Topic: The Revolution
It's Not the Ron Paul Revolution Anymore "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." John Fitzgerald Kennedyby Carter Braxton
(Libertarian)
Thursday, April 24, 2008
"In defense of liberty, first use the ballot box. Then the soap box. Then the jury box. Then the grand jury box. Then the ammo box." - Anonymous
John McCain has "sealed" the Republican nomination. The hope that Ron Paul gave us, that we could restore our Constitution peacefully, through the use of the ballot box, was a faint hope. Too many of this year's elections have been corrupted. The scales of justice have been unbalanced, against our will.
Our elections are now "digitized", "computerized". The same technology which has worked toward humanity's benefit has now made it possible for the true result of an entire election to be concealed and unknowable. There is no longer any "paper trail" which we can follow. The nightly news result is the result, take it or leave it.
Though this charge (the Ron Paul Campaign) has been deflected, I do not propose that we give up. The 1st American Revolution was not won through the ballot box. But it was won. And Our revolution will not likely be won any easier.
The focus of our campaign cannot be traditional electoral politics (as advocated by the Libertarian Party) because our elections have become controlled and fraudulent. We must adopt diverse tactics to counter the diverse tactics (i.e., subversion of our elections) of our enemy.
Small LOCAL organizations are clearly the answer. The problem with D.C. is that it is not where you are, and not able to conceive or comprehend the problems of your locale. Only local organizations can do that. You (all who read this) must become leaders in your own station. The Revolution will never be won FOR you. If you ever believed that Ron Paul - alone - would be able to correct the current level of corruption in our government you were sorely mistaken.
It's also about time for you to wash all of that junk about "keeping the revolution peaceful" out of your head (if it was ever there in the first place). You've got to make up your mind whether or not you will fight when the time to fight comes. If you fail, you may, as Patrick Henry warned, make the mistake of "lying supinely on [your] back and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until [your] enemies shall have bound [you] hand and foot".
One of the local activities that Ron Paul has been advocating for the past 20 years has been jury service / juror education. The lone juror can stop ANY law, without fear of punishment by the court (for now, at least). When the formation of the North American Union (and the corresponding descendance of our constitution) are eventually publicized, we may not be able to rely on the jury. But for now it is a useful and reliable tool.
The Fully Informed Jury Association / FIJA has materials ready for distribution if you are ready to take the plunge, just contact them for your free informational packet: fija.org
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2008 Carter Braxton, all rights reserved.
Published: Thursday, April 24, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, April 24, 2008
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"Our elections are now "digitized", "computerized". The same technology which has worked toward humanity's benefit has now made it possible for the true result of an entire election to be concealed and unknowable. There is no longer any "paper trail" which we can follow. The nightly news result is the result, take it or leave it."
Where is the paper trail that proves that Lincoln was really elected? Hmmm
****!
Anyways, why did Ron Paul lose in his own district? Did he really have a majority of the hearts and minds?
I was surprised the article went from "Small LOCAL organizations are clearly the answer" to serving on a jury. I can't volunteer to be on a jury.
The best way to get involved locally is to get elected to ANY LOCAL OFFICE. Town council, commissioner, coroner, whatever. Get elected and your voice will be larger.
Congrats to you mike on town council position. I am currently running for ccounty commissioner in my locale. The best way to turn this around in this country is to voice your opinion at the local level and demand change there. You can do this through jury duty, small orginization groups, running for offices (state or county/city), or simple non-complience with unconstitutional and unjust laws. (Please use your common sense and be reasonable on that).
As for jury duty in my state (Florida): Our Ron Paul meetup group interviewed a public defender the other night and asked him a question about jury nulification. His response was shocking. He said in the state of florida that it was illegal, and that you had to decide guilty or not guilty according to the law only. They stated several times when I went in for juror selection that you had to apply the law, and that the judge would be the final law even if he did not show you the actual law. This is complete b.s. and anyone in Florida reading this needs to know that you do have the right to decide not guilty if the law is unconstitutional or unjust. You do not have to explain your verdict, so there is nothing they can do to you. All you have to do is lie as they ask you to swear to uphold the law, and if the prosecuter asks specificaly before selection.
Being a juror is an honor and a duty to your country and local area! Do It!
