[Ron] Paul Raises $6 Million in 24-Hour Effort [December 16, 2007]

breitbart.com ^ | December 16, 2007

[rideharddiefast]

Sorry, I meant to inform the poster you were quoting that the only votes cut and run will get are from the blame America first crowd.

[publiusF27]

There is an understandable backlash against Paul because of his desire to lose in Iraq (or more tactfully, to take actions that would result in a loss in Iraq).

Yeah, I don't agree with Paul on Iraq, but I have a feeling that if he did somehow win the election, political realities would intervene. You can't just order hundreds of thousands of troops in Iraq and a hundred other countries to come home tomorrow. It's a process, and stuff happens along the way. On the other hand, we can't afford to guarantee the security of S. Korea and Taiwan and Europe and Israel and Japan forever.

I disagree that another splinter party is a solution

Not in 2008, but Paul has energized quite a few college students and exposed them to ideas that might not otherwise gain much exposure, let alone acceptance, on a campus. Those people, and the voting blocs you identified are not going to go away, and will ultimately find representation. You're not a Whig are you? ;-) It can happen.

[No.6]

My hope is that some other bright real conservative will incorporate the best ideas in Paul’s campaign and back them up. This is a key election and I’d rather not see “Hillary!” implementing socialism in 2009.

I don’t care whether the winning party calls itself ‘GOP’ or ‘Libertarian’ or ‘Constitution Party’ as long as it achieves conservative/libertarian ends. However the odds are pretty good that either the GOP nominee or the Dem nominee will win :)

In short I’d rather the GOP become more libertarian than the conservative movement splinter and lose 5 elections in a row trying to sort out what name it ought to call itself.

[dcwusmc]

One word: PROOF...

[Rick_Michael]

No prob...happens often actually.

[dcwusmc]

Do you have proof of your contention or is it just misguided hearsay?

[publiusF27]

In short I’d rather the GOP become more libertarian than the conservative movement splinter

That would be nice, but I don't see it happening. If FR is any indication of conservative thought, the current thought is to smear and expel the libertarians.

[No.6]

“If FR is any indication of conservative thought, the current thought is to smear and expel the libertarians.”

If memory serves Mr. Robinson had something to say about Mr. Paul specifically, but that was directed at his Iraq stance.

(see #s 150, 212, 216, 232 on http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1933229/posts)

Note: this is mild compared to what Mr. Robinson wrote about Mr. Guiliani, hehe.

As you would expect for a political site that has occasionally made significant impact out in the real world, the opposition would like to discredit FR. While there are many real libertarians and conservatives who support Paul for good reason, there are also a good number of Dim-RATs who support Paul for the sole reason that he’s taken the same tack on the war as ‘Code Pink’ and other far-left groups. These individuals have often elected to masquerade as ‘disaffected conservatives’ here. So we have had a number of Paul trolls trying to disrupt things - with the effect that Paul is not well received here generally.

Libertarian (small-l) thought continues to flourish here and competes vigorously on many threads. Unlike DU, people here do not think in lockstep and argument is the order of the day. That’s normal and if it ever stopped I’d worry.

[publiusF27]

Thanks for your thoughts in this exchange. I keep coming back for a reason. Rock on, FRiend.