So What’s Next For Ron Paul?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Ron Paul
After placing well back in the pack in New Hampshire and this latest newsletter fiasco, it’s certain he’s done for when we’re talking about the GOP nomination. Let just face the facts Paulites. It’s not his year and it’s not going to happen.
But I have noticed a lot of the buzz out there is centering around the idea that this campaign isn’t about Ron Paul, it’s about the ideas he’s talking about. Okay, fair enough. So what will you do to further those ideas? Because right now the messenger is Ron Paul, and once he ends his bid for the nomination, well, what then?
And so now we come back to the notion of him running on a 3rd party ticket. Because that’s it. That’s the only way he’s going to be able to keep those ideas in the public forum. I’m sure he could draw 10% or so in national polls if he launched an independent bid. And it’s looking more and more unlikely that Bloomberg will run as an independent candidate.
March 5th is coming up soon. That’s the day when he could begin to mount a new campaign centered around his “freedom” platform. And you could keep him going with your moneybombs. Because he wouldn’t be beholden to trying to win primaries at that point. He could run a national campaign and harness the energy and enthusiasm you’ve built through Meetup and Facebook and MySpace, etc.
In the end, decision time is coming quickly so you all better have a plan B. Because Plan A is dead.
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January 13th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
How about libertarians getting around a different candidate who doesn’t have the baggage of being a reformed racist publisher? Because that is sort of a show-stopper if you ever want to draw more than a tiny proportion of votes in this country.
Libertarianism does not need Ron Paul. What libertarianism needs is a hard look at its priorities. I would like to think it’s committed to building a long-term coalition around individual liberty and limited government.
Unfortunately, it seems more committed to putting a reformed racist publisher on a pedestal, and on defending his racist newsletters as nonracist (which is to disagree with Ron Paul, who acknowledges the newsletters are odious). Which makes the vital task of building the libertarian coalition unbelievably more difficult.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I would imagine people are also inspired by his decades of excellent work and defense of freedom. I myself don’t really care that much about the newsletters, it seams as if there was a time so backwards that only those types were willing to fund or organize for a serious libertarian.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
And yet, the beltway wants to support Rudy. Talk about baggage. I could care less about the pi##ing contest going on between the beltway, and the Paleos. I’ll take a non racist candidate that trusted someone else to look after a newsletter with his name on it, over a war mongering candidate any day.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Ron Paul is not a racist, I have looked into it. He has friends that are racists. He also has friends that are minorities. The minority friends outweigh the racist ones. Ron Paul, should have paid more attention to his newletter and that is the mistake he made.
January 13th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
I am amazed by how weighty circumstantial evidence has become.
Reformed Racist? Throw the baby out with the bath water. The weak minded are easily led by the bridle of emotion.
If one would review the essays Known to be of his hand as well as watch the speeches given by him on the floor of congress, it is easy to conclude that these accusations are tripe.
While you perpetuate your Judgment based upon a weak IF; America continues to the edge of its very existence.
Labels of party affiliation cloud your perception by preconceived notion. You would do better to put Country Before Party.
There is great doom approaching on many fronts. Only Ron Paul is speaking rational to issue. He understands Root Cause And Corrective Action Analysis. He is wise and uses reason to arrive at conclusion. Many look at his conclusion and decry “lunacy” without attempting to understand what his reasoning was. The lazy and the foolish will doom us all.
Economic Catastrophe is in motion and has been for some time. Only Ron Paul has been aware and loudly proclaiming for most of his career about what has arrived. Band aids and Bubble gum can no longer hide what has been forged. We will all suffer in proving him correct.
I find it unfortunate that many would focus on not being part of the solution. Children tend to break their toys.
With knowledge comes sorrow.
I Vote For Virtue; I Vote For Ron Paul !!!
January 13th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Ron Paul on Racism, actually written by him..
A nation that once prided itself on a sense of rugged individualism has become uncomfortably obsessed with racial group identities.
The collectivist mindset is at the heart of racism.
Government as an institution is particularly ill-suited to combat bigotry. Bigotry at its essence is a problem of the heart, and we cannot change people’s hearts by passing more laws and regulations.
It is the federal government that most divides us by race, class, religion, and gender. Through its taxes, restrictive regulations, corporate subsidies, racial set-asides, and welfare programs, government plays far too large a role in determining who succeeds and who fails. Government “benevolence” crowds out genuine goodwill by institutionalizing group thinking, thus making each group suspicious that others are receiving more of the government loot. This leads to resentment and hostility among us.