You really want to fight things? The jury might be one way, but there are more important ways. The average "non-kook" American(who the Paul Bashers seem so relieved are the ones who determine the outcome of elections) spend over 12 years of their lives watching television(this is the average time an American spends watching TV in their lifetime, statistic from National Geographic's "Human Footprint"). Are we watching that much TV? That's a helluva lot of life spent in fantasy land.
What about consuming the crap sold by the large corporations that have put our system under siege to corporatism? Learn to cook. Grow a garden. Learn to fix things. Start a business. Network with like minded business people and pool resources. Enhance your life by realzing greater degrees of self sufficiency. The more self sufficient you are, the more you take money out of the pockets of the corporations. The more prosperous all of our businesses become, the more political power we can wield.
It is one thing to spout crap about how great individualism is and the power of individual liberty. But with liberty comes responsibility and the reason we are losing liberty is because we have neglected our responsibilities to ourselves and our nation. It isn't the politicians faults, it isn't the corporations fault, each of us as individuals need to take ownership of this responsibility and change our nation by changing ourselves.
The revolution that needs to happen is only 10 percent done at the ballot box. The other 90 percent is done in each of our lives individually. A cultivation of stronger characters, a striving for individual success, a greater and greater independence of the corporate backed "disneyland for dummies" that exists today is what is required. Without these steps, we're only kidding ourselves if we think we'd achieve anything with firearms. Study who the founders were as individuals and how they lived their lives and conducted their affairs and then emulate that.
Eloquently said, Benjamin. If you want a revolution, you'll get one, but be prepared for the consequences. If you're not fully in this self-sufficient mode of thinking as you espouse, then how are you better off with more responsibility placed on you?
This prevents any sort of real revolution from happening now, and will probably be the main hindrance up until the point where it is too late for anything meaningful to come of one.
But back on topic, I really don't see the focus in your article at all. As "mike" said, the article went from small grassroots-esque organization to jury nullification argument, coupled on top of that a misleading title.
Certainly, one of the most pressing things we need to do now is press for education of all kinds. Media literacy and civics being two of the highest priorities.
Posted By: Thomas from Texas
Date: 2008-04-25 15:35:47
To those that don't understand (like the first person to comment, and negatively, I must say...):
There is no paper trail or audit. When you buy from a store you get a receipt. What do you get after you push buttons on a Diebold voting machine? A warm fuzzy feeling that your Ron Paul vote magically got turned into a vote for McCain?
BTW - The voting system used to elect Lincoln was probably more accurate than our current system...
Our current voting system is a disgrace. There needs to be an auditable system in place. A receipt that has a time stamp and is validated would help things. This would be one way that we could turn these digital black boxes (or black holes depending on who you vote for) into an auditable system.
Also
"Anyways, why did Ron Paul lose in his own district?"
Because the media predicted it beforehand and even magically knew the actual percentage...
Lloyd: I doubt that the fact Paul received only 15% of the presidential vote in his district had anything to do with his ideas, since he received 70% of the vote in the congressional primary in the same district at the same time.
I'll repeat the suggestion I made to you earlier: Why not write your own column on the subject, rather than troll other columnists. I'm sure an interesting discussion could result.
"I doubt that the fact Paul received only 15% of the presidential vote in his district had anything to do with his ideas, since he received 70% of the vote in the congressional primary in the same district at the same time."
Maybe it was because he was the INCUMBENT. Most people are not exactly fans of Ron Paul. That is another story.
That's the thing, y'see. Incumbent advantage + unknown challenger= landslide. Plus, there were some people apparently who didn't think he could be any more effective as president as he is as a congressman, so therefore he was re-elected to the House only.
To pursue the voting fraud on this issue is to exclude too many other factors.
Thanks for the randian (non-kook, can't say that word anymore) backup Spence.
"Lloyd Kempson is an endless, trailing, soiled and bitter piece of toilet paper stuck to the bottom of George Washington's left foot like a leach sucking blood. Please flush your toilet if you see this thing approaching."-Some Nonrandian person
I believe that many people won't speak up, won't support "fringe" candidates, won't consider jury nullification, because they are scared of losing their jobs.
>>a greater and greater independence of the corporate backed
>>"disneyland for dummies" that exists today
I will add ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE. If you look at those farmers with rifles in the mid-1700s, they didn't have a mortgage, two car payments, cable tv bill, phone bill, etc.
Pay off your mortgage, then don't ever finance again.
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2008 Carter Braxton, all rights reserved.