You And I Are Ron Paul
Posted August 22nd, 2007 by AOXOMOXOA
On Sunday, August 5 I attended a baseball game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh and I wore a t-shirt asking people to Ask Me About Ron Paul. While waiting for friends outside of the ballpark a lady came up to me and asked if I’d speak to her and some others about Ron Paul and his candidacy for president.
As we walked over to where the others were gathered she, being aware that Dr. Paul had been in town to speak two days earlier but never having seen a picture of him, asked me, “Are you Ron Paul?†I smiled and said, "No", then went over to answer many good questions on a number of issues from her group.
But in a manner of speaking, yes, I am Ron Paul. And so are you. Every one of us in the Ron Paul R3VOLution is indeed Ron Paul. We are his surrogates as we spread his message, our message, of liberty, freedom and a return to the rule of law and the adherence to the Constitution of the United States. And as Dr. Paul has pointed out, he is us. He is our representative and champion as we work together in building a better future for all Americans.
As we see every day on the Daily Paul, RonPaulForums.com, LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com and other sites on the internet there are many Americans who are speaking out, posting and waving signs, handing out literature and doing other things on behalf of Dr. Paul’s campaign for the presidency. As such it is imperative for us to act in a manner befitting Dr. Paul himself. In other words, let us act with intelligence, kindness and integrity. A great example of this is how our fellow Ron Paul supporters acted when confronted by the state chairman of an opposing candidate at the Illinois State Fair last week. That gentleman acted in a violent manner when he ripped a Ron Paul sign from a supporter’s hands, threw it to the ground and stomped on it. But instead of acting in a similar manner, the Ron Paul supporters “applied the Golden Ruleâ€, as Dr. Paul himself pointed out later. Their example made me proud to be one of them, to be one of us.
As the days remaining before the primary season dwindle down we will no doubt encounter situations where we must deal with angry and frustrated supporters of opposing candidates. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.†We have passed the stage of being ignored and we are now on the cusp between being ridiculed and being fought. So we must be prepared for dealing with those who oppose us not by using the same means that they are using, but by using a higher, more dignified method. After all, we want to convert them to our way of thinking. We want to open their eyes to a better way of governing ourselves and solving problems. And we especially want to open the eyes of the people who are standing on the sideline as yet undecided on which way to turn. Let the other side use fear to try and influence people while we use hope.
So let us all continue to follow the example that is being set by Dr. Ron Paul in every speech, interview and public appearance that he makes. Let us take the high road, the moral road forward. And let us not forget that you are Ron Paul.
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Kindred Spirits
.
This is not about impersonating Dr. Paul. It is about Spirit and Kindredness.
Kindredness is not a word often used, but it is apt for many of us.
Although most of us are not related by family, we are related in Spirit and Purpose for this campaign. This makes us kindred; we have common ground. Whatever differences there may be are inconsequential; we are united - as Lincoln said - by "the better Angels of our nature."
Re: You are Ron Paul
I think what AOXOMOXOA meant is that since so many people still do not know who Ron Paul is, they are going to equate him with you because they have no other reference point at first. Think about it - most people know who Hillary Clinton is, so they already have information, an image in their mind and they already know if they like her of not.
Since they don't know who Ron Paul is, it's crucial to be nice and respectful when trying to promote him. No matter how much Faux News bashes Dr. Paul, even to his face, he is always cordial and polite. I guess we have to take that tip from him. At the same time, I personally feel that's it's certainly ok, especailly if you have a potential Ron Paul engaged in conversation for some time, to talk about the shady connections of the other candidates.
While I agree with the thrust of the AOXOMOXOA's post...
I don't want us all to become a movement of Kum bi ya singing patriots. Make no mistake about it. This is going to be nothing less than a revolution. A peaceful one. But it will require all of us to get out of our comfort zone.
Too often I along with other radicals have been chastised for doing the things that some have termed 'confrontational.' But please tell me one movement that has brought change without this same fervor. And let us not forget that RP has also commended civil disobedience (Browns, etc.). Non violent of course, but be willing to suffer the consequences.