Racism is simply an ugly form of collectivism, the mindset that views humans strictly as members of groups rather than as individuals. Racists believe that all individuals who share superficial physical characteristics are alike: as collectivists, racists think only in terms of groups. By encouraging Americans to adopt a group mentality, the advocates of so-called “diversity” actually perpetuate racism.
The true antidote to racism is liberty. Liberty means having a limited, constitutional government devoted to the protection of individual rights rather than group claims. Liberty means free-market capitalism, which rewards individual achievement and competence – not skin color, gender, or ethnicity.
In a free society, every citizen gains a sense of himself as an individual, rather than developing a group or victim mentality. This leads to a sense of individual responsibility and personal pride, making skin color irrelevant. Racism will endure until we stop thinking in terms of groups and begin thinking in terms of individual liberty.
Additionally the Austin NAACP president, who has know Ron Paul for over 20 years states that Ron is no racist.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Libertarians DO need Ron Paul or somebody like him. First, you know as well as I do that Ron Paul is not a racist and never has been. Those articles clearly make it look like he is, but set those aside for a minute and think of the countless speeches and countless votes in the House he has made that completely contradict those writings. He believes we are all individuals with the same rights and no laws should be made to separate us in any way. That is a very basic libertarian belief. But the reason Libertarians need Ron Paul is because Libertarians are naturally inclined not to seek positions of power and there is finally a real opportunity to put one in a position to really defend our rights as individuals.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
What a matter Justin,
No web hits recently. Need to pump up your traffic a little. Hmmmmm?
Your just an ineffectual little cur dog nipping at the heels of the bigger dogs. An armchair pundit. A wanna-be media person.
I just wanted you to know that I’m still out here. I am still waiting for you and I to finish our debate on monetary policy we started back in July.
I remember how you ran from that one. You slithered back into your hole when I started pinning you down on specific factual points. Ha…. What a slime you are.
Well…. you enjoy your day. Perhaps your masters will throw you a scrap or two after this piece.
Sincerely
Lost_in_Samoa
January 13th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Wow,
Never thought I’d hear the day when a political columnist would actually think that a racist smear would hurt someone’s chances of winning among the GOP. Remember Reagan? You know, the guy who called a ten year old black kid a spearchucker to his face, and then went on to lay wreaths on three SS Soldiers graves. This is the same guy that every candidate on stage can’t heap enough praise on. Unless I’m mistaken, the Gipper barely posted in the first couple of primaries. The reason was that “nobody took him seriously.”
As for this:
“So what will you do to further those ideas? Because right now the messenger is Ron Paul, and once he ends his bid for the nomination, well, what then?”
Everyone in our extended meetups in this area (and there are thousands) are backing the campaign of a promising LP candidate who’ll be running against a previously unchallenged Dem. seat in the house.
-So fuck you, asshat.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I am a Paul supporter and I do not want him to run as an independent. It was be dishonest. he all ready said he would not. I believe he says what he means.
I for one will continue to work in my community and help my community and buck the federal government every chance I and my neighbors can. We solve problems not the government. we take care of our problems together, not the federal government.
My biggest hope is all these young people old enough to run will run in the republican party on Paul’s platform.
They will win.
We will overhaul the Republican party and that should be a huge goal for us. To reshape politics and the government.
I really do not want a civil war or revolt. we can still do this from the inside however long it takes and however frustrating it might be..
I am going to run here in florida.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
The revolution is not about just Ron Paul, but there is no other libertarian with any credibility based on previously held offices that could run. I think this is sort of like a Culloden for Libertarians.
Maybe something new will come out of it, but I doubt it, and it serves the beltway libertarians right, for not jumping on the bandwagon, and it serves the Mises people right for using Racists, and truthers to pad their numbers.
But still, there are alot of young Southpark libertarians. that will want somewhere to go. Can the Ron Paul revolution people generate enough energy to get someone like a Sarah Palin or Andrew Napalitano – I think someone more of a Paleo – like Bob Barr, wouldn’t have as much of a Chance.
January 13th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Wrong Question.
While I agree that Ron Paul is done, I am going to hang with him through Super Tuesday, so I can vote for him in the California primary. The way the CA GOP primary works, I’m guessing it would only take about 7,000 Republican votes to get Paul 3 CA delegates to the convention from my district (San Francisco district 8 – Pelosi’s district – very heavy Democratic).
It makes no sense to suggest that going Independent would do anything to rehabilitate his campaign from the problems you identify – the Newsletters or underacheiving in N.H. Exactly how does an Independent campaign change that dynamic?
