RiseAgainRepublic
11-30-2007, 10:31 PM
Good stuff at the links below.
Since Wilson's ego-driven obsession after World War I, we have witnessed an increasing proclivity among elected officials at the Federal level to pursue fame in half-baked, yet always pretentious, efforts to remake human societies both at home and abroad. Some of these endeavors--such as Wilson's League of Nations--would have compromised the sovereign independence won by the original 13 States on the battlefield of the Revolution. Others, such as John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier" and Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society," sought to force new sociological norms on Americans--pretending to elevate local society by suppressing the, once evident, rich cultural variations in values and heritage among our respective States and communities.
While the Coolidge and Reagan Administrations may have offered brief respites in this almost century old phenomenon; the dawn of the Clinton/Bush era brought an acceleration of the frenetic pursuit of fame and power through social or political innovation. We are no longer "Slouching Towards Gomorrah." Rather, we witness the headlong pursuit of ever more fantastic, ever more dogmatic, forms of social engineering. And yet almost none of the great "reforms"--the wild-eyed initiatives of our politicians, often little more than efforts to copy the failed policies of other lands, or other eras;--almost none of the great landmarks of legislation or Executive initiative, of recent years, has had any basis in the powers actually delegated in our written Constitution...
Read More:
http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/Paul.htm
Another one:
There are various identifiable phases to any political campaign. But for our analysis of the progress of the Presidential candidacy of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, we will simplify that identification into the two most critical: (1) Setting up an organizational structure; and (2) Winning public support. While activities in each phase will overlap, the first must tend to precede the second. Understanding this is essential to an appreciation of the really impressive achievements of Dr. Paul, up to now. While much of the media, as well as most of the other Presidential candidates appear not to comprehend, we will clarify our point. It is not conceptually complicated, whether it is overlooked by connivance or confusion--whether with malicious intent, or due to one or more of the various aspects of that befuddlement so prevalent in contemporary American politics.
For background, the reader might consider the much shorter time frames allotted to General election campaigns in other advanced nations. Most of the world does not find it necessary to indulge or engage in scheduled campaigns that extend for more than a year. Indeed, the very notion tends to raise eyebrows across the ocean. Of course, what neither Europe nor Japan is likely to fully grasp is an enduring reality of American politics: Our political parties are largely undisciplined aggregations of people drawn together for a great variety of individual motivations--some ideological, some social, some merely habitual. The endless campaign is, first of all, a sorting out process. And while that, even from the start, involves some of what we have identified as the Second Phase of a campaign, the primary initial concern--the necessary first step--is to create a functional campaign--to build an organizational structure--or structures--and recruit those who will actually join the candidate in taking the resulting electoral campaign to every voter deemed reachable...
Read on:
http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/Paul2.htm
Since Wilson's ego-driven obsession after World War I, we have witnessed an increasing proclivity among elected officials at the Federal level to pursue fame in half-baked, yet always pretentious, efforts to remake human societies both at home and abroad. Some of these endeavors--such as Wilson's League of Nations--would have compromised the sovereign independence won by the original 13 States on the battlefield of the Revolution. Others, such as John F. Kennedy's "New Frontier" and Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society," sought to force new sociological norms on Americans--pretending to elevate local society by suppressing the, once evident, rich cultural variations in values and heritage among our respective States and communities.
While the Coolidge and Reagan Administrations may have offered brief respites in this almost century old phenomenon; the dawn of the Clinton/Bush era brought an acceleration of the frenetic pursuit of fame and power through social or political innovation. We are no longer "Slouching Towards Gomorrah." Rather, we witness the headlong pursuit of ever more fantastic, ever more dogmatic, forms of social engineering. And yet almost none of the great "reforms"--the wild-eyed initiatives of our politicians, often little more than efforts to copy the failed policies of other lands, or other eras;--almost none of the great landmarks of legislation or Executive initiative, of recent years, has had any basis in the powers actually delegated in our written Constitution...
Read More:
http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/Paul.htm
Another one:
There are various identifiable phases to any political campaign. But for our analysis of the progress of the Presidential candidacy of Texas Congressman Ron Paul, we will simplify that identification into the two most critical: (1) Setting up an organizational structure; and (2) Winning public support. While activities in each phase will overlap, the first must tend to precede the second. Understanding this is essential to an appreciation of the really impressive achievements of Dr. Paul, up to now. While much of the media, as well as most of the other Presidential candidates appear not to comprehend, we will clarify our point. It is not conceptually complicated, whether it is overlooked by connivance or confusion--whether with malicious intent, or due to one or more of the various aspects of that befuddlement so prevalent in contemporary American politics.
For background, the reader might consider the much shorter time frames allotted to General election campaigns in other advanced nations. Most of the world does not find it necessary to indulge or engage in scheduled campaigns that extend for more than a year. Indeed, the very notion tends to raise eyebrows across the ocean. Of course, what neither Europe nor Japan is likely to fully grasp is an enduring reality of American politics: Our political parties are largely undisciplined aggregations of people drawn together for a great variety of individual motivations--some ideological, some social, some merely habitual. The endless campaign is, first of all, a sorting out process. And while that, even from the start, involves some of what we have identified as the Second Phase of a campaign, the primary initial concern--the necessary first step--is to create a functional campaign--to build an organizational structure--or structures--and recruit those who will actually join the candidate in taking the resulting electoral campaign to every voter deemed reachable...
Read on:
http://pages.prodigy.net/krtq73aa/Paul2.htm