Again, I commend the well written piece. Just trying to head off the inclination of some to just sit back, talk to a few friends about RP, and then do nothing. They think that is what RP would do. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Nick Egoroff
Orlando Ron Paul Meetup Organizer
Funny
What a great story. One day wouldn't it be great if everyone in
America knew Ron Paul and his message. Gee, if Ron won the
election do you think the media would cover it? Who cares we
have Youtube and the internet for information. One day the
main stream media will be the old prune news media.
Excellent piece
Excellent observations. Thank you.
Thank God in America we can agree to disagree
There's only ONE Ron Paul, and you and the name of an old Gratefiul Dead album are not he, no matter what you might think. If cloning was so cool, why isn't Dr, Paul for it, eh?
What's up with the r3VOLution or rEVOLution?
I'm not getting the "3" for an "E", when the L is still "L". It must be my dyslexia...furthermore, I am NOT Ron Paul. I don't agree with Ron Paul on abortion, not that I agree with "Choice", but I think the whole country is letting men who don't want children that impregnant a woman they convince to have an abortion because they will not support the child, off with what Dr Paul calls "Murder". Will Dr. Paul agree that it takes TWO and the planter of the seed is GUILTY of Pre-meditated MURDER since the male delivered seed he had NO intention in developing? I think if laws went after TWO instead of making women soley responsible, abortion would not be employed for birth control. And there's other issues, as I'm not a Christian, so I'm not going to tell folks I think Christianity is "The way". I'm not a Republican, I'm grateful California has open ballot access laws so I do not have to become a Republican, because I think the GOP lost it's way by the time the Libertarian party said, "NO TO GOP".
All that said, I agree with Ron Paul on many issues, have the ability to compromise on many other issues, like 9-11, where he claims it was the cause of "blowback"...sure it could be, but I don't think so, I think it was an inside job to create a reason to "go over there". So if someone like me can COMPROMISE and support for RON PAUL, I think many more can too. I'm not a "clone of Dr Paul, and I don't want to be. I like me..I even LOVE me and why this rEVOLution is so important to ME. I Thank Dr Paul for standing for more of MY issues than any candidate and that's why I support him and plan on voting for him to the point, if he doesn't get the nomination, I will write his name in.
Write-in Vote...the Reality...Plan B...
I also want to clarify that in most states, to my knowledge, a write-in vote will be wasted if the candidate has not been validated by meeting state requirements to become a write-in candidate. This seems to be an infringement of electoral freedom to preserve the two party system, but it nonetheless is the reality.
So, bottom line: A write-in candidacy must be organized just as much, or more so, than an ordinary candidacy. Personally, I think that some forethought in this direction is a propos and prudent as our Plan B, should the media and the powers that be conspire to wrest the Republican nomination from Ron Paul. I think we should prepare to turn all of the mushrooming Ron Paul Revolution energy and organization in the direction of a well-orchestrated write-in campaign.
If no one candidate wins a majority of the electoral votes, the election of the president is thrown into the House of Representatives and the election of the Vice President into the Senate. We could end up with a mixed bag.
Considering the real possibility of a failure of the Electoral College to select a winner, it would also seem prudent to direct a LOT of energy toward electing Freedom Representatives to the Congress to give us a strong voting block for persuading others to join us, although I am not sure whether the vote would occur after newly elected representatives officially take their seats or with the lame duck reps. I haven't checked this out, but I would guess that it would occur with the new Congress. Does anyone know?
Most Americans Don't Vote
That's the bottom line Likkerish. If Dr Paul is NOT nominated and he chooses to not run as an Independent on the Unity08 ticket, as he will have missed the opportunity to be nominated on the Libertarian ticket, I'm not going to vote for Mitt, or Guiliani or Fred Thompson. I'm not going to vote for Hillary or Obama. I doubt I'll vote Libertarian, American Independent/Constitution party. None of the above represent my stand on issues, and I do not have faith that any of them will make America American again. Writing in Ron Paul's name becomes a protest vote that is a better protest vote then not voting at all. Either this is a rEVOLution and together, you and me and the rEVOLutionaries are going to make a stand for who and what we "collectively" believe, or this rEVOLution might as well be a sham by the GOP to not lose it's ground to the DP for falling to the neocons and not taking a stand against the traitors in their own party. There's so much pressure from within this campaign to go GOP for RP, I have to wonder...and there's other things, like the bashing of 9-11 truthers as conspiracy whackos, And the lack of admitting that the NAU is a conspiracy whacko group on the right as the main stream media says it is. I've been done with BOTH major parties for over a decade which is why I registered Decline to state party. They work together in making sure there's just them, two heads on the NEOcoin Neolib and Neocon.
