Draft Justin Amash for President 2020

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

Standing with Rand this past year, we learned a valuable lesson: when we try to please everyone (Tea Party, libertarians, evangelicals, establishment, etc.) we end up making everyone unhappy. Although I fully supported Rand's attempts at triangulation at the time, I see now that we were at our best when we unabashedly supported liberty with Ron Paul in 2012. Voters have shown this year with Trump that a presidential candidate doesn't have to always say the right thing or have lots of political experience. If a candidate is bold and speaks their mind and never backs down, they can succeed. This was also proven by Ron Paul last time around.

Rand may not run for President again in 2020. Rand is burnt out on presidential politics, and Kelly was never enthusiastic about it. We need to be prepared. Justin Amash is the best candidate to recapture the magic of Ron Paul 2012. I believe we need to spend the next few years encouraging Justin to run and educating the public about who Justin is, because right now Justin has the same name recognition that Ron Paul had before 2007. Very well known amongst the true blue liberty lovers, but still unknown to the general public.

There is a movement to draft Justin Amash into the 2020 presidential race beginning at http://www.DraftAmash.com. I encourage everyone here to take a look and consider getting involved. If we succeed in getting Justin Amash's name recognition and support up to a viable point and then Rand Paul decides to jump back into the presidential fray in 2019, you are perfectly free to jump ship from Amash and stand with Rand again. But in the meantime, let's make sure we have options and go into 2020 prepared to have a voice on the stage who will fight tirelessly for undiluted liberty.

Let's draft Justin Amash into the 2020 presidential race.

[GunnyFreedom]

The white house will never happen until we change the people. The people will never change until we start local. If you really want to see a liberty-minded President within 20 years, you need to start with your State legislature, followed by your State governor. Show people how liberty actually works, AND THEN we can elect a liberty President.

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

The white house will never happen until we change the people. The people will never change until we start local. If you really want to see a liberty-minded President within 20 years, you need to start with your State legislature, followed by your State governor. Show people how liberty actually works, AND THEN we can elect a liberty President.

Absolutely agree. And one of the greatest recruiting tools we ever had was to have Ron Paul on stage giving an undiluted liberty message in 2007-2008 and 2011-2012. I am a 2007 product of seeing Ron Paul in the debates.

Ron will be too elderly in 2020 to run again. I think Rand may have alienated too many hardline libertarians to succeed above the Senate level. I think convincing Justin Amash to join the 2020 Republican debate stage would be an amazing way for us to get our message out there and change minds and, who knows, if he can recapture Ron Paul's 2012 numbers, in the right environment, we might get lucky and win the White House after all.

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

Accidentally double posted this comment. Please delete, admin.

[trey4sports]

only problem is age. He'll be 39 or 40 in 2020. Obviously it's not a huge deal to me but I can already see the attacks lining up.

[lakerssuck92]

I love Amash and he's the best out there after Ron Paul but I don't see him as presidential material. Maybe one day I hope he takes a shot at a Senate bid.

[MelissaWV]

I will be working on smaller races, but I hope that the few Senators and Representatives that are elected and fighting the good fight don't all abandon those positions of power just to move to the White House way too early.

No, I don't want to "draft Justin Amash" so that he can run a harsh, dirty race and face a hostile collection of Congressmen waiting to vote against any idea he puts forth, or overturn all of his vetoes.

[Occam's Banana]

There is no option in the poll that is applicable to me. I do not support "drafting" Amash (I think he should stay right where he is), but it is not the case that "I would never support Justin Amash for President." I was of exactly the same opinion with respect to Rand - I did not think he should have run for POTUS, but I was willing to support him if he did. Thus, this poll offers a false dichotomy: either some variant of "draft Amash for president" (on the one hand), or "never support Amash for president" (on the other hand).

[BamaAla]

only problem is age. He'll be 39 or 40 in 2020. Obviously it's not a huge deal to me but I can already see the attacks lining up.

Thomas Massie would be a little more age appropriate

[erowe1]

I dunno. I'm getting tired of this.

[TheNewYorker]

Nope. Justin needs to go to the senate first. Congressman have very little chance of becoming president. We haven't had a congressman become president since the 1800's, with the exception of Gerald Ford who was VP of Nixin.

[PaleoPaul]

only problem is age. He'll be 39 or 40 in 2020. Obviously it's not a huge deal to me but I can already see the attacks lining up.

Yeah. If you think the attacks on Rubio are bad, they'll be nothing compared to the attacks on Amash.

[specsaregood]

I don't know why anybody would ever want to run for president hoping to get any Libertarian vote, the biggest bunch of whiny backstabbers around, definitely not a reliable ally or voting block. Hell, half the time the people you are pushing your platform for are arguing for people to not vote. screw that. Amash probably is smart enough to realize this.

[CPUd]

We also need to draft Gunny for US House.

[Erazer]

I would like to see Amash or someone else. The Liberty movement has to move beyond the Paul, Inc. network.

[aspiringconstitutionalist]

We probably have a couple generations worth of work before we can actually take the White House. Having libertarian candidates on the debate stage has been our greatest recruiting and education tool. Amash would be excellent because he's the most principled congressman since Ron himself. Amash would also attract attention for being the first major Arab American presidential candidate (and a Republican at that, which would be even more head turning). Sad to say, but American voters love novelties (the novelty of electing the first African American president likely propelled the young unaccomplished Obama into the White House, like the novelty of electing the first woman president is helping Clinton overcome her many scandals on her way back to the White House). No matter who we run, opponents are going to find fault (Ron was too old and grumpy, Rand had bad hair and a whiny voice -- according to others, not me). We might as well say to hell with the optics (if Trump, a fat orange Oompaloompa with the worst hair in presidential politics history can do well, then Amash can overcome his boyish looks) and run an unyieldingly principled statesman like Amash. He will do wonders in bringing our message to the country, recapturing the magic of 2008 and 2012. Justin doesn't need more political notches on his belt. This year has proved that. Trump has never been elected, nor has Carson, both of whom did better than our guy. Cruz barely has a few years in elected office. Sure no congressman has gone straight to the presidency in a while but when was the last time a pure businessman like Trump has (who might very well be our nominee)? Besides, Ron came very close in 2012 to winning Iowa and NH with his uncompromising message of principled liberty. In the right environment, Amash could finish what Ron started.

[TheNewYorker]

I don't know why anybody would ever want to run for president hoping to get any Libertarian vote, the biggest bunch of whiny backstabbers around, definitely not a reliable ally or voting block. Hell, half the time the people you are pushing your platform for are arguing for people to not vote. screw that. Amash probably is smart enough to realize this.

I agree.

[Occam's Banana]

We also need to draft Gunny for US House.

That's more like it! We need to be putting more pieces on the board instead of worrying about moving around what few pieces we already have.

(IOW: It's not "chess, not checkers" - it's "go, not chess" ...)

[GunnyFreedom]

That's more like it! We need to be putting more pieces on the board instead of worrying about moving around what few pieces we already have.

(IOW: It's not "chess, not checkers" - it's "go, not chess" ...)

Keep an eye on the NC 1st District case now in Federal Court. The courts have just ruled that 1CD needs redrawn, and it is expected that an appeals court will grant a temporary stay on the order such that the new district comes into play for 2018 instead of 2016. Depending on how 1st CD is redrawn, I am considering giving it a go.

[Aratus]

this THREAD has a nice lil poll in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! gotta luv this neat lil thread!