BillyDkid
02-13-2008, 08:52 AM
I am posting my letter again. Just because I want to. It may not be as timely as it was when I first wrote it, but Dr. Paul still has a hope and a plan and the world is a crazy place and as comforting to most people as it may be to believe otherwise, the future is wildly unpredictable.
An open letter to the GOP, the media and the American People
I see that certain people in the leadership of the GOP have recently been expressing their remorse and regret and making gestures of apology for their treatment of Ron Paul and his supporters and acknowledging that they should have treated us with more respect. Likewise, certain folks in the media have been making similar sounds. As a long time supporter and a substantial contributor to the Ron Paul campaign I think I speak for the majority of us when I say - go screw yourselves.
You may not have noticed, but we Ron Paul supporters are not the sheep and the dimwits that most Americans seem to be. Do you really think that we didn’t notice that all this contrition you seem to feel only dawned on you after Super Tuesday and you were sure that it was too late for this sudden realization of your short sightedness to have any impact on the American people? But I have news for you – it’s not too late and we are not giving up. And here is another news flash- the way things stand now there is not a chance in hell that McCain or any other GOP candidate will take up residence in the White House come next January. I would be surprised if there is a single one of us who will even consider casting a vote for McCain should he become the nominee. Further, like many thousands of others who joined the GOP in this past year for the sole purpose of supporting Ron Paul, I will be resigning my membership in this party as soon after the National Convention as humanly possible.
We are also fully aware that the directive came down from the GOP leadership to the media to do everything they could get away with to marginalize, discredit and ignore Ron Paul and virtually all of the mainstream media hopped on board. I have seen Ron Paul insulted, belittled and slandered on TV by people who are not fit to breathe the same air as this courageous and selfless man. That you people can look in the mirror and not feel shame for the way you have betrayed the trust of the American people and our democracy itself is beyond me. You should be ashamed to call yourselves Americans. There are a few among you who have shown courage and integrity and you know who you are. I salute you for your honor.
I feel compelled to add a note about Mitt Romney and I think this speaks volumes about the character of the man. I heard Romney on the radio chuckling about Ron Paul and saying, essentially, that he deserved to be laughed at. This after Ron Paul demonstrated his character by being the only GOP candidate to come out specifically in defense of Romney and his faith – saying that the media had no business making it an issue and other candidates were wrong to bring it up and to try to exploit religious bigotry for political benefit – read “Huckabee”. Did Romney thank him? Did Romney remark about Ron Paul’s integrity and decency? No, Romney said Ron Paul deserved to be laughed at. Did the media make any kind of a serious issue of Huckabee’s use of bigotry and religious intolerance to disqualify him for serious consideration??? – not a chance. And during the last joke of a GOP debate (Special thanks goes out to Anderson Cooper. If there is a more shallow and venal shill for the owners of this country it is news to me.) no one could have missed CNN making sure that the camera caught every smirk and sneer coming from McCain and Romney each of the few times Ron Paul was allowed to speak, being certain to capture every nuance of the contempt they felt for the man. That contempt, “my friends” is really their contempt for the American people. And these are the sorts of people the GOP and the media ordains as legitimate candidates to be taken seriously while Ron Paul is “fringe”.
I have to say that the contempt I feel for the GOP and the media is rivaled only by my disappointment in the American people themselves. They allow themselves to be manipulated and controlled by the media. They let the “pundits” decide for them who their candidates should be. They do not have enough invested in their own country to find it in themselves to ferret out the truth of things. They let themselves be led by the nose into this God awful war in Iraq which has cost us 4000 American lives and many more thousands of Americans maimed for life. It has cost the Iraq people nearly a million lives and millions more have lost everything.
And the cost to us as taxpayers is bordering on half a trillion dollars and will likely be double that amount when all is said and done – money borrowed from the Chinese and the Saudis and Japan. All of this on top of the already backbreaking national debt which is currently at over 9 trillion dollars or roughly 30 thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in this country. You might be interested to know that your portion of the cost of the Iraq war comes to over $4,000.00. I don’t know about you, but I’m just barely making my mortgage payments each month. This is the gift we will be leaving our children – an unfathomable debt which we will paying for generations to come. How did America ever come to this?
