Is Ron Paul's support "transferrable" to other levels of government?
Submitted by KevinF on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 03:05"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." - Plato
A recent article at the National Review Online suggests that Ron Paul supporters will not become involved in "basic political activities to become a force at all levels of the government, local offices, state offices, Senate and House races, etc. (They’re libertarians; in the end they would rather not deal with the government.) The thought of putting enormous effort to nominate a libertarian-leaning Republican in a Senate primary won’t energize or enthuse a large enough segment of the Paul base"
Link Below:
http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MjFhMzg1MzM5N...
Although I would like to disagree, from what I see in terms of activity, I've only heard of a select few campaigns at other levels of government with candidates with similar views to Dr. Paul.
I've been thinking about it lately, and Ron Paul not only cured my apathy towards the presidency, but gave me some hope about government in general. I feel I might be willing to run for office or help others with similar views run - i.e. do my civic duty. I'd really like to see some organization around other elected offices at the local, state and federal level. Perhaps we should start trying to get like-minded individuals into competition at all levels of government. I think just winning some primaries for the libertarian-wing of the Republican party would make a statement, and any additional Senators or Representatives we can get into Congress in 2008 would only help President Paul in achieving some of his proposals.
Perhaps we can begin to organize our new wing of the Republican party starting through the MeetUp groups. We already know we're going to need to work on getting Ron Paul supporters as Delegates for the GOP convention, but we should not stop there. First we should try to figure out who's already running or in office so we generate a comprehensive list of positions where we already have a suitable official. Then we should try to get like minded individuals into more positions everywhere at all levels. Who's with me?
Local ACTION!
He's my story:
After Dr. Paul awakend me from my apathy, I decided to take a look at local politics in my area. It turns out my local city council has bought up local businesses, including a hospital and the nicest hotel in town. They are in the process of borrowing $12 million dollars to build a government-run theater, to be paid back at tax-payer expense. I couldn't believe the level of socialism my apathy had inadvertantly encouraged!
A local 'whistle-blower' webiste has been exposing the corruption and incompetence in our local government. The site is: http://www.angelfire.com/un/selma
The first political protest of my life resulted in a front page story in our local paper. Although I was misquoted (I never said, "This needs more security." I said, "This is un-American and reeks of socialism.") I was nonetheless surprised that it made the front page of the paper, an online version which can be read here: http://www.selmatimesjournal.com/articles/2007/11/28/news/lo...
The bond issue passed the council, in spite of our protest, and was sent, at taxpayer expense, to the voters. The special vote will be held on February 26th. I have started a chipin to raise money for campaign yard signs: http://tonewah.chipin.com/vote-no-to-selma-bond-issue
If you want to help, any contribution would be greatly appreciated!
We CAN put Ron Paul in the White House, and we CAN take our government back!
I contributed to the 5th of November, the $1 million push at the end of the 3rd quarter, and have made numerous donations to the Paul campaign in between. The fact is, if we don't move on a local level, all of our effort and money will have been in vain.
Thanks for your time!
RON PAUL '08!!!
FREEDOM IN OUR LIFETIME!
maybe something like this in each state whould be a good start
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/1267/?gj=sj21
this way we could have a message board on it to organize then see how many people from each state we can get onboard they will be coming out with some new ways of organizing for the nation on Meetup within the month we might as well start up state Meetups for this cause.
We should call it the Sons of Liberty Meetups and each state would have a name like my state for example would be: "sons of Missouri" for the State Meetup (which would be the capital for the state. Then each town would be "sons of Springfield" our whatever your town name is. Just a thought. We could also keep records of how elected officals vote and rate them on how Constitutional their stance is.
Just one a month
We Should pick one government official each month (or less) and bombard them with OUR thoughts and beliefs. The truth is the majority can be broken 1 person at a time. Open someone's eyes to a better way and they will join you. I would suggest we choose Pelosi as the first. She might be one of the hardest but with the presidential election going on, she just might want to increase her popularity. No impeachment talk at first, just a steady wave of small government, liberty, fiscal common sense and a big dose of direct accountability for one's own vote. What a difference we could all make in a few months before the election. I agree we are all running in different directions with no concentrated direction outside Ron Paul's election, but if we choose to do so, we can't be stopped.