To be honest, I have had a hard time figuring what Democrats don't like about Bush, and the only thing I can think they don't like about Bush is he's registered GOP. His administration was DP before the infiltraited the GOP. And I don't see what the GOP doesn't like about Hillary...she voted for the war, the funding of the wars, she has supported Bush for most of her votes. Bush Clinton Bush Clinton I see a pattern.
Like you I write comments about articles that mention RP. I'm into some pretty heavy conversations with some of these editors who like to ask me: If you write in Ron Paul because you're voting your conscious, how will your conscious feel about Hillary being president?" My answer: My conscious will feel fine knowing I voted for the best man while the rest of America went insane because they don't vote their conscious, they vote their FEARS. Bad way to make a vote.
But, again, I must reiterate....
A write-in vote need not go for nought. It simply takes redirection of our movement into a massively organized write-in campaign, but it must be organized just like the movement now or all of those many protest votes cannot be counted in many states.
Beats not showing up, eh?
I think a massive write-in campaign IF Dr. Paul was not nominated, would be a good step in the right direction for a revolution behind a campaign for Freedom, Peace and Prosperity. Who else is there to vote for? I see no one else. And the beauty of such a write in campaign could be that all those Democrats who resent seeing Hillary on the ballot may join this revolution as a form of protest. Ultimately Likkerish, I think it beats not showing up or abandoning the election or voting for who you don't want.
r3VOLution or rEVOLution?
I think that the 3 is used to cue the reversal of EVOL to LOVE without destroying perception of the word, "Revolution" and at the same time to avoid the implication of an "Evolution" revolution that might alienate the Stokes Monkey Trial fans who rooted for Williams Jennings Bryan over Clarence Darrow.
California has a closed ballot primary
You wrote: "I'm not a Republican, I'm grateful California has open ballot access laws so I do not have to become a Republican"
According to the following web page, the California primary is closed ballot, so you will need to switch your party affiliation to Republican to vote for Ron Paul in the primary. All others, please check for your state to see if you need to switch parties as well. Thanks and GO RON PAUL!
http://www.fairvote.org/?...
to clarify California's open-access voting
This from calvoter.org:
If you designated a political party when registering to vote, you can only vote during this primary election for candidates of the political party to which you belong.
If you are not affiliated with a political party, you may still be able to vote for partisan candidates in the primary election because three of California's seven qualified political parties -- the American Independent, Democratic, and Republican parties -- will allow unaffiliated voters to help choose their party's candidates.
Voters who are not affiliated with a political party but wish to participate in the American Independent, Democratic or Republican party primaries must request a partisan ballot either at the polls or on their absentee ballot request forms. You may request only one party's ballot (i.e. you cannot vote for a Democrat for Governor and a Republican for U.S. Senate.) If you do not request a partisan ballot, you will automatically be given a ballot with only candidates for nonpartisan office.
In other words, if you are registered as, for example, a Libertarian, you cannot vote in the Republican primaries.
www.paulforronpaul.com
Not so for Mendocino
The link from Debra Bowen's office, Secretary of State: http://primary98.sos.ca.g...
I have been registered "Decline to state party" since 1996. During the primary, I bring in my Sample Ballot with my address and registration, show it to the poll worker and request a GOP ballot. I then go to the booth marked GOP and vote RON PAUL....except, Mendocino has gone Absentee ballot only, which is another issue no one is talking about being so occupied with Electronic voting machines. We don't have electronic voting machines here. For years they tried to "sell me" all the ease and opportunity of absentee voting. I said NO NO NO and then they sent me a letter saying, NO CHOICE YOU WILL VOTE ABSENTEE BALLOT! Absentee ballots are the LAST ballots to be counted, if they even get counted. As far as anyone knows they could sit in a box and go to the scrapper. No poll workers, no oversite by the public, no watchdogs to hound anyone...all in the name of "conveinence". For who?