The more interesting question, is what happens to the “libertarian swing vote” that has coalesced around Ron Paul? It’s not big enough to do anything except be a spoiler as a 3rd party. However, it is big enough to put any of the major candidates over the top. It might be big enough to jump start a Bloomberg campaign. The interesting question is this: When will we see other candidates make a play for this passionate, principled, politically active, internet savvy constituency? Of course, the only thing that can pull this factions support, or even Paul’s support, is support for the freedom agenda. Nobody will adopt it as fervently as Paul, of course, but politicians are willing to offer policy compromise and political pandering for interest groups that are not as large. Why not the libertarians?
January 13th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Does anyone else think that whoever “they’ are want Huck to win Iowa, McCain gets New Hampshire, Romney gets Michgan, Thompson gets South Carolina…this is all the set up Giuliani to come from way behind Ron Paul and win Florida. What if that plan backfires and Ron Paul does unexpectedly well in Florida..lots of delegates up for grabs there. That’s where I’d be spending some of the $20 Million.
It’s the only reason I can come up with as to why FOXNews paid their handpicked focus group at the last debate to all say Thompson was the winner.
Too early to talk about a third party.
January 13th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
I don’t know who the next viable leader of the libertarian movement is going to be. I agree that there isn’t anyone out there prepared to step into the role with any kind of instant presence. Maybe someone with visibility will come out of nowhere — by rough analogy, like Schwartzenegger did for green Republicans in California — but it’s certainly nothing to count on.
It’s difficult, and depressing.
But sticking with Ron Paul is toxic, precisely because of his visibility and the money he’s raised. They amplify libertarianism’s new race problem — which is precisely that Paul’s racist supporters are rushing to his defense (“those newsletters aren’t racist, they’re the TRUTH!”) and those outside the movement can’t distinguish them from people with an actual ideological commitment to libertarianism.
What’s really depressing: The failure to distinguish today may harden into an inability to shake off the racists tomorrow. And that does not bode well for attracting “South Park libertarians” or other nonfringe constituencies into the movement.
January 13th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Justin – why are you so quick to write Paul off?
Consider the fact that he has more votes than both Giuliani and Fred Thompson so far. Any finish above last is a victory for Paul. He’s only “2%” according to the MSM, remember? Also remember that only two states have voted so far. We got a long way to go, and Paul has the cash & support to go beyond Super Tuesday, if the Money Bomb doesn’t work out he’s qualified for matching funds while candidates such as McCain and Giuliani are going broke. And yes, he’s in the unique position to run as an independent but I would rather see him fight for the GOP nomination & return the GOP back to its traditional roots.
The other GOP candidates are bashing each other over minutia conservative details (that’s really nothing more than keeping the quasi-socialist status-quo going). This is a marathon, not a sprint, and Paul is sitting back letting these candidates fight to the death and he’ll smell like roses. The GOP convention is going to be brokered anyways, so if Paul doesn’t win, he’ll have delegates to move the debate.
Paul’s not out of this by a long-shot. His support is strong in Michigan and Nevada and even in South Carolina. The posters at FreeRepublic are freaking out over the possibility of McCain, Huckabee, or Giuliani getting the nomination. The GOP nomination is completely up for grabs.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
NAACP President says Ron Paul is not a racist
Paul Joseph Watson
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.
Linder joined Alex Jones for two segments on his KLBJ Sunday show this evening, during which he commented on the controversy created by media hit pieces that attempted to tarnish Paul as a racist by making him culpable for decades old newsletter articles written by other people.
“Knowing Ron Paul’s intent, I think he is trying to improve this country but I think also, when you talk about the Constitution and you constantly criticize the federal government versus state I think a lot of folks are going to misconstrue that….so I think it’s very easy for folks who want to to take his position out of context and that’s what I’m hearing,” said Linder.
“Knowing Ron Paul and having talked to him, I think he’s a very fair guy I just think that a lot of folks do not understand the Libertarian platform,” he added.
Asked directly if Ron Paul was a racist, Linder responded “No I don’t,” adding that he had heard Ron Paul speak out about police repression of black communities and mandatory minimum sentences on many occasions.
Dr. Paul has also publicly praised Martin Luther King as his hero on many occasions spanning back 20 years.
“I’ve read Ron Paul’s whole philosophy, I also understand what he’s saying from a political standpoint and why people are attacking him,” said Linder.
