Ron Paul Update

[liveonearth]

It's not for certain, but there is rumbling in the works about how Ron Paul polled up there with Mitch Romney in straw polling among Republicans. I have heard the suggestion that he could be the next Republican presidential candidate. The emails from inside the Liberty machine seem to be gathering information about how much support there is for a run by Dr Paul. So if you finger is not on the Libertarian pulse, consider yourself warned. We have not heard the end of this. I haven't read it yet but a friend of mine just sent me this link to an apparently excellent Atlantic article about "The Tea Party's Brain" (ie. Dr Paul). He's not the only brain involved, but there ARE some brains out there functioning behind the Tea Party, even though the idiotic and rageful participants get most of the media attention. For myself, I have become rather impressed with Obama, but if Ron Paul ran against him, I'm for Dr Paul. Obama knows what is up and is playing the game within the system. Dr Paul would disrupt the whole system. People fear such change, even when they are angry and want change. Dr Paul has some convincing to do to be electable, because his voting record shows no evidence of compromise. Compromise is necessary in our system of government, but his positions have not been well represented in the decisionmaking process. I'd like to see more rational advocacy of the longterm constitutional perspective. If/when Dr Paul begins to appear electable, I fear for his life. His preferred policies are so antithetical to the interests of big business that his airplanes are likely to crash for no obvious reason. Maybe he'll book the plane and take the train. =-]

Comments

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I supported him up to the point where he imploded on who to support once it became apparent he was not going to make the nomination.

I hope he continues. We need a rebel like him.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I guess I missed the implosion. I remember him saying that he could not in good faith support any of the bipolar (my word) party candidates. I remember him saying pick a 3rd party candidate and support them, and that made sense to me and was what I did. Because what I see that we are trying to do is bring ideas that have been under-represented by party politics in the last 50 years back into the discussion circle. To some degree this can be satisfied by infiltrating the Republican party but the party machinery is deep enough into the money game that real change (back toward government for and by the people) will have to be unpleasant to the party structure. Third parties are where people go when they have good ideas that aren't acceptable in the current structure. If more people started voting for non-dominant party structures we would have a different democracy. It does not have to be a two party system. It is a myth that we must vote for "somebody who can win" and that it is absolutely mandatory for that person to be endorsed by parties and businesses. We the people could still take back the rulership of this country, if we could just figure out that we have lost it. But I go on...

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

yeah he had a huge chunk of momentum going that he could have thrown someones way but he allowed it to die off like 'the wave' in an empty stadium.

That is when I turned to O by default.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

O's a good guy. Do you regret voting for him? Or are you proud?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

No regrets. I know where the problems lie (obstructionism). The Man is doing the best with what he has.