Ron Paul Firmly Says NO To 3rd Party Run
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, 3rd Party, Republicans, Ron Paul
George Phillies sent me an email today giving me heads up that Ron Paul has stated, once and for all, he’s not making a 3rd party run.
And with these words a revolution dies…
Let me tell you my thoughts. With Romney gone, the chances of a brokered convention are nearly zero. But that does not affect my determination to fight on, in every caucus and primary remaining, and at the convention for our ideas, with just as many delegates as I can get. But with so many primaries and caucuses now over, we do not now need so big a national campaign staff, and so I am making it leaner and tighter. Of course, I am committed to fighting for our ideas within the Republican party, so there will be no third party run. I do not denigrate third parties — just the opposite, and I have long worked to remove the ballot-access restrictions on them. But I am a Republican, and I will remain a Republican.I also have another priority. I have constituents in my home district that I must serve. I cannot and will not let them down. And I have another battle I must face here as well. If I were to lose the primary for my congressional seat, all our opponents would react with glee, and pretend it was a rejection of our ideas. I cannot and will not let that happen.
In the presidential race and the congressional race, I need your support, as always. And I have plans to continue fighting for our ideas in politics and education that I will share with you when I can, for I will need you at my side. In the meantime, onward and upward! The neocons, the warmongers, the socialists, the advocates of inflation will be hearing much from you and me.
Folks, I do think Ron Paul cared about the ideas he was fighting for, but he doesn’t care enough to stage an independent bid and try to get into the debates. And the fact that he’s staying in the Republican party, when his philosophy is obviously libertarian, is just intellectually dishonest. That’s all there is to it. Because as a member of the Republican Congress, he’ll simply continue to oppose nearly everything that comes up for a vote, collect a paycheck and be known as Dr. No.
And yeah, in 4 years he can run for President again, but I guarantee you his support will have seriously waned by then. And what if McCain wins? Will he run against the Republican nominee? We all know that would be a completely fruitless attempt? No, the time to make his mark on history is now, but he’s passing it up. Just remember that the next time he emails you and starts asking for money.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, 3rd Party, Republicans, Ron Paul. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
February 9th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
[...] has just released a statement claiming he won’t mount a third-party campaign, and I hope that’s true. But he still insists that he will [...]
February 9th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Well, I went to the Republican caucus here in Kansas, this morning. I voted for Ron Paul. I did it, hoping that he would pull a 3rd party or independent run.
CNN now projects the TaliBaptists of Kansas have given the state to Buck-A-Tooth.
I predict heavy drinking in this household tonight.
Maybe I’ll say a prayer or two for the Bloomberg/Hagel show…
Man… I feel like my whole week just went down the crapper…
February 9th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Justin - You know damn well that as a 3rd party or Independent candidate, the media would have shunned Paul even more than they already have, he wouldn’t get invited to the debates and the media (INCLUDING YOU) would just treat Paul as a circus sideshow. Dr. Paul not running as a 3rd party candidate is a good thing - because he has shone a harsh spotlight on the GOP like a light switch does to cockroaches. Not only the GOP, but to sycophants such as Rush Limbaugh, Redstate, Ann Coulter, and Free Republic. These guys talk the conservative talk but in a way they’re no different than how Booker T. Washington pointed out how a select cabal of blacks keep other blacks down. Re-read Washington’s quote, and substitute the word black with conservatives.
Now the GOP will straight up lose against Hillary and Obama and there can be no blaming Paul. You guys called Paul’s supporters “Troofers” and “kooks” and “white supremacists” during the primaries but I guarantee you us Troofers/kooks/white supremacists will be blamed when we stay home in the general election. Funny how we’re kooks one minute but later on we’re traitorous conservatives or “Losertarians” who won’t hold their nose for the RINO.
Going 3rd party was never an option. Ron Paul already played that game in 1988 and got burned by it. The best thing to do is to once again reclaim the GOP from the Northeastern Rockefellers and wanna-be Democrats who are running the party into the ground. The GOP did nothing as Ron Paul was smeared, ignored, lied to, and the new, previous apathetic voters who joined the cause were ridiculed as stupid kids or kooks. Payback is a female dog though, because all those new voters that registered Republican for Paul? They’re the future of the GOP. Paul will be remembered 20 years from now like Reagan but who’s going to remember McCain when he gets his ass handed to him by Hillary or Obama? Who’s going to remember Mr. 9/11 Giuliani? Fred Thompson? Mitt Romney? Ron Paul has far exceeded expectations and have already run the greatest grassroots campaign in American political history.
February 9th, 2008 at 11:40 pm
Nonsense. Nothing would be more useless or pointless than a 3rd party Paul campaign at this point. It would undermine everything he has done. In this campaign he has done more to promote and popularize libertarian ideas than any one else in my memory. The campaign was an enormous success. As a congressman he provides the Republican party with a continuous and much needed jolts from a libertarian cattle prod. We need him to be reelected and back in Congress where he does the most good. I applaud his decision. I only wish there was a Democratic Party Ron Paul providing the same service to the Democratic party.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:47 am
RP gave us a good start. This needs to move from the Ron Paul Freedom Revolution to the Freedom Revolution (with Ron Paul as one of many members).
RP is great but it’s time to look past him and see what our next move is. Let’s not make the same mistakes as the Ross Perot/Reform Party people made. They frittered away their momentum.