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Friday, June 13, 2008
Ron Paul calls it quits. Then calls it starts.
I just finished watching Ron Paul's big speech in Texas, broadcast live on Justin.tv. As early reports (like ABC's) indicated, Ron Paul did, in fact, call a close to his presidential campaign. He clung on with what he called "a couple dozen" of official delegates to the forthcoming Republican convention in Minneapolis for many months. And today, that presidential campaign is over.
I have to admit to feeling sad about it. I went to the University of Michigan for that enormous Paulista gathering way back in the day. I got a giant sign and an "Enjoy Capitalism" t-shirt signed by Paul. I have a Ron Paul bumper sticker on my car (with Ontario licence plates). And I followed all of the intricacies of Paul's campaign with baited breath.
Seeing this front-page image on the Paul campaign website felt awful:
And this, in spite of the fact that, about a month ago, I sort of let go. Slowly, the Meetup groups that I was a part of morphed from talking about liberty, ending the war in Iraq, restoring habeas corpus and court access for terrorist suspects (the Supreme Court obliged those of us who think everyone is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, not in some sort of HRC-style "tribunal" for foreigners), decriminalizing marijuana, and so on, into discussions about the Bilderbergers, the Mayan calendar, and other topics that I myself consider beyond the pale of serious discussion. Basically: Looniness.
But Paul is promising to continue the "Revolution" under the "Campaign for Liberty"
banner. The goal is to encourage and support Ron Paul Republicans to
run for office and to win. With the ultimate goal of returning the GOP
to its Old Right, paleoconservative roots (with a stronger Austrian
economics bent). Small government, protection of civil, personal and
economic liberties, non-interventionism, legalizing competing
currencies, and so on.
The Campaign for Liberty is going to be broader than this, Paul tells us. During his speech, he sort of hinted at the idea of starting their own news outlets.
All of this is to be done at the grassroots level. For those of us who followed Paul's campaign, we know that nothing was centrally directed. All the money Paul raised had nothing to do with his official campaign. Just some bloggers and forum crawlers picking special days, getting enough support, and publicising the event. The blimp, the rallies, the banners, the logos, the graphic design, the, well, everything, was organized by an internet army. Knowing this, I always have a good laugh when people ask what "techniques" Paul used to get all that financial support, and how others can learn from his campaign. You can't.
Here's what I'm wondering: Will Paulistas follow Paul into this campaign, and stay within the Republican Party, or will they bolt for the Bob Barr Libertarian Party door? Barr is actively courting the Paulites. He happily uses Paul's language. But Paul has not, and probably will not, endorse Bob Barr (interestingly, he has already said that he won't endorse John McCain).
At any rate, the Paul movement is big. It's really big. And it's passionate. And they have a demonstrated record of willingness to put their money where their mouth is. McCain and others can ignore them. But that's a mistake.
Posted by P.M. Jaworski on June 13, 2008 in International Politics | Permalink
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Comments
Thank God, he's gone. Now the big kids can get the race started.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-06-13 6:24:07 AM
Dear insightful Canadian friend,
I understand your sadness. But Ron Paul has had so many unsurmountable obstacles he was unable to overcome this time around, most particularly the vote count fraud in the primaries.
I personally witnessed CNN screen shots in 2 separate primaries where his vote count actually went "backwards" hundreds of votes, after starting out beating McCain in a 5 to 1 victory. He himself has acknowledged the vote fraud in more than one speech.
Did we all know deep down that Ron Paul could not ultimately triumph against the media black-outs and the Diebold DRE's in the presidential campaign?
But don't fret; we still have our Ron Paul. And our numbers here in America are growing. And I'm very excited about his Campaign for Liberty.
Please, however, take strong note that those of us who consider ourselves "true supporters" of Ron Paul will have NOTHING to do with former CIA-member and supporter of the War on Drugs Libertarian infiltrator, Bob Barr and his sidekick war-monger Root. Uggggh. So unpleasant a pair to crawl out from under a neocon rock, not fit to shine Ron Paul's shoes. The day Barr was nominated was the day the Libertarian Party died -- murder by suicide, I call it.
I will be at the St. Paul Minnesota Rally on September 2. Hope you might be able to join us.
Blessings on us all,
blakmira
Posted by: blakmira | 2008-06-13 10:56:08 AM
Unless Ron Paul is offered the vice presidency, I am likely to write in Ron Paul on the ballot in November. There simply isn't another person that I would wish to be my President. He stands up for what I believe.
If Ron Paul were to endorse Chuck Baldwin, I would take this as a sign that I should vote for Chuck, but until that happens, Ron Paul has my vote. PERIOD
Posted by: Gooby | 2008-06-17 5:49:14 PM
Gooby, if you insist on taking your marching orders from Ron Paul here are his thoughts on writing-in his name on your ballot from a recent phone interview with Reason's David Weigel: "I don’t think that’s very productive, they could do it, of course, but in most of the states it won’t count. If they can change the rules in a primary and not count all the votes, imagine what they could do with write-in votes!"
There's nothing wrong with a protest vote, nor anything with refusing to vote (in fact I think both are great ideas). But it hardly seems worth registering a protest that noone will see. I would recommend that you check what the write-in rules are for your state before deciding to write-in Ron Paul. Here's a simple chart where you can find out whether your vote would be counted:
http://mfoster.com/misc/write-in_rules_2008.html
Keep in mind that Ron Paul has not filed as a write-in candidate anywhere.
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-06-17 6:13:59 PM
Don't worry ZP, you won't lose your babysitter. You might vote for freedom when you grow up and read history.
Posted by: Blogster | 2008-06-17 6:31:54 PM
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