Topic: The Revolution
Have We Been Bought? Are We Intimidated? "They think that they have purchased half of us, and intimidated the other half."--Padraig Pearseby rtbohan
(Libertarian)
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Pearse spoke those words in 1914 in a funeral oration at the grave of an Irish rebel of an earlier time. In 1916, Pearse was one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising in Dublin. Pearse, as one of the leaders in the Uprising, was executed. The goal of the Uprising, an independent, united Irish Republic, is still , after more than ninety years, only partly realized.
Today in the United States, supporters of Ron Paul and members of the Libertarian Party talk about revolution. Unlike Padraig Pearse, the revolutionaries of today are using the means provided by the American political system to bring about a peaceful revolution rather than an armed uprising. But the revolutionaries of today face the same problem that Pearse faced, and its opponents have the same confidence that they have "foreseen everything...provided against everything".
The Ron Paul revolution is manned by people who have been neither purchased not intimidated. The question is whether they have the stamina to fight the revolution through to victory.
The Revolution will not be won this year. It will not be won by Ron Paul in single combat with McCain or Obama or Clinton. He will go on with the fight. The question is whether the movement will go on. After Ron Paul's speech in Fort Wayne yesterday, a story by Benjamin Lanka in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette(www.journalgazette.net) quoted Paul supporter Kevin Van Linden as saying, "He doen't have to win. If all the people in this room start recruiting people, the movement will win."
Rom Paul's supporters have shown that they will not be discouraged by defeats in the primaries. They have reorganized and are moving to control the machinery of the Republican Party. This means electing delegates to the national convention this year and winning positions in the party leadership over the next few years. The resistance of the party establishment does not intimidate them, nor does ridicule in the press. This effort must continue.
The problem is that this is just a first step. The revolutionaries have not been bought off or intimidated. But most of the American voters have been. Look at the campaigns. Clinton and Obama are promising universal health coverage, which most of the people think means free health coverage, and warning their party members that the Republicans will prohibit abortion and return the country to its segregationist past.The Republicans are saying that the election of the democrats will result in a flood of immigrants and terrorists and their programs will will raise taxes, and holding forth the promises of low cost gasoline as the United States creates an empire in the middle east.
Some of the voting machines in the primaries may have had malfunctions or been rigged. In some precincts, the vote for Ron Paul may have been under reported. But the fact is that Ron Paul has not won primaries because most of the voters do not support his ideas. That is the task for next year and the year after. If we have been neither purchased nor intimidated we cannot become discouraged.
And the answer does not lie in organizational skill and enthusiam. As Mr VanLinden said it lies in recruiting people one by one. It will not be easy. It may cost friends and it may strain family relations, but this is the way in which the revolution will succeed.
I do not espect Ron Paul to win this year, as he does not. I do not expect the revolution to completely succeed in Representative Paul's lifetime nor in mine. But this is the first blow, this is the wake up call to the people. The American Revolution began in 1775, and independence was not obtained until 17 81. A new revolution, promising a rebirth of liberty has begun in the United States. I will not win through this year, but it must in the future.
The political battles of 2008 are not the culmination, but they are the beginning of the revolution. The political battles must continue. But more importantly the fight to educate the voters must be pursued.
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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.
Published: Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, May 6, 2008
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Posted By: John Campbell
Date: 2008-05-06 15:30:14
Your anology between the American Revolution and the Ron Paul Revolution is fundamentally flawed. Did our founding father's run for parliament and try to reform Brittain from within?
I know it is a different kind of revolution. In fact, I said so. I think it is probably the only way a revolution can be brought about in the United, States, and it is a much slower path to either victory or defeat. But it will be, if successful, a revolution nevertheless, and I believe it can be brought about. The people will not be easy to convince. The first step is to get their attention, and I believe that is what this campaign is doing. The attention is not always favorable, but it is a beginning.
"War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." -- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
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2008 rtbohan, all rights reserved.