BillyDkid
02-05-2010, 09:00 PM
I hope you guys don't mind that I post what amounts to an opinion piece in here. Hoped I could get someone to blog it or publish it, but it's not worth the effort.
Run, Ron, Run!!!
I have many significant memories from Dr. Paul’s 2008 Presidential campaign. There were the money bombs and there was the blimp. There was Ron Paul’s counter convention and the real Tea Party. There were the debates, with that dim bulb Sean Hannity nearly apoplectic every time Dr. Paul won the Fox News debate polls - ah yes, we Paultards with our amazing ability to game the system. There was the youtube of Dr. Paul all by himself dragging his bag through the airport and chatting with the twenty or thirty supporters who waited at the airport just to watch him walk through, the rest of the crowd oblivious to the fact that there was great man walking among them.
The one thing that sticks in my mind the most was Dr. Paul’s final debate with just Dr. Paul, McCain and Romney, the one moderated by Anderson Cooper. The contempt shown to Dr. Paul by both McCain and Romney was exceeded only that shown by Cooper himself. It made me furious. I never had much respect for McCain and had even less for that complete political hack Romney, but I never really gave Cooper much thought until that debate. To me this debate illustrated exactly how low we have sunk as a country when the one truly honorable, courageous and decent man on the stage could not even be afforded even a modicum of ordinary respect by men who, in my opinion, were not even fit to breath the same air. And that was pretty much the story for the entire campaign - the powers that be doing all they can to discredit, marginalize and trivialize this courageous, principled man.
A Presidential campaign is grueling enough under the best circumstances. Dr. Paul was was courageous enough not only to endure the ordeal of a campaign, but willingly suffered the slings and arrows and insults and slights from people not worthy (again, in my opinion) of shining his shoes. He suffered these things with a grace and a dignity that I never could muster and showed a vigor and energy that I have trouble mustering after an ordinary day at work, even being 20 years or so Dr. Paul’s junior. And he didn’t do any of it out of personal ambition or the desire for glory. He did it because he believes in the principles on which this country was founded and his desire to restore this country to those principles for the benefit of all of us.
I have no problem saying that I hope one day to be half the man that Dr. Paul is. For these things among many others I feel a tremendous debt of gratitude to Ron Paul and he is a true hero to me, however much that might embarrass him. So why would I ask him to go through all of that again? I can ask him because I think things will be different this time. I can ask him because he alone on the national political stage represents the views and principles which, for me, define what America is intended to be. The view of America most of us grew up with and still believe in. The views of the real “silent majority” who, until Dr. Paul’s campaign, felt disenfranchised and without a voice. I can ask him because America needs him. It is a lot to ask, I know - more than I might have a right to ask - and if there were someone else to turn to, that’s where I would turn.
The big Tea Party convention was in the news today. They talked about the keynote speaker, the world’s most famous soccer mom. Now, I have no problem Sarah Palin personally, but, in all honesty, she is, at best, an attractive, but empty dress who can only parrot back what her handlers tell her people want to hear. I seriously doubt she even understands the concept of “principle”. There were interviews with attendees who are devoted in their opposition to Obama and his agenda, but not a one mentioned the horrendous previous eight years in which the neo-con Dubya administration had done more damage to the country than Obama has begun to have chance to do, though I do not doubt that he will exceed them if given the chance.
There was no mention of the quagmire of criminal wars in which this country has been involved for most of the past decade. There was no mention of the thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan lives thrown away. There was no mention of the previous administration’s concerted effort to bankrupt this country. I am not alone in my feeling that the Tea Party movement has been largely co-opted by neo-con, GOP operatives. I know that Tom Woods is speaking there and that’s certainly a good thing and I know that there is a smattering of we Paultards in the mix, but my feeling is that the only way we can hope to get this movement focused again and defined by the principles of liberty is to get Ron Paul in the middle of it again as the central figure.
These same people who have taken over the Tea Party movement, who have jumped into the front of this parade, are the same people who participated willingly in the marginalization of Ron Paul and his supporters. And doesn’t the fact Sarah Palin rather than Ron Paul was at the top of their list as keynote speaker tell you everything you need to know? The tea party, now, is purely political and amounts to little more than a partisan political stunt, in my humble opinion. I don’t doubt that most of the people involved are real, grassroots type, but I also don’t doubt that slick political opportunists saw an opportunity to further their own agendas by jumping on this band wagon.
The Campaign For Liberty, certain issues aside, has been a great thing, but without the Ron Paul campaign the movement has become defuse and confused in its purpose and principles. I know that once and if Dr. Paul runs again it will galvanize as it once did and we desperately need that. Then we will see where the tea partiers really stand and whether or not they are really pro-liberty or merely anti-Obama and anti-Democrat. Look at everything Dr. Paul achieved in the face of establishment opposition. Look at what we achieved, really. My feeling is that this time there will be no stopping us, but we need Dr. Paul and his clear message of liberty out in front. There just is no one else out there that I can see. And let’s see Sean Hannity complain about Paultard manipulating the system this time around.
