United Liberty: "CPAC was the wrong place to make that statement"

[MelissaWV]

Yes, let's be divisive, that will solve the problem.

The alternative seems to be to act like a moron, and be left with no good defense when people point out that they have to wade through a disturbing tide of rude, boorish, defensive, paranoid kooks in order to go out of their way to get involved on behalf of Dr. Paul. That would "unify" us, no?

I agree with the original article, and the idea that "they started it" so we should all band together and maybe moon them or decorate their stoops with flaming bags of dog poo... ghads it's really frustrating as hell.

It's like trying to sell someone on drinking a really great beverage, when there's a commercial on for said beverage that features Janet Reno doing something naughty with a lollipop then licking it and going "MMMMMM tastes like [name of beverage]." You just are not going to get a lot of people to try it, fighting against that kind of image.

[Vessol]

stupid anarchists showing up to political events and making us look bad, i'm starting to think we are being sabotaged

Yes, spending my rent money and missing work to go to CPAC so I could hang out with some RPFers and watch speakers speak..it was all part of my nefarious plan, how did you know!?

[Deborah K]

It seems they can boo, shout, and be rude with impunity and expect us to act like angels. I do not support double standards so I applaud all the guys who gave the Statists a dose of their own medicine.

They do it, so we should do it? Sounds like sandbox mentality...you threw sand first, no you did, no you did....

[Anti Federalist]

There is a time and a place for everything, but CPAC wasn’t the place to make your feelings known.

If not at a public, political gathering, then when, seriously?

Any other venue, like say a congressional hearing, and you will be arrested.

A public demonstration? That's no good, you're half a mile away in the "free speech zone".

Maybe a book signing or something like that? Shit, WeAreChange has been doing that for years. People around here would faint dead away if a WeAreChange video popped up with somebody heckling a Darth Cheny while wearing a Ron Paul shirt or something.

So, since I wasn't there, but if I had been, I would have been one of the asshole, idiot, immature shouters, you tell me: where can I exercise my right to air my grievances against government?

[Andrew-Austin]

The alternative seems to be to act like a moron, and be left with no good defense when people point out that they have to wade through a disturbing tide of rude, boorish, defensive, paranoid kooks in order to go out of their way to get involved on behalf of Dr. Paul. That would "unify" us, no?

I agree with the original article, and the idea that "they started it" so we should all band together and maybe moon them or decorate their stoops with flaming bags of dog poo... ghads it's really frustrating as hell.

It's like trying to sell someone on drinking a really great beverage, when there's a commercial on for said beverage that features Janet Reno doing something naughty with a lollipop then licking it and going "MMMMMM tastes like [name of beverage]." You just are not going to get a lot of people to try it, fighting against that kind of image.

The only morons I see are the knaves who think they can win over the Red State crowd by being "well mannered". As if this stripe had any interest in being "well mannered" themselves, with their intellectually dishonesty, hypocrisy, use of gross fallacies and jingoist rhetoric to explain why they don't even want to think about the ideas Ron presents, vitriolic ad hominem neocons. Being "polite" to these people just means not expressing opinions they disagree with in a public political event. But you can bet your ass Ron Paul would have received a lot more vocal booing if the neocons made up the majority of the crowd at CPAC. Being "rude" then would have of course been okay in their eyes.

Its not just a "oh they did it first, or they would have" argument, fact is these people only resort to bashing the liberty crowd at CPAC because they don't want to consider Ron Paul or give him a fair hearing. I mean that isn't even a ad hominem attack against Ron, its far worse, its attacking Paul's supporters based on ridiculous standards (don't express yourself at a political event or else I might get offended or pissed off because I disagree with you, though I can't and won't debate you), and then bashing Ron Paul through a mystical leap of guilt-by-association. This is pure, dishonest, cowardly, idiotic bullshit... No one travels along that sort of anti-logic unless they didn't want to give Ron a fair hearing in the first place. And these are the people whose 'sensibilities' you are siding with by bashing the pro-liberty crowd at CPAC.

-neg rep, not just because I disagree with you, but it seems ridiculous that you would feel so ashamed of and bitter towards the vocal liberty crowd at CPAC.

