Posted on 01/14/2008 2:28:06 PM PST by mnehring
It was supposed to be a revolution. Ron Paul was set to take America and the world by storm by winning primary after primary on his way to the White House. The supporters of the ten-term US Congressman from Texas were convinced that the money he raised would equal support at the actual ballot box. Now in the cold hard days of January, the truth has broken though.
So what has happened to Ron Paul? The answer isn't difficult; his support was never very large to begin with. It was magnified by a presence on the Internet (or the "Internets" if you prefer) and it would never push through into the real world of voting. This was never really anything more than an online revolution that could never come close to cracking the mainstream of political thought.
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For a dark horse candidate, he made all that he could out of his Libertarian philosophies. He brought forward a whole bunch of young folks that didn't really understand the political process and they are now excited and involved. Of course, Iowa and New Hampshire slapped many of them across the face and Michigan and New Hampshire will do the same. Come February 5 even the staunchest Paul political supporter will have to realize that it isn't going to happen.
The problem that many didn't really understand is that Paul wasn't preaching anything new. This was the same Libertarian Party line that had been regurgitated over and over in one form of another for election after election. I'm not certain why so many thought it might be "magical" this campaign season.
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There is a reason that the Libertarian Party exists in relative obscurity. Though many of us hold several of the ideas of the party dear to our hearts and believe them fully, once the movement of the fringe takes hold it is too much to bear for most people.
Many scoffed at the "mainstream" and believed they didn't need them as their man Ron Paul would rise above and dominate. They didn't believe the polls that showed little support and the true believers don't even believe the votes that have been cast at the ballot box. I'm not certain if Paul and his supporters will go away quietly, but one thing is certain, they won't win this election or even come close enough to move the political debate.
Ping
The RAT money is drying up.
The jokster on the FOC debate?
Why waste bandwidth on him?
Makes no sense. He’s comic relief.
More importabntly, does anyone care?...:)
Personally I think too many different factions within the Paul camp decided they didn’t like each other’s company.
I care.
The sooner he’s gone the better.
“a self created delusion....”
Could be. Several fairly intelligent people took time off work this afternoon to go listen to him speak. I would have if possible. I never felt he was a Libertarian, more of an old style Republican.
This was an internet deception anyways. Ron Paul is done.
A succinct and accurate summary.
They spoke similar jests in 1964 when Barry Goldwater from Arizona ran against Lyndon B. I remember only 8 million Americans were brave enough to put X beside his name. Now many years later people said he really did have some answers for some real dilemas for America, but nobody paid him any mind. Ron Paul, in 30 years will get his accolades. No one is brave enough to really get tough and provide REAL solutions. So Americans will get THE SAME, the same, the same, lo mismo..just more and worse of what they always wanted...spend..spend...tax...tax. Ron Paul wanted to curb this epidemic.
So the question is:
Who will Ron Paul endorse when he quits ?
Will it help or hurt whoever that is ?
From the second paragraph:
>>...never...never... real ...never really ...never...<<
Weird writing.
He’s being abandoned by his democratic supporters in favor of John McCain.
It's a conspiracy.
Those who knew that Ron Paul would never succeed should have stood back and applauded his efforts for bringing to the fore some of the key issues that even the Republicans are avoiding.
Instead lots of whack jobs feared that he might actually have a chance and went into massive carpet bombing attacks on him and his ideas.
And this auther is particularly annoying: those of us who aren't dyed-in-the-wool republicans are urged by republicans to work within the party to advance our ideas rather than start third parties and split the conservative/libertarian vote. But this author just wants to talk about how unsuccessful the libertarian party has been, and imply that all libertarianism will always be trounced and everyone who doesn't agree with the republicans should stay in the party AND shut up about their true beliefs.
That's a great strategy for continued republican success! /sarcasm
The venom set in.
Ron Paul went to the same place Clinton’s dot.com “irrational exuberance” bubble did - back to Never-Never Land.
True. I’ve heard the anti-war mantra outta of him so much it’s losing it’s comedic value....
There are Libertarians that support the war...they call themselves Neolibertarians. Interesting history there. The divide goes back to the Vietnam war debate.
Nothing as far as I can tell. He hasn't changed. People are just getting to listen to him. He doesn't know how bad he sounds when he is rambling about things he doesn't understand. People seem to expect a man with a career in congress to either know something about world affairs or keep his mouth shut.
My guess would be drugs
One of these days the Libertarian party will field a legitimate candidate. Someone with credentials (Ron Paul had those), charisma and a genuine presence.
At that point the party, while it may not win, will be taken seriously.