Run, Ron, Run!!!
I have many significant memories from Dr. Paul’s 2008 Presidential campaign. There were the money bombs and there was the blimp. There was Ron Paul’s counter convention and the real Tea Party. There were the debates, with that dim bulb Sean Hannity nearly apoplectic every time Dr. Paul won the Fox News debate polls - ah yes, we Paultards with our amazing ability to game the system. There was the youtube of Dr. Paul all by himself dragging his bag through the airport and chatting with the twenty or thirty supporters who waited at the airport just to watch him walk through, the rest of the crowd oblivious to the fact that there was great man walking among them.
The one thing that sticks in my mind the most was Dr. Paul’s final debate with just Dr. Paul, McCain and Romney, the one moderated by Anderson Cooper. The contempt shown to Dr. Paul by both McCain and Romney was exceeded only that shown by Cooper himself. It made me furious. I never had much respect for McCain and had even less for that complete political hack Romney, but I never really gave Cooper much thought until that debate. To me this debate illustrated exactly how low we have sunk as a country when the one truly honorable, courageous and decent man on the stage could not even be afforded even a modicum of ordinary respect by men who, in my opinion, were not even fit to breath the same air. And that was pretty much the story for the entire campaign - the powers that be doing all they can to discredit, marginalize and trivialize this courageous, principled man.
A Presidential campaign is grueling enough under the best circumstances. Dr. Paul was was courageous enough not only to endure the ordeal of a campaign, but willingly suffered the slings and arrows and insults and slights from people not worthy (again, in my opinion) of shining his shoes. He suffered these things with a grace and a dignity that I never could muster and showed a vigor and energy that I have trouble mustering after an ordinary day at work, even being 20 years or so Dr. Paul’s junior. And he didn’t do any of it out of personal ambition or the desire for glory. He did it because he believes in the principles on which this country was founded and his desire to restore this country to those principles for the benefit of all of us.
I have no problem saying that I hope one day to be half the man that Dr. Paul is. For these things among many others I feel a tremendous debt of gratitude to Ron Paul and he is a true hero to me, however much that might embarrass him. So why would I ask him to go through all of that again? I can ask him because I think things will be different this time. I can ask him because he alone on the national political stage represents the views and principles which, for me, define what America is intended to be. The view of America most of us grew up with and still believe in. The views of the real “silent majority” who, until Dr. Paul’s campaign, felt disenfranchised and without a voice. I can ask him because America needs him. It is a lot to ask, I know - more than I might have a right to ask - and if there were someone else to turn to, that’s where I would turn.
The big Tea Party convention was in the news today. They talked about the keynote speaker, the world’s most famous soccer mom. Now, I have no problem Sarah Palin personally, but, in all honesty, she is, at best, an attractive, but empty dress who can only parrot back what her handlers tell her people want to hear. I seriously doubt she even understands the concept of “principle”. There were interviews with attendees who are devoted in their opposition to Obama and his agenda, but not a one mentioned the horrendous previous eight years in which the neo-con Dubya administration had done more damage to the country than Obama has begun to have chance to do, though I do not doubt that he will exceed them if given the chance.
There was no mention of the quagmire of criminal wars in which this country has been involved for most of the past decade. There was no mention of the thousands of American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan lives thrown away. There was no mention of the previous administration’s concerted effort to bankrupt this country. I am not alone in my feeling that the Tea Party movement has been largely co-opted by neo-con, GOP operatives. I know that Tom Woods is speaking there and that’s certainly a good thing and I know that there is a smattering of we Paultards in the mix, but my feeling is that the only way we can hope to get this movement focused again and defined by the principles of liberty is to get Ron Paul in the middle of it again as the central figure.
These same people who have taken over the Tea Party movement, who have jumped into the front of this parade, are the same people who participated willingly in the marginalization of Ron Paul and his supporters. And doesn’t the fact Sarah Palin rather than Ron Paul was at the top of their list as keynote speaker tell you everything you need to know? The tea party, now, is purely political and amounts to little more than a partisan political stunt, in my humble opinion. I don’t doubt that most of the people involved are real, grassroots type, but I also don’t doubt that slick political opportunists saw an opportunity to further their own agendas by jumping on this band wagon.
The Campaign For Liberty, certain issues aside, has been a great thing, but without the Ron Paul campaign the movement has become defuse and confused in its purpose and principles. I know that once and if Dr. Paul runs again it will galvanize as it once did and we desperately need that. Then we will see where the tea partiers really stand and whether or not they are really pro-liberty or merely anti-Obama and anti-Democrat. Look at everything Dr. Paul achieved in the face of establishment opposition. Look at what we achieved, really. My feeling is that this time there will be no stopping us, but we need Dr. Paul and his clear message of liberty out in front. There just is no one else out there that I can see. And let’s see Sean Hannity complain about Paultard manipulating the system this time around.