But we trudge along in our lives oblivious to the realities with our ears plugged into our IPods and watching our big screen TVs. The IPod is the perfect symbol for America it seems to me. And the one candidate who loves his country enough to be willing to tell the truth is the one candidate the media goes out of its way to marginalize and discredit and portray as fringe. I understand that by and large GOP voters who oppose the war in Iraq voted by a large majority for McCain. McCain the “maverick” – excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth. Could someone please explain this to me? Is this the same McCain who talks about occupying Iraq for the next 100 years? Is this the same McCain who promises us even more wars?
As this election rolls around we will presented with the same choice we always have (would like to quote South Park, but will control myself) – we will apparently have a choice again between two people both of whom half the country despises and both of whom are worst sort of Washington insiders, which is apparently the way Americans like it. That must be the case because for the very first time in my lifetime we had a real option. For the first time we had the option to support a candidate who tells the truth and who cares more about the future of this country than his own ambition. Apparently this is an option Americans don’t want.
Sure, maybe it took a little effort and a little thinking to get past the coordinated effort by the media and their GOP overseers to obfuscate the truth, maybe it took enough courage to step outside your comfort zone of believing the owners of this country have your best interests at heart, but I guess that was to much to ask. I guess any desire to leave our children a free and peaceful and prosperous nation, indebted to no one and a friend to peace loving people everywhere was far outweighed by our need to hold on to the lies and conceits that so many find comfort in. The President merely blurts some inanity like “They hate us for our freedom!” or “Islamofacist extremists!” or “We fight them there so we don’t have to fight them over here!” and Americans swallow it like they swallow their Red Bull and McDonalds hamburgers. They always have and apparently they always will. They will until the entire house of cards falls down around their ears.
Take a candidate who tells the truth, though, a candidate who takes seriously the need for fiscal responsibility, a candidates who warns us the dangers of giving up our liberties in the name of some supposed security, a candidate who warns of the dangers of maintaining an empire all over the world, a candidate who says that personal liberty goes hand in hand with personal responsibility and a candidate who thinks that life is too precious to throw away for anything less than the actual defense of this nation and certainly too precious to sacrifice for the global ambitions of a handful of delusional but powerful men – in short a man who is unwilling to pander to our idiotic conceits and our worst instincts – that sort of man is “fringe” and “marginal” and not worth even listening too. That is a man who deserves to be slandered and ridiculed and made to look stupid. And how do we know that? We know that because that is what the media and people who run the GOP tell us so.
So, when you go to pull that lever in November, and your only choice is between two people you wouldn’t really want anywhere near your children and who you wouldn’t trust to do your taxes, just remember you have only yourselves to thank. And my message to the GOP, you had a chance to grow your party with the most enthusiastic and committed supporters on the planet. You had a chance to be reborn with an influx of people committed to the principles on which this country and this party was founded. You had a chance to support and endorse a courageous and visionary leader who offered the hope to restore this country to the beacon of hope and justice and liberty and an example of the promise that liberty holds for all people and you threw it away. When your candidate goes down in flames and humiliation next November you also have only yourselves to thank.
I have to add, no one has won the GOP nomination yet, in spite of what all the pundits say and I have just read that Romney has suspended his campaign. You still have time to make amends, but it will take a serious effort on your part. I sure can’t tell you what to do. Maybe give Ron Paul a fair shake and serious consideration of his ideas? Maybe let the American people hear his ideas without filtering them through your media shills and let them decide for themselves if they like them or not? Maybe ensure that the voting is fair and honest? Maybe punish those who’s idea of democracy is to thwart the will of voters who don’t vote for the candidate they approve of by not counting their votes? Maybe you could stop making it your mission to put every possible obstacle, legal or illegal, in front of people who wish to be Ron Paul delegates? I don’t know. You decide. You owe far more than an apology to Dr. Paul and all of his supporters, but more importantly, you owe that to the American people. But what does it matter what I think? I am just a lowly American citizen and a taxpayer.