The sad part is that the bulk of the libertarian ideals are good and, as an aggregate, the Libertarian party is right more than the Republican party (the democrat party is never right.)
The problem is that some of those areas where libertarians aren’t right can have deadly consequences...
Who will Ron Paul endorse when he quits ?
He probably won’t endorse anyone. He’ll just pout.
Will it help or hurt whoever that is ?
It won’t matter one way or the other. His numbers are so low, it’s no real gain for anyone.
More than one. Mostly that the Sixties are hard to explain unless you were there and if you were you might not have clear memories.
I see. They block the secret radio transmissions do they?
Yeah ... when he is dead and gone, and there's no danger of Ron Paul ever being in a position to really screw the pooch for all of us.
Old style Republicans don’t want to legalize prostitution or drugs.
Ron Paul 08' was all about "anti-war" and pretty much nothing else.
Spamming internet polls and text message surveys can only take you so far.
H
I don't know, Ayn Rand's description of the Libertarian party- Anarchist Hippies, seems to fit well with Paul and his ilk.
Down the road, (20-30 years), I think the Libertarian party has a chance of taking hold as these Paul supporters grow up.. (assuming some of them want to have kids of course)
I hope you live to see how wrong you are.
Ron Paul will always be remembered for his echoing of Al Qaeda propaganda.
His small government stance will be drowned out by the insanity that was his foreign policy views.
Well, the racist claptrap is somewhat new...
Ron Paul happened to Ron Paul, and most did not care for what they saw. He has some good ideas, but his shortcomings and head-in-the-sand approach to foreign policy would be a recipe for disaster.
Actually, the problem with the Libertarian platform -- particularly in regard to international relations -- is that it pretty much requires everybody to agree to play by the same set of rules.
Once somebody leaves the reservation, however .... libertarian ideals prevent one from taking any sort of pre-emptive action. And thus you're left with stuff like Ron Paul's ultra-stupid comments to our own doug from upland, concerning what he would not do if Nort Korea was determined to be shipping a nuke to Iran.
It's not the only such stupid comment, but our Friend DFU did a fine job of putting it so nicely in the open for all to see.
They also don't try to play word games over issues of the constitutional limits of federal authority with arguments of "legalizing".
Yes, it takes a whack job to believe that this lunatic had a chance of winning.
My problem is Ron Paul dancing with the enemy, not his other ideas. Running a national campaign while trashing this nation and it's military is not a way of winning support.
Freepers who shill for Ron Paul should be shown the Zot kitty as well.
I do not know how old you are but RP is no BG.
Your view of history/BG is just plain incorrect.
RP is not catching on because he is a cut/run candidate.
That sounds very plausible to me.
Money isn’t everything. You have to give it to someone who isn’t certifiable.
“The problem is that some of those areas where libertarians ren’t right can have deadly consequences...”
The real problem is that libertarians will tell you that all their policies are derived from first principles and all are consistent with each other and that this means that one cannot take away one with compromising all the rest.
Perhaps the libertarians should go back, examine their ‘first principles’ and start over. If your principles lead you to an undesireable ending, then there is something wrong with your principles.
Libertarianism is anarchy from my point of view.
I guess reality has finally caught up to them.
Actually, that’s probably not true. Ron Paul’s Internet Army will just revert back to being truthers and again spouting off comments about the lizard NWO on youtube.
Still wondering if the mods were on vacation through out this whole Ron Paul fiasco.
Goodbye, Ron Paul Libs. I don't mind if the door hits you in the a**.
The chances of the Libertarian Party are like the chances of seeing the advent of controlled nuclear fusion: always 20-30 years away.
Libertarianism is, at root, about an ideology rather than practical methods of governance. And the problem with the Libertarian Party is that "growing up" inevitably involves acknowledging a thing or two about reality, including about human nature and what it means to live among people with different ideas and opinions. And thus grown-ups tend no longer to be "libertarians" in any sense that could support a political party.
There are libertarians who are adults, in the biological sense of the term. And some of them are even grown-ups. However, I've found in debates with libertarians that when the debate gets down to brass tacks, one often (not always, but often), sees the libertarians go ad hominem rather quickly ... which suggests that they find "grown-up" to be an elusive trait.
“Actually, the problem with the Libertarian platform — particularly in regard to international relations — is that it pretty much requires everybody to agree to play by the same set of rules.”
Or, to put it slightly differently, the libertarian platform only works if everyone is a libertarian.
You can see this in Ron Paul’s positions on Al Qaeda, ie, the only reason they attack us is that we are over there and if we leave ‘over there’, they will not attack us ‘over here’ anymore. This is a the classic mistake of attributing your thoughts and motives to some one else.
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