Hey, Ron Paul Republicans!?! It's Time For A GOP Palace Coup!
With all the party and media babble about who is better equipped to take over the Republican party in the wake of the bloodbath of the '08 election, it's impressive how deeply the pundits have been able to repress the memory of the Ron Paul campaign.
After all, compare the Ron Paul 'Revolution' campaign with Barack Obama's now acknowledged electoral genius. That stuff Republicans are now realizing they have to do in the future? Paul did it months ago. Excited new voters beyond the base? Check. Raised massive amounts of money from small donations online? Ditto. Legions of creative people generating their own campaign content on YouTube and beyond? Did it. Young voters? Had those.
The biggest problem for Ron Paul and his supporters is the turd-in-the-punchbowl way they were treated by the Republicans. Remember Rudy's snide confusion over the idea that the United State's foreign policy may have somehow have been a factor in why the U.S. was attacked on 9/11? Recall the debate shunning?
But look how things have changed. McCain's psuedo-maverick-ism tore the Republicans a gaping new one after they collectively rejected Ron Paul; the only candidate with ideas for real, actual change...such as ending the Iraq War.
The beauty of the current GOP anarchy is that it may present the perfect chance for the anarachists to take over the establishment. Or the anarcho-capitalists or limited government small L libertarians and or whatever y'all can agree on. (And good luck on that -- agreement isn't what libertarians do well.)
The party is ripe for the taking. Ripe, I say!
It's weeks past the election. Everyone should have sobered up by now. The fact that there is a significant chunk of Republicans that are still crushing on Sarah Palin shows that it's time show the same mercy for the Grand Old Party that The Chief showed to Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest -- any sense of rational thought is gone, so pull out the pillow and start smothering until the kicking stops.
Now here's a tougher question. Do you want the Republican Party? It's got high name recognition and if the two logo choices are the elephant or the donkey, I think the elephant wins. Sure, you don't want most of the people left behind after the Obama rapture devastated Karl Rove's dream of a Permanent Republican Majority and sent anyone with a bow tie, an IQ of over 100 and a dog earned copy of Atlas Shrugged floating off to conservative Valhalla. The ragtag band of people that remain in the blue hats mainly agree that gays shouldn't marry and that straights can't have abortions and that the unmarried gays shouldn't adopt the babies that the non-aborting straights have.
The appeal of Ron Paul was his ideas, not his lovable ole' funeral director looks. So it's time for someone to grab those ideas, grab the organizational skill of herding a bunch of individualists and grab control of the damn Republican party right now... before I have to listen to Mike Huckabee's jokes, Mitt Romney's dumb advice or Sarah Palin's effin' voice for the next four years.
Follow Lee Stranahan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Stranahan
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What? Bush didn't help the robber barons quite enough for you? Ron Paul's economic policies are straight out of the Guilded Age.
Gilded age? That describes his economic policies; his social policies date from the pre-Enlightenment period.
Tee Hee. And YOU TWO are children of Corporate Talking Points Memo's (the MSM). Tell me, do you wash down your graham crackers down with Red koolaid or Blue? Amusing.
ad-hominem the best you can muster?
interesting RP has the highest techie rating of all representatives or senators..
Do you know what Ron Paul's economic policies are? Do you know where they came from? Are you suggesting that Ron Paul's economic policies would help the "robber barons"?
If you are going to condemn Ron Paul then at least condemn him for what HE stands for and not for the nonsense and lies about him by his opposition.
You might also learn a little about economics, too. May I suggest the Austrian School of Economics?
How about having the ULTRA LEFT take ove rthe Republican Party. The Democrats take the Progressives for granted so if there's a massive defection to the REPUBLICAN Party by the left wing of the DEMOCRATIC party, they 'd outnumber the fundie base Republicans and could effectively take over the Republican Party in the more populous states. They could then control the Party plank AND fund allocations.
You could put the uber-Conservative fundie nuts out of business - forcing them to found their OWN party - while giving the 'center Democrats' some pressure to do the right thing.
Like I've said, the progressives are so conservative they may as well become the new republicans.
Frankly, however, republicans, no matter how you slice it, are irrelevant.
You're quite mad. It's the Centrist's that are conservative. Get your labels right. Progressive is just the new Liberal. We've always been the Democratic Party. Centrist's are like the steers in the herd. Liberals are the BULLS (we still have a SACK). Centrist's are like mashed potato's- they could easily be weak rethugs, if you scrunched your eyes, when you look at them. Wishy-washy.