Douglas W. Carkuff
Mount Upton, NY
2/7/08
An open letter to the GOP, the media and the American People
I see that certain people in the leadership of the GOP have recently been expressing their remorse and regret and making gestures of apology for their treatment of Ron Paul and his supporters and acknowledging that they should have treated us with more respect. Likewise, certain folks in the media have been making similar sounds. As a long time supporter and a substantial contributor to the Ron Paul campaign I think I speak for the majority of us when I say - go screw yourselves.
You may not have noticed, but we Ron Paul supporters are not the sheep and the dimwits that most Americans seem to be. Do you really think that we didn’t notice that all this contrition you seem to feel only dawned on you after Super Tuesday and you were sure that it was too late for this sudden realization of your short sightedness to have any impact on the American people? But I have news for you – it’s not too late and we are not giving up. And here is another news flash- the way things stand now there is not a chance in hell that McCain or any other GOP candidate will take up residence in the White House come next January. I would be surprised if there is a single one of us who will even consider casting a vote for McCain should he become the nominee. Further, like many thousands of others who joined the GOP in this past year for the sole purpose of supporting Ron Paul, I will be resigning my membership in this party as soon after the National Convention as humanly possible.
We are also fully aware that the directive came down from the GOP leadership to the media to do everything they could get away with to marginalize, discredit and ignore Ron Paul and virtually all of the mainstream media hopped on board. I have seen Ron Paul insulted, belittled and slandered on TV by people who are not fit to breathe the same air as this courageous and selfless man. That you people can look in the mirror and not feel shame for the way you have betrayed the trust of the American people and our democracy itself is beyond me. You should be ashamed to call yourselves Americans. There are a few among you who have shown courage and integrity and you know who you are. I salute you for your honor.
I feel compelled to add a note about Mitt Romney and I think this speaks volumes about the character of the man. I heard Romney on the radio chuckling about Ron Paul and saying, essentially, that he deserved to be laughed at. This after Ron Paul demonstrated his character by being the only GOP candidate to come out specifically in defense of Romney and his faith – saying that the media had no business making it an issue and other candidates were wrong to bring it up and to try to exploit religious bigotry for political benefit – read “Huckabee”. Did Romney thank him? Did Romney remark about Ron Paul’s integrity and decency? No, Romney said Ron Paul deserved to be laughed at. Did the media make any kind of a serious issue of Huckabee’s use of bigotry and religious intolerance to disqualify him for serious consideration??? – not a chance. And during the last joke of a GOP debate (Special thanks goes out to Anderson Cooper. If there is a more shallow and venal shill for the owners of this country it is news to me.) no one could have missed CNN making sure that the camera caught every smirk and sneer coming from McCain and Romney each of the few times Ron Paul was allowed to speak, being certain to capture every nuance of the contempt they felt for the man. That contempt, “my friends” is really their contempt for the American people. And these are the sorts of people the GOP and the media ordains as legitimate candidates to be taken seriously while Ron Paul is “fringe”.
I have to say that the contempt I feel for the GOP and the media is rivaled only by my disappointment in the American people themselves. They allow themselves to be manipulated and controlled by the media. They let the “pundits” decide for them who their candidates should be. They do not have enough invested in their own country to find it in themselves to ferret out the truth of things. They let themselves be led by the nose into this God awful war in Iraq which has cost us 4000 American lives and many more thousands of Americans maimed for life. It has cost the Iraq people nearly a million lives and millions more have lost everything.
And the cost to us as taxpayers is bordering on half a trillion dollars and will likely be double that amount when all is said and done – money borrowed from the Chinese and the Saudis and Japan. All of this on top of the already backbreaking national debt which is currently at over 9 trillion dollars or roughly 30 thousand dollars for every man, woman and child in this country. You might be interested to know that your portion of the cost of the Iraq war comes to over $4,000.00. I don’t know about you, but I’m just barely making my mortgage payments each month. This is the gift we will be leaving our children – an unfathomable debt which we will paying for generations to come. How did America ever come to this?