“If you scare the folks that have the money, they’re going to attack you and they’re going to take it out of context,” he added.
“What he’s saying is really really threatening the powers that be and that’s what they fear,” concluded the NAACP President.
January 13th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1134.html
This and other evidence points to the fact that Ron Paul is not racist. However, he let this get out of hand. The person who wrote this needs to own up and clear Ron Paul and make it clear that the content was his and had nothing to do with Ron Paul, and that he was using Ron Paul’s name to get the author’s ideas published.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Ron Paul is not a racist, period. Even the president of the NAACP (Nelson Linder) says so. Check this out: http://www.nolanchart.com/article1134.html
It’s clear to me that this racist stuff is all a bunch of unfortunate bull. It’s unfortunate that Dr. Paul ever let any racists write a newsletter for him, but he himself being a racist is bull.
January 13th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
So what? He has spoken the truth threw out. He has opened my eyes to just how twisted this system is. He has reminded me just how important the Constitution is. Weather he gets the nomination or not matters not only that people know just how manipulated they are. Go Ron Paul GO!
January 13th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Zariou: Maybe the people who really know Ron Paul would have a better idea whether or not these writings are condoned by Ron. Check out this link of what the President of the NAACP has to say about it.
http://canyouspeakthis.wordpress.com/2008/01/13/naacp-president-ron-paul-is-not-a-racist/
January 13th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
There is nothing new in the newsletter scandal (other than the real author being outed) and an NAACP leader in Austin sticking up for Dr. Paul. At least we got this out of the way now. This is not going to stick.
There is one possiblity left, and that is Feb 5th. If Dr. Paul dumps $18 million into Tsunami Tuesday advertising, he could do well enough to maintain competitiveness (defined as picking up enough delegates to
I still say that running as an established 3rd party candidate would be a very bad idea. It will be expensive and Dr. Paul will be easily marginalized. If anything, we should just go straight to the write-in option. Then he can continue to campaign without breaking his pledge of not running 3rd party.
The main criticism of 3rd party voting is the “wasted vote” argument. and it depends on the preceived position of the 3rd party in question. For example if someone wants to vote Green party, that vote is said to hurt the Democrats and favor the the Republicans, but if someone wants to vote Libertarian, then that is said to hurt Republicans and help Democrats.
This is in defiance of the actual policy preferences of the voter in question. It doesn’t matter if the Libertarian in question would actually be voting Republican in absense of a Libertarian party or not, the LP is still seen as destorying Republican voter hegemony. The moment Dr. Paul runs as a 3rd party (whichever 3rd party) Justin, and others in the blogosphere will switch to “you can’t seriously vote for Dr. Paul, that would just be handing the election to Hillary… blah blah blah.”
In short, Dr. Paul should stay in the GOP and try to bring his followers along with him. Then next cycle we can try to find someone to carry on the legacy.
Later.
January 14th, 2008 at 12:02 am
odd… I thought I finished that sentence.
enough to maintain competitiveness (defined as picking up enough delegates to have a resonable chance of being a kingmaker)
January 14th, 2008 at 12:49 am
http://www.nolanchart.com/article1134.html
“Austin NAACP President Nelson Linder, who has known Ron Paul for 20 years, unequivocally dismissed charges that the Congressman was a racist in light of recent smear attempts, and said the reason for him being attacked was that he was a threat to the establishment.”
This race is not done….
http://freeatlast2008.com/
January 14th, 2008 at 1:44 am
Dr. Paul is the exact OPPOSITE of what you could call a racist. Anyone who does their research on the subject will find HE DIDN’T write any of it. Ron Paul is the Only candidate on the republican side worth ANY votes. The writer of this must be afraid Ron’s message might beat their neo-con communist agenda that most republican candidates seem to agree with, even though denying it irrefutably. Ron Paul is the best candidate for the return of power to the people. All the others would re-instate the draft and start another greedy war for profit.
January 14th, 2008 at 10:47 am
“neo-con communist agenda that most republican candidates seem to agree with”
my head hurts just trying to wrap around that one…neo-con corporatist, maybe, neo-con facist probably, but you’re on the wrong side of the political spectrum with neo-con communist
anyway, stick a fork in Paul. He’s done.
I admire the passion of his supporters, but you backed the wrong horse in this race. Even if he is not a racist, when you lay down with pigs you get dirty. I will let you cling to the idea that Paul is not a racist, but you have to question the man’s judgment. Allowing a racist to peddle a philosophy with your name on the label is such poor judgment that you really cannot ask people to support this guy.
