Topic: Libertarianism
This is Libertarianism? This is Self-Reliance? An awful lot of the response to Representative Paul's effectively ending his campaign seems to be divided between despondance, dependence, and delusion.by rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Let's admit that Ron Paul this week effectively ended not only his campaign but his central role in the movement which arose to support it. He has announced that he does not expect to wing the nomination, and while he calls for continued efforts in the coming primary and caucus states, he has indicated that he will not be involved in planning the Washington March which he called for, and that he may even find it inconvenient to attend.
The announcement that he does not expect the nomination, which he had earlier indicated to be his perception of reality, is not, nor should it be, a surprise to anyone who has been following the returns. This does not mean that every effort should not be made to secure votes for him and the continue to spread the message of liberty which, for many would have been unheard without his personal effort along with the efforts of his supporters, many of whom had been silent before he announced his candidacy.
As the leader who first called for the Washington March, I will say, as I said at the time, that he would have to be involved in the planning. Announcing his preferred date should help, but his indication that he might find it inconvenient to attend strikes me as a pretty cavalier dismissal of a project he began. This is the first time since he began his campaign for President that I have been disappointed in a personal action by Representative Paul
But I have been even more disappointed in the reactions of some of those who were attracted to a campaign stressing self-reliance and personal responsbility. One person announces that there is no hope for freedom without the leadership of Representative Paul; that there is no reason to try to elect people who support the concept of freedom to office because they will become crooks and betray us; that there is no chance of keeping the movement together without the leadership of a Hero, because there are so many areas where we have individual disagreements. But this is what freedom is, as opposed to hero worship, deference to authoritarian rule, or waiting for freedom to be given to us. I will say that some of the despondent got over their anger and began later to talk about what can still be done.
I find even more disturbing the delusional who see Paul winning the Republican nomination in September. Some prefer the scenario of having someone (the Clinton/Bush Supreme Court?) declare John McCain to not be a native born American because he was born (of two American citizen parents) at a U.S. military base in Panama. Others dream of McCain having a stroke and dying before the Republican Convention meets and, since all the other candidates have formally withdrawn their candidacy, the delegates being obligated to nominate Ron Paul whether they want to or not. Still others believe that all of the delegates to the convention are secretly supporters of Ron Paul who will throw off their disguise and nominate him a acclamation. None of these scenarios are going to play out, as Representative Paul recognizes.
The thing to do is to find our areas of agreement. Ideally, I would like to see the Washington March take place. I have visited both the websites which seem to be trying to organize the march, but have found them to be not very communicative about what is going on. The fact that they have not posted anything on the march since February 20 and that they seem to be more interested in collecting infromation than disbursing it bothers me. The fact that one of the sites says that the main idea is to prevent any third party activity byt Paul supporters also bothers me. Walt Thiessen talked aobut working with him, and i would like to know his estimate of the likelihood of achieving an effective operation from them.
In any case, the Paul campaign has created a grass roots movement, and it is time for the grass roots to find a means to go on communicating and organizing events and campaigns in the near future. It is not Representative Paul's job motivate us. The commitment to liberty ought to motivate us. A Revolution does not depend on its leaders, and it does not retire in despair at the first set back, or delude itself with impossible daydreams of victory through Divine Intervertion. A revolution based on a belief in self reliance and personal responsibility shoul be self-sustaining and each support should be responsible for doing all in his power to move it forward
There is a phrase I have used before. I believe that I am quoting someone here, but I no longer remeber where I first saw it, nor have I been able to find it is any book of quotations. I f anyone recognizes it and knows the source, please let me know. Otherwise you are free to credit it to me.
"There are no ancient liberties. There are only those liberties which each generations wins and holds for itself." Our generation has failed to hold onto too many liberties. Now is the time to organize to begin winning them back.
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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Sunday, March 9, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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Posted By: Alexander Jefferson
Date: 2008-03-09 23:52:21
Well said! We had our honeymoon where got together in groups and talked about how great Ron Paul was, and how he was the only candidate running worth supporting. Now the honeymoon is over, and time for real work is beginning. Our nation needs the spontaneity of the presidential campaign tempered with the things we learned were effective.