That's my 2 cents, could be wrong and it wouldn't be the first time BUT WHAT IF?
Why didn't Ron Paul vote on HR1955
I respect him but he needs to stand up for his ideals. This race is only a small step in a larger journey. We have a greater purpose of peaceful liberty for all of us we can't allow the empire to destroy our republic.
"Rather to seek new kingdoms by their own work, than to slumber in peaceful subjection to the rule of others."
-Alaric Gothic Leader-
Replace Members of Congress
On election day, we should vote against EVERY member of the House and Senate who voted in favor of HR 1955 "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act of 2007". It no longer matters what party they are in. It is all about how they vote.
This would do 2 things:
We would send a message to Congress that from now on we are watching who votes for these unconstitutional bills.
Realizing that not every member of Congress can be replaced just by one election, it would however be a start in getting new candidates who will uphold our Constitutional rights. Our goal would be an overhaul of all the members of Congress who have betrayed the American people.
Now that Ron Paul has educated many of us and with the help of dailypaul, we could continue to be a force to be reckoned with.
Getting more Ron Paul Republicans in office
Dr. Paul Broun won a special election in Georgia earlier this year. From Ron Paul's 7/17 email:
"Last Tuesday in Georgia, Dr. Paul Broun defeated state senator John Whitehead in a special election to Congress. John had all the establishment and money on his side. But Paul discussed obedience to the Constitution, limited government, the failure of the national Republican leadership, and a less aggressive foreign policy. And he won. Columnist Robert Novak said this “terrified” all the establishment types in the Republican Party. I had talked to Paul during his campaign, and was thrilled to congratulate him on his victory. There is a new wind blowing."
Dr. Broun is facing a tough battle for re-election. The establishment is already trying get him out of there by dumping money into his adversary. I think all the Ron Paul meetups in Georgia should support him. If anyone on this board is from Georgia, spread the word.
Here in Pennsylvania, we have state Senator Mike Folmer and state Rep. Sam Rohrer. Both are men of principle, Constitutionalists, and are leading the fight in PA against the Real ID. Both have introduced legislation recently to shoot down the Real ID in PA. "Citizen Mike" Folmer even attended a meetup, and gave a great speech.
There are *some* principled politicians out there. Seek them out in your state and give them your support. I hope to see more men and women of principle, "Ron Paul Republicans", running for all kinds of offices in 2008.
This is imortant
What is the glue that will keep us together should Dr. Paul not prevail? I believe the Republican party is currently ripe for the picking. We need people willing to join the local Republican parties. We need those with the stomach to run for public office. We need alot of money. We need a leader, an organizer so to speak, to emerge. To gather mailing and calling lists, to keep the idea fresh in our minds. This is what I believe it will take to achieve the turnaround needed to save this nation.
Liberty is the glue
Regardless of what you think about the Republican party itself (I happen to think it's lost its way so long ago that it doesn't even remember where it was going), I think that the term "Republican" has been so spoiled by generations of abuse both by people attacking Republicans and by people claiming to be Republicans that it is self-destructive to try to march forward under its banner. It means so many different things to different people and most of those meanings are very different if not antithetical to the party's original intent.
It has been said that the Democrats want to control your money, the Republicans want to control your mind, but the Libertarians want to let you control them both yourself. Or, put another way: Liberals want to be your Mommy. Conservatives want to be your Daddy. Libertarians want to treat you like an adult.
I feel like if the movement tries to reform the Republican party, they will hijack the message, twist the meaning, defile the spirit, and everybody will get frustrated, slowly disband, and go back to being frustrated with the whole two-party racket.
As Ron Paul himself always reminds people, he's a constitutionalist. That is the core of his philosophy. And the core of the constitution is liberty. It is a document written to protect the people's liberty from the state.