I agree. What is needed is a convention of "The new republican Leadership Committee". Similar to Bill Clintons leadership convention before he ran for president. Invite the left wing leaders in the republican party and also invite the left wing libertarians in the democratic party. Names to ponder. Mike Bloomberg, Christie Whitman, Arnold the Governator, Bill Mahr, Clint Eastwood. Chuck Hagel. Ron Paul and his band of renowned. Come on people ...give me names!
Don Garlits, Woody Guthrie, aw screw it... there's many respected people that like and support Ron Paul. Look it up on the Google thingy.
Mike Bloomberg is a flaming statist! Christie Whitman is a neocon, as is Arnold. Bill Maher is disconnected, and Hagel is RINO, really a Democrat. Clint Eastwood is the only one who belongs in the same breath as Ron Paul.
Who advocates what? Identify the fundamental (at the root) beliefs of each, especially Ron Paul, whose beliefs are consistent and logical. Only Eastwood is remotely close.
It is about ideas. It is not about who opposes whom.
Being in Florida and seeing how the democratic primary wasn't going to count due to the democratic party moving it's primary date, I tried to get some of my left leaning democratic friends to switch their registration to republican in order to help get Ron Paul nominated.
Not one of them was willing to help. I sent them links during the money bomb fundraising events. Not one of them contributed. They had nothing to lose (except maybe had Ron won the nomination, the general election) but they still wouldn't help.
Well maybe next time they will. After finally figuring out that they've been duped, maybe they'll work with us next time. I doubt it though. Considering it was the democratic wing of the electorate that guaranteed the passage of prop 8 in CA and amendment 2 in FL. The moralists on both sides stood together and made sure that the people wouldn't be able to live their lives as they saw fit. The moralists decided that it would be them who would dictate what is best for everyone else.
So I don't see how anything will really ever change without those on the left and those on the right who agree with so much (like personal freedom, ending the WTO, etc.) coming together in order to reform either (or both) party.
But then again I've been wrong about everything else I've ever thought I was right about politically speaking.
I am up for some real "Change".
Soon there will be less bread and the circus will not seem so enticing. Then the average people will have the time to get active in politics. What a rude awakening they will have when they realize what the system has become. The paperwork is prohibitive for the average citizen.
I will do my part in the Repuglican Party to stem the tide. I would hope that there would be others who would infiltrate the Demofrat Party and do the same.
Both parties are currently different in name only. They have merged into the Money Party or The Corruption Club.
Get over the argument of labels. Those who argue about labels are easily led by the bridal of emotion and preconception. Action and event are the only measure. Be American First !!!
We now live in a Corpratocracy. It is time to go to work people. We need to reverse course and get back to the original intent. Anyone advocating a return toward the constitution is an ally.
I wish more people would have debated Ron Paul rather than dismissed him.
Debate Is the distillation of reality.
To Assume Benevolence IS Foolish.
Anyone who believes the role of the government should be restricted to cops, courts and the military is advocating a police state, pure and simple.
A police state is a state in which the Police have to right to enforce or not enforce any law. The police may arrest anyone for any reason or they may allow certain people to break the law with impunity. A police state typically exhibits elements of totalitarianism and social control, and there is usually little or no distinction between the law and the exercise of political power by the executive.
Which is the exact opposite to what Liberal and Libertarian philosophy is. Where they differ is much smaller than where they align. They both stand for a deep distrust of Government as they should per Thomas Jefferson. Dissent is patriotic. Don't forget, please.
An electoral victory is little more than a collective state of mind that grows in slightly more than half of the the citizenry. This results in victory by election and subsequent governmental action taken in accord with the state of mind that led to the victory. Gradually the flaws in the state of mind that led to the victory in the first place, or the failure of government to carry things out, causes disillusionment in slightly more than half of the voting population and it all starts over again.
Each new regime begins in hope and ends in despair. The duration of the hope is in direct proportion to the effectiveness of the victors in delivering that which was sought by the election. The emergence of despair comes sooner or later before the next change as the collective mind never gives up in its quest for hope. Welcome to America.
One has to drag the entire system, kicking and screaming all the way, out into the bright light. That can only be done from the bottom up... and the whole world is watching this process unfold, believe me.
The electorate segment that got Obama elected? ..easy, the internet electorate.