[Michael Landon]

There comes a point where some people feel that "enough is enough" and feel the need to express their discontent with whatever angers them. I've been there and I'm sure others have also, CPAC is an example of that. It happened to me just the other day and I finally expressed my anger towards some teenagers who were throwing snowballs at my mail truck, afterwards I felt that I should have done what I always do when young kids harass me and walk away, but I didn't because I was sick of dealing with these idiots.

I can see both sides of this discussion and they are both correct in their views, at least in my opinion. If I had been there who knows what I would have done. I can see me yelling at Cheney but I can also see me trying to project a positive image to all the Neo-cons in attendance, I guess it would have depended on my mood at the time.

- ML

[AZKing]

As far as I'm concerned, it was just a matter of disrespect since Dr. Paul asked everyone to be nice.

I hope it wasn't anyone from the forum, because you would have seen his message about being respectful to all speakers. Don't get me wrong -- I don't want to 'bow down' to any tyrants, but if the alternative is disrespecting Ron's wishes, then I just wouldn't show up to those speeches at all.

[Flash]

stupid anarchists showing up to political events and making us look bad, i'm starting to think we are being sabotaged

I'm a Voluntaryist. And I was also against behavior of RP supporters & others at CPAC. Plus I plan on going to CPAC either next year or year after that. This doesn't have anything to do with anarchists, I was just pointing out that a particular anarchist who doesn't even believe in voting was the one who shouted war criminal. It shouldn't be blamed on RP supporters in all fairness..

[osan]

The only question is who will get to keep using the Republican Party name. Ron Paul says it should be the defenders of Liberty and that is good enough for me.

Good question. On the one hand I say let the neocons have it. It is a tainted brand just as is "democrat". On the other hand, the mob being as impossibly stupid as it is, ceding the brand to which so large a proportion of the voting nation will adhere even if the ghost of Hitler were to be running is perhaps not the most practical solution. Politics is a sick, disgusting affair. OK, I got that off my chest... I suppose it would be better to drive the neocons out, assuming "republican" as a brand survives the coming two years, which given the start thus far, is by no means assured.

So then why not make the neocons uncomfortable? Why not call them on their crimes against liberty and this country? Why not rock the damn boat? Why not shout them down and out of the party? You sure as hell are not going to convert them. Drive them out. In the process you will reclaim many of the disenfranchised.
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As is the case with so many other things, this is very much a two-edged sword. I agree with the OP that chanting such things is childish, but that does not mean that calling attention to the issues in question is invalid. At some point one has to shit or get off the pot, which is nigh upon us, yet this nation has done neither. We either get real and start doing things such as the Egyptians have done, or just accept our bondage and stop whining about it. But if we act, doing so childishly is not going to buy anything that anyone really wants - or do we believe that the nation which brought Madison Avenue to the world can do nothing creatively better than chanting silly, if true, taunts and succeeding most likely in appearing ungracious and stupid?

This whole game seems so hopeless sometimes.

[osan]

If you do this without media support, you doom Dr. Paul's chances to win the election. He has asked us to be civil. What happened at CPAC reflects badly on him and the media runs with it every time. They are setting up to marginalize him again and if we give them reasons to hate us, the media-led public will fall in lock-step. It is a losing strategy that failed last time. If we wish to be relevant, we have to re-think our tactics.

Either such people are so clued-out, morbidly self-absorbed, and plainly stoopid, or they are provocateurs. In either case, attempts such as this to "educate" them is tantamount to pissing up a rope, I am afraid. Perhaps a guideline principle should be set in place: sit down, shut the fuck up, pay attention. If you act like an imbecile we will beat your ass to a semi-coherent pulp and eject you to the gutter. Have a nice day. Just a thought.

I'm not saying there won't come a time when we must speak out loudly at a venue. I was all for shouting down the creeps at the townhall meetings trying to dupe us into accepting socialized medicine. But, when we do it, we should do it independent of Ron Paul and not when we are at an event to represent him.

Good point - OTOH, one must question the thinking that went into the decision to have the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld at such an event. Why not just resurrect Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pot, and Amin and have them speak as well? Toss in the Shah for good measure.