If you haven't seen them, check out this constitution class by Michael Badnarik. Absolutely fantastic.
http://wakingup.us/republic.html
Rather than seperate ourselves out as a "team" that pushes away
... we should absorb... assimilate all others who wish to operate from a position of Reason. Instead of rebuild... convert. Even after Ron Paul wins the presidency continue the education of the people about the details of the Constitution, our Founders, our history, and the concept of solving problems via Reason.
The motto can be:
Resistance is futile! (That was the first thing I thought when I saw the words 'assimilate all others'.)
rp candidates are already there
We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to be aware of what is happening. There have been constitutionalists running for a long time, but they have usually been pushed to 3rd party status. What we have done is to show America that the message of a 3rd party candidate (like Ron Paul was in 1988) is valuable and needs to be heard. With the internet no one can be shut out completely anymore. RIGHT NOW the Constitution Party is trying to get ballot access in all 50 states so that Constitutionally minded candidates have a place to compete when the two major parties refuse them access. I don't think that any of us who have done our research to find what Ron Paul represents will be content to simply vote for "our party's" nominee blindly anymore. For those who want to save the GOP, do so by running as a Republican or supporting others who share your views. For those who see no option to vote your conscience in any election, check out the alternatives or run yourself. If the parties want to maintain their power, they are now accountable to US.
For one example see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Jore
Yeah, breaking the great duopoly
will definitely be a goal. And you're right, few people in this movement are going to vote for someone just because a party tells them to. That's why I'm thinking more about a kind of Total Information Awareness system for officeholders. A lot of the information is already out there, but it's all spread all over the place and it'll be hard to get your average voter to pull that all together and make some kind of sense of it without spending hours they'd rather be doing nearly anything else. Especially when one considers the deceptively named legislation nowadays, it's hard to know what to think about the job your guy is doing. Is a vote for the Happy Clouds and Trees Act a vote for freedom, or against?
I've been thinking about this a lot too.
I have long been considering, and passionately dedicated to the prospect of a wide-spread movement to get Libertarian minded people elected at all levels of government. If this thing is a movement or revolution, then that's what we will need to do. Even if Dr. Paul's elected president, the congress and judiciary still have a massive influence. After all, congress is the one that passes laws, grants lobbyists earmarks, and blows our money.
Building the kind of network and organization that the two parties have at local levels is the most basic step toward fomenting real change. Moreover, with the kind of passionate support Dr. Paul gets, local elections are eminently winable.
The question becomes, under what auspices does this freedom movement proceed? Taking over the Republican party and kicking the neo-cons out? The Libertarian party, which is reputed to be rather fractious, or a new party entirely?
I will be involved in this movement in any way I can.
Well, the Republican Party seems to be
on sale at the moment. The problem there is that the party is a hierarchical network instead of a flat network. It actually has entities within it called Central Committees and such. Change those key people, and you can drag the whole organization in a direction that most members don't support, but don't care enough to fight. Sounds like what has happened to both major parties over the years. Anyway, I think a flatter network that looks more like Myspace than Amway is the right structure because it is resistant to takeover. We can see that kind of structure already emerging.
Something is needed to help with first
vetting potential candidates for organizational support, as well as something for keeping a quadrillion-candle spotlight shined on their every move in office. I'm thinking of some kind of scoring model which will trigger support being pulled from the officeholder and a challenger selected. It would be something like a political party... or an anti-political party. Part of the problem with current politics is that the officeholder has years to sell their powers before they face the voters again, and by then they've accumulated enough cash to muddy the waters with advertising about how wonderful they've been in office. Accountability needs to be much more immediate... just like it is for the rest of us if we speed or don't pay the phone bill. Naturally this will require people to spend more time monitoring politicians... but much of that could be handled by software sending alerts and such. Some of you talented programmers out there start thinking about it.
score card
The John Birch Society, despite all of the Left's efforts to cast them as a racist organization (You've just got to love the Southern Poverty Law Center), has been doing this for years. Their measuring stick is the Constitution. http://www.jbs.org
www.TuNeCedeMalis.com
www.Sitefind.org
We will find out!
I have created the http://LibertyCongress.org site to track Pro-Freedom candidates and incumbents at both the federal and state level. I am just getting started, however, so many worthy politicians are not yet listed.