Letters to the editor, calling local radio talk shows, small ads in a paper, billboards. Only instead of "google Ron Paul" the mesage can be about freedom, the constitution, the direction our country is headed in. No central organization can be as effective as a true grass roots movement.
I always figured that if he won, the neocons would of offed him anyway, maybe he did too. Maybe he was getting death threats even. I don't know.
I think the march had Tiananmen Square wriiten all over it, maybe he did too. The worlds gazillionairs are not going to give up their money and power, and have always taken the people out that preached love, peace and freedom.
Maybe it's possible he will be able to do more in Congress, (?)
Read my article ( McCains Rise... ). If our government knows about John and chooses to do nothing. WE don't stand a chance of "changing " anything.
Very good article. I have never felt that Ron Paul would win the gop primaries or nomination. In fact, I believe that POTUS is not an effective position for a libertarian in our government. Rather I believe that a House with a significant libertarian contingent is the best for checks and balances.
At any rate, Ron Paul has done more to put libertarianism on the front page than anyone in moderm memory. Let's see what mileage we can get from it.
I say that the LP should draft Ron Paul as its POTUS candidate, so he can keep the principles on the front page, but we should focus on congressional seats, and statehouse seats. We could use a Senator or two to fillibuster for freedom and fiscal conservatism.
OK, nuts and bolts. Does anyone have a permit for June 21 in DC yet? Is anyone designated to get it? I'll go, or I'll help but damned if I know who is working on it already.
Ron Paul is more than significant in himself, not as a matter of hero worship but because he has a 30 year record of walking the walk and cutting through the nonesense. It makes him believable to a very jaded support base.
I'd like him to run independent or 3rd party. Does anyone doubt that any party he ran for would crack the 5% vote necessary to get public funding in the next election? That alone would be a huge breakthrough.
However, it is his life, he IS 72, and it isn't his fault it took so many of us 30 years to finally get what he was saying.
Also, the way support seemed to drop off after Super Tuesday, he may think WE won't carry his independent or 3rd party campaign. On my part, I only need to know he is running, and I'm there (with my checkbook.)
The march in DC seems like a way to show we are committed, but it may actually occur fairly late in the day. We need to show we can take care of this. With or without Ron Paul as a candidate, we want our policies adopted. So, does anyone know if we have a permit for DC, or who is working on that?
The article seems a little schzophrenic. Leadership or no leadership? I don't know how you accomplish anything without some coordination and that is difficult at best without a leader, or at least some well defined organization.
Dr. Paul's hesitancy regarding the March on Washington comes through in his latest video. He suggests a date, but that is about it. Personally, I think it will fizzle without his full support and energy.
I would prefer the idea of a Constitution Day where we all descend on our State Capitols with a coordinated effort to demand a return to the Constitution by the Federal government. This would be less burdensome on us and greatly reduce the logistical nightmare of thousands of folks in one location. But, even this needs planning. We can't be pulling in differing directions and expect to be noticed.
As far as the general election is concerned I think we need to come together and decide how we are going to vote and then once committed let the MSM and the Political Parties know our intentions. My preference would be to vote LP en mass. Write in is cumbersome and technically problematic. We don't have to all agree on the LP principles to make this statement.
In my view, we need one central place to bring these ideas together and get a concensus on the decisions. It is certain that whatever the final plan that not everyone will be on board, but we should be able to gauge the magnitude of the support. So, how can it be done? It is a cinch that we can't count on the campaign and we certainly can't count on the Austrian web.
Perhaps we should just start it right here. I would donate to help Walt if he was willing to get up a page to offer input on the options and to reach some final decisions and gauge the impact of pledges.
I am open to any other ideas, but it looks like to me that we have to take the bull by the horns if anyone is to know that we are serious.
A rather lengthy response to some of the comments. I agree that we require coordination and leadership. I don't think we are going to get anywhere if someone is just going to make arrangements and tell us to be there. That was why I objected to the lack of communication from the websites trying to coordinate the effort. I believe in coordination and planning, but I do not believe in the communist system of democratic centralism. Under that system, the leadership asks for input from the masses, goes into secret session and decides what to do, and then the subject is closed to all further discussion. I believe that the coordinating group ( they say they have already applied for permits for a large number of dates) evaluates the input, then goes back to the group with three or four or more options, and asks which of these the group as a whole can reach a consensus on.
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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.