FRIENDS, ENEMIES, PATRIOTS AND LONG-SUFFERING SOVEREIGN
CITIZENS OF THESE STATES UNITED:
The Constitution Party will not nominate
Dr. Ron Paul of Texas for their presidential ticket.
Yesterday I attended a meeting of the Connecticut affiliate of
the Constitution Party, which is the evolved form of the old
U.S. Taxpayers' Party organization. The first and most pressing
topic of discussion was, of course, Dr. Ron Paul.
As several other postings have made clear, the good doctor has
stated succinctly and emphatically that he will not try to do
a "third party" run for president. Even though there's a lot
of sentiment among his supporters for some kind of an 'indie'
run -- he has decided against it.
This is not entirely unexpected.
A large number of States have various forms of a "sore-loser
law," which effectively bars a primary candidate who does not
win his or her primary, from running for the same office as an
independent or on any other party line. Why this is a good
idea, I don't know, but it's out there among the States --
and it is a significant factor overall.
This is not a happy moment but I reject the concept that much
wailing and gnashing of teeth -- or scurrilous attacks on
his character -- is in order, here. Consider the various
implications of the Ron Paul campaign:
1. when this all began, Dr. Paul was "the ultimate back-bencher"
(to steal a simile from the British House of Commons ), who just
about never got any recognition for his arguments or ideas;
2. now, literally millions of people across the world have been
introduced to his brand of libertarian-republican politics, and
the results of that have been salutary;
3. Dr. Paul has drawn support from every class of our society,
and has warmed the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people;
THAT is a victory in and of itself.
People across the U.S. have been inspired by his campaign, and
by him, to lose their political apathy; for a time, at least,
they have been energized and excited by being in the mix.
Perhaps Dr. Paul was convinced that by "tilting at windmills,"
to borrow a shop-worn phrase, he could win the Republican nod
for the presidency: however, given his years of service in the
D.C. swamp, I suspect that he knew he would be blocked, or
torpedoed, or ignored to death in this race. Worse yet, he
could have been killed for real ....
Let's look at things in this way: the 'awareness factor' of
the top issues of Dr. Paul -- other than winding down the Iraq
war by just getting out -- was at 2 or maybe 3 per cent when
the campaign began. Now Dr. Paul is getting 8, 9, even 11
per cent of the primary votes ....
So the awareness factor has quintupled, in just the one year or
so of his actual campaigning. That's a five-fold increase in
the awareness of the near-criminal behavior of the Federal
Reserve Banking System, a five-fold increase in the opposition
to the income tax and the IRS !!! What other leader has been
able to do so much with these two issues, in so short of a time ?
Dr. Paul has also leaned heavily on the basic nature of our
right to keep and bear arms, i.e., guns and weapons of our own
choosing, not 'government-sanctioned' pop-guns or target pistols.
Thousands of people from thousands of walks of life have joined
in to work for Dr. Paul, around the country, and they've gotten
a first class education in political science along the way !!
There is nothing like going door to door or working a public
space with leaflets, to get a newbie introduced to political
work and political action. He got that gong with inspiration,
not with 'walking around money.' That's totally important.
As to the other arguments -- Paul is a "sleeper," he's a "ringer"
and so forth ?? Well, we have learned most definitely that just
about anything is possible in this strange and beautiful country,
but my heart and my intuition tell me that this is not the case.
Here's why I think that --
Dr. Paul went after this campaign with a lot of energy, but I do
believe that even he was SHOCKED and AWED by the responses;
no normal man is a good enough actor to run a 'long con' on so
many people for such a long period of time, I think;
he did not change his message much, if at all, over the months;
he travelled widely and still showed up to vote in Congress;
he may not have managed his campaign managers well, but then his
campaign did not spend $ 500,000 on PARKING, as has the Hillary
campaign !!
Nobody forced any of us to contribute to his campaign: we all
validated the reality and importance of the issues Dr. Paul has
hit on over and over, and even if he was "a ringer," then his
handlers now know with absolute certainty that MILLIONS of us
are sick to death of the IRS, and income tax, sick to death of
the No-win Wars and Iraq, and absolutely ready to kill off the
Federal Reserve Banking octopus. We're all together on that.
Maybe that was what Paul had in mind at the start, or maybe he
was just exercising his own giant ego, or maybe he was paid to
'front' for the experiment ....
Well -- now they ALL KNOW the results. The IRS and the income
tax are deeply hated in this country. The Federal Reserve has
been outed. The botched voting so far is yet another lesson
which the campaign has taught us all. OK, so he's quitting.
I'm sad. I'm not dismayed. And I still like Dr. Paul.
Patriotlad.
Serving Freedom
and Liberty