Besides the politicians, the Links page lists Liberty-minded PACs and a variety of Pro-Freedom political parties and caucuses.
I am looking for volunteers to help me moderate the site (which includes researching and grading candidates and monitoring user comments) and improve the site's overall "look and feel".
Just my humble contribution to the liberty movement...
Great Idea
...and add a place for libertarian causes. Local politicians rarely join a political party, and are only persuaded to vote for liberty by the actions of the people.
LibertyMovement.org?
Perhaps a broad ranging movement, genuinely grassroots can be created out of this. A kind of libertarian, old-republican networking movement, in which members could support each other's attempt to establish this new party/movement with ideas and funding. The ball is rolling, we just need to keep pushing it.
Ron Pauls Across America
There's already a site dedicated to exactly that:
http://ronpaulsacrossamerica.com/
Restore the Republic.
I've joined 2 different lobbying groups
I also in the last couple of years seeing the decline in my country have started to contact my local Represenatives,Senators,the White House
Use The Paulunteer as your
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I'm not quite sure that I
I'm not quite sure that I could classify most of Ron Paul's supporters as libertarians... moreso as Constitutionalists. The closer I get to local government, the more forgiving I become of social programs. The closer I get to local government, the more control that I have... which is where I have less of a problem with these programs.
Take roads, police, and fire departments for instance. These are all programs that are funded locally and can be influenced by constituents. While I find the education system frightening, I don't see a way to privatize it completely.
Ron Paul's message that the more complex a topic is, the more local the solution should be, is a wise one. The problem is, if you are looking to us as a group to solve these local problems, we're going to each have a very different viewpoint. I just don't see how this group could be united into a platform for local government other than, end corruption being the end goal.
You're right
in many ways... I especially agree with your last paragraph. And I am a Republican, though I may have libertarian leanings on certain issues.
If it's a human endeavor,
then it can be privatized. There's nothing magical about coercion that somehow produces more resources than it costs. Education, of all the things you mention, is probably the very easiest to privatize. You can get a homeschool K-12 curriculum on CD-rom for a few hundred bucks. Private solutions get an awful lot easier too as 50% of your income comes back from the DC gang.
Advisory Group
I was thinking of starting some sort of advisory group to keep Ron Paul people going with the 'revolution'. But then again, I think we already have a good group that is nationwide that people can join to be involved in local, state and national politics with regard to being supported when running for office, etc and it's a bit more energized than the GOP itself (although I recommend joining that too).
This groups is based on the GOP platform with the goal of bringing back 'republican' (small r) values to preserve the 'republic' and to bring honesty to government. It's called the 'Republican Liberty Caucus' and the word 'republican' I feel means more about the 'republic' than it means the GOP... And why is this group perfect? Ron Paul founded it himself.
In NH, our branch has endorsed Ron for the presidency.
So please consider invigorating the RLC in your area, or starting a chapter if there is none.
As we get closer to the primaries and the general election
and as we establish ourselves as a group to be reckoned with, one, if not more candidates will have to solicite our support, which means adopting libertarian ideals. This could be easier for the republican party to swallow and it may, as Ron Paul becomes a more viable candidate in the eyes of the party, signal a huge shift in the party.
Mike
Ron Paul is my HERO!!!
"Fire Team for Freedom" on RonPaulRadio.com
Mondays and Wednesdays 10pm EST
or visit mikeandjake.com
Mike
"Fire Team for Freedom"
visit www.mikeandjake.com
Even Karl Marx talks about libertarian ends...
It will be up to this grassroots movement to hold these politicians to account by constant oversight and the threat of vicious primary challenges for even the appearance of compromising principle or transparency. It'll have to be just like the old Christian Coalition, but better.
And the current GOP is scared to death what we are going to do to them... but they can't stop us without closing their membership and thereby sealing their doom. Bwah hah hah hah!!!
It must be done
The structure to elect libertarian minded candidates to local and state level positions has been created by the Ron Paul supporters. It needs to be structured a little bit more, but it would be a pitty to miss this great opportunity. I intend to help in this endeavor.
I'm running
I plan on running for some form of local government wherever I end up living.