I was shocked to receive an email today regarding the death of Ron Paul’s campaign chairman, Kent Snyder. I met Snyder when I was in Iowa campaigning in January, and he was a very personable guy from what I could tell in the brief time we crossed paths. I’ve been waiting for the perfect piece of news to propel me into regular blogging again in a very negative political atmosphere, and more than anything this is it. We all have a limited time in this world, and we have to do what we can to make it better, you know?
Kent Snyder would understand that. He left a lucrative career to return to Congress when Ron Paul did in 1996, but that’s not his greatest accomplishment. That came in the twilight of his life last year, when he convinced Dr. Paul to run for president, leading to the “wildest libertarian campaign in American history.” In fact, it’s because of Kent Snyder that this blog exists, because I was inspired to begin it after getting excited about Ron Paul’s campaign and then realizing that someone actually had not yet taken the libertariangirl.com domain.
It’s terribly sad news. One of my favorite Ron Paul stories is one Kent told Texas Monthly last year. Working for Ron Paul’s 1988 Libertarian presidential campaign, Snyder was stopped in the halls of the capitol building by John McCain, who told him: “You’re working for the most honest man in Congress.” McCain isn’t really one to tell the truth, but he certainly was in that case.
If you never got to see Kent Snyder in action during his lifetime, here’s a long video of him discussing the campaign and issues that were close to his heart. In addition to working for Congressman Paul (who even served as the subject of Snyder’s master’s thesis), Snyder was the head of the Liberty Committee and against such government intervention as TeenScreen (”No Child Left Undrugged”), the subject of this video.
“This is more comprehensive than even Orwell’s creative mind could conceive.” — Kent Snyder on TeenScreen
I remember a few people commenting about Dr. Paul’s age during his campaign– not realizing that the person who would not live to see another year was his younger campaign manager and friend, Kent Snyder. He was 49 years old.
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