For Liberty, a documentary of the Ron Paul grassroots movement, deserves attention. Ron Paul enthusiasts will recognize familiar names and faces and relive unforgettable moments, and students of elections, campaign managers and political activists of all persuasions should see it. Everyone concerned with the direction of the country and the breakdown of political discourse would find something moving. The seeds of this grassroots movement are still growing.
One Amazon customer review
lauds, "this movie simply and eloquently captured the passions of an
unlikely coalition of people from all across the political spectrum who
quickly came together in response to a uniquely American message, and
who unexpectedly, enthusiastically and sometimes haphazardly ended up
immersing themselves entirely in a political campaign." Why then did
the campaign do so poorly? "The grassroots felt [the official campaign
staff] were at best incompetent" protested
Adam de Angeli of the Campaign for Liberty, the remnant of the official
presidential campaign on which he worked. He then doth protested too
much defending the failures of the official campaign in a documentary
about the grassroots. Incoherently, de Angeli criticizes the
documentary for avoiding examining mistakes while still harboring
delusions that the official Ron Paul presidential campaign brought
"hundreds" of Republican National Convention delegates in its fight for
the nomination (Green Papers shows Ron Paul winning only 20 of 2,380 delegates with 15 final votes).
This
movie puts faces on the people demanding a radical change towards a
more moderate government. Ross Perot mined this good government vein
in his two presidential bids with a call to put our own house in order
before promising new grandiosities and foreign interventionism. About
two-thirds of Americans are angry at government solutions and do not
think either party has the answers according to a recent Rasmussen poll. Recently Joe Scarborough
revisited a 2003 economic prediction from his guest Ron Paul that
warned that if we were to continue to inflate this bubble we would have
our housing crisis with damage world-wide; Arianna Huffington went out
of her way to agree with Dr. Paul.
People now protesting against the bailouts, out of control
government
spending and out of touch politicians in both parties
show the movement has grown beyond the Ron Paul "r3volution." A few
hundred thousand people, by my best estimates, recently converged on
the Capitol for the Tea Party protests. David Brooks explains these Jeffersonian roots. In my unscientific poll of the
9/12 Tea Party protesters, few recognized Ron Paul's name and nearly
all of those who did were dismissive or expressed a highly negative
reaction.
Two years ago, my friend Nicholas Sanchez prophetically remarked,
"This political train-wreck Republicans face can largely be traced to
Bush’s philosophical metamorphosis from a traditional,
non-interventionist conservative to the neoconservatives’ exemplar of a
'War President', and his positioning of the Republicans as the 'War
Party'." In fact, polls and other indicators increasingly show both a
resurgence of conservatism as well as disillusionment with the
Republican Party. After Dr. Paul warned the party has lost its way,
the Republicans suffered a crushing defeat. Support for foreign wars has since plummeted to an all-time low says CNN.
For Liberty: How the Ron Paul Revolution Watered the Withered Tree of Liberty
introduces us to the people who decide elections and the future of the
country--not just the activists but the swing voters. A 2006 study
by David Boaz and David Kirby found that about a fifth of voters hold
generally libertarian views. Grover Norquist labels it the "leave us alone" coalition. The pieces of a political realignment
waiting to happen are wonderfully edited on screen. As Ron Paul
demurred, "it was the message not the man": liberty is popular and the
constitution brings us together.
With a third of the country behind one of the two major parties, For Liberty examines
the people standing in the middle who decide elections. Those who want
to win over increasingly discriminating voters in 2010 and 2012 should
study this movie. As one woman in the film explains, the more they talk with their
neighbors the more they find they agree. The Rovian approach of divide
and conquer loses in the end. For Liberty beautifully shows us what Markos Mousitlas called the only true people-powered campaign in 2008.
Follow J. Bradley Jansen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bradleyjansen
 |
 |
|
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Electoral Votes (270 to win) |
332 | 206 |
| Obama | Romney | |
|---|---|---|
| Total | 65,899,660 | 60,932,152 |
| Percent | 51.1% | 47.2% |
| Democrats* | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Current Senate | 53 | 47 |
| Seats gained or lost | +2 | -2 |
| New Total | 55 | 45 |
| Democrats | Republicans | |
|---|---|---|
| Seats won | 201 | 234 |
What is truly remarkable is the fact that the Ron Paul campaign has never ended - just metamorphosed. Sure, many have left, and a bit of activity has died down, but the ones who actually mattered, the hardcore supporters are still out there in full-force. I'm proud to say I'm one of those people.
Thanks for the excellent review, and I can't wait to watch this movie in full.
No, it wasn't. After the popular vote (and Romney dropping out, I think), they approached the official campaign respectfully and brokered a gentleman's agreement with them. By all accounts the delegate voting chaos was a result of the Ron Paul staffers not honoring their word. Again, like I said, from there it spiraled downward quickly.
In some states (Louisiana, parts of Texas), the treatment by the establishment was terrible. In other states (DC, Michigan) the state parties put Dr. Paul on the ballot despite the official campaign screwing up. In other states (Virginia, Illinois) it was the grassroots who saved their ballot status over the incompetency of the campaign. The treatment by state party officials was a variable all over the map. The incompetency of the Paul campaign staffers was a constant.
What about the Nueces County Republican Convention where they decided to ignore chosen delegates and replace them arbitrarily with 151 people who were never voted on? Or how about the Hawaiian Convention, where the entire thing was written down ahead of time, in a script that included all the results of votes! The treatment was worse than terrible - it was cheating! The outcomes were pre-determined! And the fact that the GOP is considered a "club" made it impossible for the cheated to rectify the situation - a situation that still exists. In fact, right now the Republican Party of Florida is busy kicking out members who have expressed criticism of their actions. http://rlcnews.org/?p=88
Your premise is right, "The slim numbers of delegates for Ron Paul at the Republican National Convention in no way reflects his support in the grassroots." The simple fact is that the official campaign staff never had an effective strategy to win delegates--and at the convention it was former campaign manager Lew Moore who was reported ratting out the Ron Paul supporters so they could be monitored.
They should study the Constitution, Austrian economics, and their own consciences to see if they are worthy of the respect of this movement as well.
I saw all sorts of people at his rallies; Democrats, Conservatives, gays, whites, blacks, pot heads, farmers, the works! Every imaginable type of person was there supporting a message of personal liberty, sound money, constitutional government and pro-peace.
His campaign started something that won't go away for many years to come.
I watched the movie yesterday and it is absolutely fantastically done and I fear that Dr. Paul is the last of his kind and we may never see this kind of grassroots again. I was proud to be a part of it.
I've never actually seen any politician with a broad and diverse following as Dr. Paul. Watch the documentary and then see what you think.
I am not a white male, but an immigrant from the 3rd world.