Sorry, not going to happen.
January 14th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I’m not disappointed with Paul’s support so far; I think he’s doing really well. He is ahead of Hunter and 9iu11iani in total votes and in delegate representation; he will likely finish ahead of Thompson. Which, means that he has solid support in a very devisive Republican field.
I would be more upset about his position if the Republican nominee actually had a shot at the presidency, but its pretty apparent that the Republicans are going to lose the Presidency as well as seats in the House and Senate. It looks like the Democrats time has come, and with the increased power of the Federal government and office of the Executive, the Dems should be able to leverage their reluctant but eventual tit-for-tat support of the War on Iraq into big increases in the domestic welfare state; increases in foreign intervention always lead to increases in domestic intervention.
To effectively compete after this year the Republicans must re-tool a coalition, and I want a major portion of that coalition to be a return to fiscal conservatism, limited government, and free-market economics. I think we have found out that war, big spending, and socialism are losing issues for Republican voters. And I see a much more prominant place for Paul’s positions in the Republican establishment. It would be nice if the Republicans embraced conservative values again.
Until then, there is lots of money to be made by moving jobs and capital over-seas as America socializes itself down to the level of the rest of the world. Actually, this will help dampen our international arrogance and belicosity as we errode the tools necessary to create the capital accumulation necessary to fund a massive military and an aggressive foreign policy.
January 14th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
Many Ron Paul Meetups around the country are having members run for local office. Change begins on the locally (if it’s not already too late to write America off). The RP REV will continue to be a loud presence for the District of Criminals and repeated demands for the return of constitutional government – calling out those representatives who take an oath one day then violate the next. 98,000 RP Meetup members as of today.
January 14th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Two small primaries and now his campaign is done? Please.
So many idiots like to pound their chest and predict the future like they have a clue.
Paul has the money and support to go the distance – whether it’s on the GOP ticket or as an independent. And what he has going for him NONE of the other candidates have – truth and logic.
What are the other options? The country is already bankrupt – on one side we have neocon warmongers who want to accelerate this country’s demise fighting the “Forever War” on terror, on the other side we have socialized medicine! This is nothing short of mass hysteria.
What Paul has working against him is time and the ignorant masses (which you obviously qualify as a member). The naysayers are the same dumasses that bought Lucent at $100, that bought the McMansion in July 2006 with a Pay Option ARM, and (when the economy implodes) will be out in the street jobless, homeless and penniless.
Economic and Social Darwinism at its finest.
January 14th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Libertarians do have a candidate better than Ron Paul and without the baggage:
Wayne Allyn Root
January 14th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Apparent from the schism between Ron Paul supporters, and other libertarian-minded “groups†(Reason et al), is that movement of the American political democracy / republic toward libertarian policies (the trumping position of individual rights) is almost impossible.
It seems obvious to me that any one Libertarian is only capable of endorsing their one and only individual position in politics, and most of them would only consider voting for themselves. The majority of Libertarians are incabable of endorsing any candidate where there exists the slightest disagreement with their individual set of ideals or policies, even if there is agreement on 95% of them.
In the meantime, the collectivists and tribal-minded populus will continue to erode the right of the individual as the core underpinning of American political philosophy, with each and every election.
Tragic.
Given a finite number of candidates with the possibility to move America away from it’s own demise, I’ll still give my vote to Ron Paul long long before I would consider giving it to those who would stamp on my civil liberties and the fruits of my free action (my property), whether those candidates are cloaked as “correct thinking†Republican or Democrat.
January 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I agree with Justin. As much as I support Ron Paul, and as surely as I’m convinced he’s not a rascist, all that matters is public opinion.
I think Ron Paul needed to deal with this head on. Instead, he turtled. One combative appearance on Blitzer does not cut it. He either needed to demonstrate contrition in Michael Richards / Duane “Dog” Chapman fashion (isn’t that what Larry King is for?) or he needed to go on the offensive in a coordinated way (sure I said it so what). People are sick and tired of PCism and I think they could get behind someone who actually tells the media and the Al Sharptons of the world to stick it.
He did neither in hopes that this will go away. But it won’t go away. If he get’s anywhere near success in the polls, it will rear it’s ugly head.
I just don’t see anyone with the same name recognition or buzz, and I honestly can’t get excited about supporting another Badnarik campaign.
I guess things just have to get really bad, before the American people will listen to someone like Ron Paul. They are just too busy choosing the options on their next Lexus to understand the looming financial crisis.