, while I sat in prison for refusing to register for the military draft (1985), he and his wife began tithing each month to help my family. When our car broke down, Neff’s generosity made it possible for my wife and daughter to continue to travel the six hours to visit me.

Yes, there are people like that. 

Mike Gravel died at his California home on June 26th from multiple myeloma. History may remember the 91-​year-​old best as the courageous Democratic U.S. Senator from Alaska who — five decades ago, during Vietnam — dared to read the Pentagon Papers into the congressional record and filibustered against the military draft. 

In 2008, Gravel decided to advance his political causes by running for president somewhat unconventionally — seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination and later the Libertarian Party’s. 

Then in 2020, at 90, he allowed a group of high school students to use his Twitter feed to run him for president in a “front-​porch” campaign. A new documentary about the effort, American Gadfly, is being released later this year. 

I first connected with Mike in the 1990s, when I was running U.S. Term Limits (another issue the two-​term senator and I clicked on). Yet, what inspired me most about Gravel was his incredible zeal for direct democracy, for citizens having more say-​so through initiative, referendum and recall. 

Instead of the disdain for the public exhibited by so many Washington insiders, Senator Gravel had a profound respect for the people

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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And Then There Were 20-Something

The media won’t have my favorite Democratic presidential candidate to kick around anymore. 

“Mike Gravel drops out of 2020 race,” Vox headlined Catherine Kim’s report. “He never wanted to be president anyway.” A subhead continued: “The former Alaska senator simply ran to get other candidates to talk about American imperialism.”

It was largely a Twitter campaign, which, as The New York Times featured months ago, was run by two teenagers, David Oks and Henry Williams. “It wasn’t exactly a bid for the presidency,” the paper cautioned, “but neither was it really a prank.”

The goal? Launch Gravel — and, moreover, his issues — onto the debate stage. Though the campaign garnered enough individual donors to qualify, his lackluster polling results kept the former U.S. Senator out of prime time.

During the Vietnam War, Sen. Gravel worked to end the military draft and had the courage to read the Pentagon Papers into the Senate record in order to inform the public about the war. After leaving the Senate, Gravel continued his battle against U.S. military intervention, as well as advocating for initiative and referendum.

Back in 2008, in another quixotic presidential bid, he succeeded getting into the debates, lobbing in a few much-​needed zingers. He was 77-​years-​old then; today he is 89.

Oks’ and Williams’ “real goal was to inject Gravel’s far-​left views,”  informed FiveThirtyEight​.com, “into the primary.”

Though I disagree with Mike Gravel on a number of his “far-​left” issues — and for endorsing Bernie Sanders for president — he has my utmost respect. 

And if “ending ‘imperialist’ wars, legalizing drugs and enacting dramatic political reforms” be “far left,” make the most of it.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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MIke Gravel, president, candidate, war, draft,

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