I will request a GOP ballot in the primary
I've been "Declined to state party" registered voter since 1996. It's true FREEDOM for voters. All I do is request the party ballot of the candidate I intend to vote for. This year it will be GOP Ron Paul. From the Secertary of State, Debra Bowens web site: http://primary98.sos.ca.g...
Ron Paul on Abortion
I believe Dr. Paul's position on abortion is: He is personally against abortion. Further, he does not want the FEDERAL government involved; he specifically wants to reduce the size of the federal government and the areas in which that level of government insinuates itself into our lives. He believes that the abortion issue -- like so many other issues that are not well-managed by a central government -- should be discussed and sorted out at the STATE and LOCAL levels of government. Please see the 9th & 10th amendments to the constitution.
red herring
Abortion is another red herring; pretty much everyone is against abortion. The real issue is whether government makes the call, or it is left to the individual. But that is overlooked while it is framed to divide. And the ugly truth is that the very situation that makes it necessary, or seem necessary, is the continuing breakdown of society – full circle to the Fed Reserve and Income Tax.
I thought that too
And then I saw his speach at the Iowa Starw Poll and to be honest, if I lived in Iowa and never heard of Ron Paul and went to that speach to find out who he was, I would have thought his campaign was mainly establishing federal laws opposing abortion and charging women with murder. I would have RUN out of the hall after the first two minutes and voted for one of the other canidates. Frankly, I think part of the reason Huckabee and Brownback did so well is women running from Ron Paul. Some folks here have said that Iowa is a pro-life state and why Ron Paul came out guns blazing on pro-life, but I don't think Iowa is as pro-life as they thought, after all, Mitt the flip flopper and others who did not make pro-life THE number one issue, did better than Paul. Furthermore, Dr. Paul's campaign claims "Freedom, Peace and Prosperity" are the message, and THAT message was not clear in Iowa. At least not to me because he really shook me up and turned me off with what he had said. Now I figure, because of the tragic and sudden illness of his wife Carol, the fact they were not at home, or she had her personal Dr., all this I assume weighed very heavily on his mind, and his sub conscious fearing for the life of his wife is why he spoke the way he did about abortion, so I forgive him because I want to believe that he does believe states have rights and it's not the presidents job to go after women and their doctors concerning abortion, no matter what his personal belief.
I thought that too (2)
Disagree,
Iowa is very ProLife, It was smart of Ron Paul to bring it up first.
Second if you listen to his speech, you would understand that you can't have freedom or anything else if someone else has the power not to let you be born, the most basic right. If you allow people to kill unique individuals, you can never convince those people to stop war. It goes hand in hand. Life must be respected in every way.
By the way, Huckabee and Brownback claim to be ultra Pro Life candidates.
We can agree to disagree
I am an avid Ron Paul supporter, and as I said, if I did not know who he was and saw him for my first time in Iowa, I would have RUN away as fast as I could.
I have listened to the speach several times and I think it's the worst speach he ever gave. I know many people who really like Ron Paul, BUT the abortion issue, which IMO is hipocritical of him to even bring it us when he claims the feds need to stay out of state and local laws, turns many people away from voting for his message of FREEDOM, PEACE and PROSPERITY. Keep the feds out of the bedroom.
As I said in the above post. IT TAKES TWO to conceive a life. What is WRONG with the abortion issue is that MEN are getting away with MURDER. I promise you, if the feds said, "A woman who requests abortion as a form of birth control needs to turn in the male who will be tested for DNA and then castrated, I bet abortion would be drastically reduced. But too many men put a premium on their testicles over the LIFE of a fetus, or the physical, emotional and social PAIN this medevil practice places on women. It's an unfair practice to women and children.
Change the law...indict MEN for MURDER over abortion. Let's see how far that gets, eh?
well said
Granger, I think AOXOMOXOA meant ‘we are Ron Paul’ in a ‘general’ sense; or I just chose to take it that way. But I like your response - well said. And I don’t get the ‘3/E’ either…
Thank you
I agree with you in that I also think AOXOMOXOA meant that we represent "Ron Paul" in a "general" sense when we are "campaigning" for him. That is my hope. But I also think that many of us, at least those who I've met at Meetups, are very different from each other, and this has been reported as impressive by the fact a Republican, a Democrat and an Independent can be found tabling at an event for Ron Paul. Certainly they can not all be "Ron Paul".
