John Lennon a Republican?

Hard to know. But Glenn Reynolds adds:

I had heard stories of him breaking people's ribs, and they didn't seem very credible in light of my memories of the fragile and emaciated Yoko-era John. But looking at the earlier Lennon, well, yeah.

Incredible as it may sound to the people forever stuck on Lennon's pacifist image, among the last books Lennon read was Will, by G. Gordon Liddy. (I've written about the book before, and I don't think I need to revisit it in detail. But take my word for it; Will is not a pacifist screed.)

While I can't find Internet confirmation of this, I have read and heard repeatedly that Lennon was in his strung out, dependent state when he read Will, and was moved and inspired by Liddy's story of defeating fear, defying all three branches of the federal government, and transforming a prison sentence into an opportunity to prevail.

Whether John Lennon would have become a Republican I do not know. But what I do know is that reading a book like Will in a state of despair can lead to the discovery of previously unsuspected inner strength and self reliance. Such things are anything but fragile. Whether they are -- or were -- necessarily Republican is more of a political question.

(A question which John Lennon can't answer.)