But we trudge along in our lives oblivious to the realities with our ears plugged into our IPods and watching our big screen TVs. The IPod is the perfect symbol for America it seems to me. And the one candidate who loves his country enough to be willing to tell the truth is the one candidate the media goes out of its way to marginalize and discredit and portray as fringe. I understand that by and large GOP voters who oppose the war in Iraq voted by a large majority for McCain. McCain the “maverick” – excuse me, I just threw up in my mouth. Could someone please explain this to me? Is this the same McCain who talks about occupying Iraq for the next 100 years? Is this the same McCain who promises us even more wars?
As this election rolls around we will presented with the same choice we always have (would like to quote South Park, but will control myself) – we will apparently have a choice again between two people both of whom half the country despises and both of whom are worst sort of Washington insiders, which is apparently the way Americans like it. That must be the case because for the very first time in my lifetime we had a real option. For the first time we had the option to support a candidate who tells the truth and who cares more about the future of this country than his own ambition. Apparently this is an option Americans don’t want.
Sure, maybe it took a little effort and a little thinking to get past the coordinated effort by the media and their GOP overseers to obfuscate the truth, maybe it took enough courage to step outside your comfort zone of believing the owners of this country have your best interests at heart, but I guess that was to much to ask. I guess any desire to leave our children a free and peaceful and prosperous nation, indebted to no one and a friend to peace loving people everywhere was far outweighed by our need to hold on to the lies and conceits that so many find comfort in. The President merely blurts some inanity like “They hate us for our freedom!” or “Islamofacist extremists!” or “We fight them there so we don’t have to fight them over here!” and Americans swallow it like they swallow their Red Bull and McDonalds hamburgers. They always have and apparently they always will. They will until the entire house of cards falls down around their ears.
Take a candidate who tells the truth, though, a candidate who takes seriously the need for fiscal responsibility, a candidates who warns us the dangers of giving up our liberties in the name of some supposed security, a candidate who warns of the dangers of maintaining an empire all over the world, a candidate who says that personal liberty goes hand in hand with personal responsibility and a candidate who thinks that life is too precious to throw away for anything less than the actual defense of this nation and certainly too precious to sacrifice for the global ambitions of a handful of delusional but powerful men – in short a man who is unwilling to pander to our idiotic conceits and our worst instincts – that sort of man is “fringe” and “marginal” and not worth even listening too. That is a man who deserves to be slandered and ridiculed and made to look stupid. And how do we know that? We know that because that is what the media and people who run the GOP tell us so.
So, when you go to pull that lever in November, and your only choice is between two people you wouldn’t really want anywhere near your children and who you wouldn’t trust to do your taxes, just remember you have only yourselves to thank. And my message to the GOP, you had a chance to grow your party with the most enthusiastic and committed supporters on the planet. You had a chance to be reborn with an influx of people committed to the principles on which this country and this party was founded. You had a chance to support and endorse a courageous and visionary leader who offered the hope to restore this country to the beacon of hope and justice and liberty and an example of the promise that liberty holds for all people and you threw it away. When your candidate goes down in flames and humiliation next November you also have only yourselves to thank.
I have to add, no one has won the GOP nomination yet, in spite of what all the pundits say and I have just read that Romney has suspended his campaign. You still have time to make amends, but it will take a serious effort on your part. I sure can’t tell you what to do. Maybe give Ron Paul a fair shake and serious consideration of his ideas? Maybe let the American people hear his ideas without filtering them through your media shills and let them decide for themselves if they like them or not? Maybe ensure that the voting is fair and honest? Maybe punish those who’s idea of democracy is to thwart the will of voters who don’t vote for the candidate they approve of by not counting their votes? Maybe you could stop making it your mission to put every possible obstacle, legal or illegal, in front of people who wish to be Ron Paul delegates? I don’t know. You decide. You owe far more than an apology to Dr. Paul and all of his supporters, but more importantly, you owe that to the American people. But what does it matter what I think? I am just a lowly American citizen and a taxpayer.
Douglas W. Carkuff
Mount Upton, NY
2/7/08