Like AOXOMOXOA, I have people come up to me and ask, "Who is Ron Paul?" I have at least six different Ron Paul tee shirts, which I wear all the time. Mt tee with the peace symbol attracts liberals. My baseball tee with RON PAUL 08 attracts sports minded. My Ron Paul Surf tee attracts "extreme sports enthusiasts", my "I want you to help me make America American again" attracts conservatives. My hand made "I 'heart' Ron Paul, attracts artists, my "Who is Ron Paul?" attracts enquirering minds, so as you can see here, I have allot of ways to attract the attention of future Ron Paul supporters by appealing to their interest with my tees. Once I've got their attention I find it is my enthusiasm for Ron Paul that keeps their attention.
Like many Ron Paul supporters, I have bumper stickers on my car, in my car, and my house looks like a Ron Paul headquarters. I have seen ONE Kucinich bumper sticker. I have not seen a Hillary or Obama bumper sticker or Guiliani or Romney bumper sticker yet. I can't say that my car or house are representative of Ron Paul, but I can say the confidence in a candidate is very attractive to people, after all, I've got something they don't have and would like to have very very much, HOPE FOR AMERICA. Ron Paul sells Ron Paul, I'm just a fan.
To put it more directly...
Don't get carried away just because your group is louder and more enthusiastic. Even though it may be fun to tease the opposition, it's the folks on the sidelines we need to win, and nobody likes a bully.
Being attacked has just spurred us on, but it often does the same to others and we don't want them spurred on. The longer they think of us as fringe underdogs, the better.
At the same time, we need to look like winners to the undecided. Nothing says "winner" better than respecting others.
IMissLiberty
Good
.
What I need to remind myself of... is when someone dismisses Dr. Paul and his message, the person is actually saying more about himself than about Dr. Paul.
This is especially true of the mass media.
But Dr. Paul is not alone in being derided. The nice old maxim, "I may not agree with what you say but I will defend your right to say it" usually vanishes with Cindy Sheehan, Alex Jones or even Tom Cruise - whose views are far from mainstream acceptance.
However, as The Rev. William Sloan Coffin once stated, "It's the cracked ones who let the light through."
So, when Dr. Paul galvanizes so many people from wildly different backgrounds, this is not only a wonderfully democratic experience, it is touching in its implication: all are embraced with tolerance and acceptance.
Illinois incident
the thing that happened in Illinois is getting blown out of whack. Lets stop feeding the fire.
From what I have heard 3rd person is that the RP supporter was out of line too. Also the guy that had his foot on the sign (not letting the supporter get it back) was not the State Senator but just a campaign guy.
If this gets blown out of proportion, it could backfire in our faces.
both the RP supporter and the MR supporters were out of line this time, lets just leave it at that.
Comments from a reporter..
I was exchanging email with a veteran reporter today and he surprised me by telling me he was impressed with the campaign doing all the 'little things' correctly.
He said:
"Grassroots tactics that catch my eye are:
Organizing big turnouts at well-chosen events. Convincing people to put huge, old-fashioned VOTE FOR MY GUY signs in their yards. Feeding the media a good stream of letters, e-mails and phone calls (often demanding more coverage). Understanding how to convert early supporters' passion into an organization. Raising enough money to run a real campaign, while not being deterred by the knowledge that some other candidates will have more. And now, using the Internet effectively."
I was sure to write back and tell him that the fans organize themselves at these events and no one is paid or sent over on a bus. The signs were made because we couldn't wait for the commercially printed ones. I was glad he did not view the stream of letters to the media as an annoyance. And using the internet effectively was not something directed from the top down, but something supporters did so that they would have a tool to be able to mobilize when needed. I also said we were doing the traditional outreach at family events and sending a rep to GOP board meetings to introduce them to the candidate as well.
It's hard work, but well worth it because now it's being noticed...and the money proves we're not just spamming websites with bots and viruses.. Pfffft!