You got it, Lahonda. The key now is to see how long we can postpone despair. Franklin Delano Roosevelt came into office on a wave of hope and had he lived all the way through his last term, would have completed 16 years in a row in the presidency.
Paul had some good ides, but none of them fit together. I mean... how do you dissolve the cognitive dissonance of being anti-choice, and libertarian?
I'll give you this, you seem to have moved on from the denial phase on the grief wheel:
http://www
Anger is no place to build from. (but you got some laughs with that reference to Ayn Rand)
You're expecting too much practicality from irrational people, i.e. the Paulists. The Libertarians remind me of the Jesuits. So smart and yet so wrong.
Great analogy, wish I'd thought of it first. Some of the philosophy sounds good, such as getting government out of your face, until you start thinking seriously about what it really means. Privatizing national parks = Six Flags Over Yosemite. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Like the Anarchists, Libertarians are not realists. The ideas are seductive, though.
I'm pro-choice, yet I supported Ron Paul--you know why?
Because he would allow you and your community to decide, he did not foist his religious beliefs on anyone.
He would allow? This is just unacceptable. My "community" can foist their religious beliefs on me and that's okay? Just so long as it isn't federal that makes it all right?
I will take brains and hard work ANY DAY over image, sorry.
Why weren't the pundits speaking about Ron Paul? Why did they allow the Republican establishment to block him out and defame Ron Paul? He does have grass root support, he was savvy enough to have presence on the web. He was the best candidate that the Republicans have. He did have it right on the war, the economy, the government just about all of it. This wouldn't have suited the special interests that own the Republican Party and their lackeys the MSM's. Flathead their brand, I wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot Paul.
There was a bigger story going on. It was called Barack Obama. Its a new show and the ratings are off the chart. Want to get good ratings? Get a better show.
Hell yes. While I don't believe in many of Paul's ideas, his brand is much better for the nation as a whole. I'm tired of debating with crazies. You can't get anywhere. A person consumed by an ideology can never step back and look at a decision objectively. It's never about what's best for the country or the world, because they believe that no matter how crazy it seems, it will eventually work out because the demagogues say it will. As long as we have religious nuts like Palin, neocons like Bush, warhawks like Rudy, controlling half of our political discourse, our country is going to teeter on the brink of disaster. GET THEM OUT. Let's have a opposition party based on what's best for the COUNTRY AND THE WORLD, rather than what best fits a set of ideological principles. While I'll probably never vote for a Paul-like candidate, at least I could have a conversation with my Republican friends that was based in reason.
Just what the country needs: a guy who doesn't believe in government.
Ron Paul and Howard Roark 2012 !
Not true. The libertarian Ron Paul believes in the constitutional government. Not the welfare government we have now. The governments role should be to supply a justice system and a defense department. Don't mislead people.
That works great (well not really) right up until I buy the plot of land next to yours and turn it into a factory hog farm or tire dump and destroy your property values.
Good luck suing me, because I'm a large corporation and I can afford to keep you tied up in court until you go broke or die of old age.
Hey, property rights are absolute, right Mr. Libertarian?
Great comment except there is nothing in the US Constitution precluding welfare. Ron Paul and people like him love to read the Constitution in away that suits their ideology typically being oblivious to what the document actually says. In fact, the document is so broadly written that very little is explicitly not permitted. And no, the government's roll is not limited to the criminal justice system and national defense. All you're doing is spouting strict constitutionalist claptrap and yes that's all it is. The US Constitution is a living document that was meant to be adopted to fit the times. Anyone who knows anything about the Founders should understand that much about the way they thought.
Thank you,.
I believe you proved my point.
Well, it's too late for Ron Paul ("Dr. No") at Treasury, so I guess palace coup is the way to go. A lot of the local meetup groups are planning just that at the community/
Good luck with that.
Thanks! Dr. Paul did cure a lot of apathy, you know! Thanks for the encouragement!
Acknowledge the fact that image means something in modern politics, please. Do you think Obama would have won if he looked and spoke like the Charlie-in-the-Box from "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer"? Get serious.
Good point. Thats the main point. Image is primary in getting elected. Policy is secondary.
These two obviously spent the last two years on Mars... Everyone knows where Obama stands... on the steps of the White House.
If that was true then why didn't Romney get the nomination? McCain was one of the least physically attractive candidates. As far as where Obama stands on issues, might I suggest you start at his website?
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