Ron Paul Delegates Arrested

[jw33]

Back to the original topic, the thing that makes me shake my head is how little news coverage these type of events receive and how strong the party is fighting the movement. Just last week a long RPT e-mail went out warning everyone about the Ron Paul delegates causing shenanigans at the state convention this week. In the e-mail it calls the Paul delegates "MM or mischief makers" and that the "TR's or traditional republicans" must all band together and fight against them. Basically a lot of us vs. them talk.

Here's the deal though that I think they are the most out of touch with. Yeah some of the Paul people can be "abrasive", but guess what? All those crazy Paul people that send in nickle and dime donations during "money bombs", and that band together to form local groups that network on their own with little if any official help from the campaign to train for the convention process, the ones that invent original and creative ideas to promote the cause, and the ones that put people out on the street to promote their candidate. That is exactly what the Republican party needs to win. The sooner the party figures this out the better off they will be. Until then the GOP is going to have their hands full and will be IMO wasting their time trying to herd cats.

[jw33]

New Fox article came out today...

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/06/05/why-gop-cant-afford-to-ignore-ron-paul-and-his-many-fans/#ixzz1wwpBKNp7

Ron Paul has stopped actively campaigning in forthcoming primary contests, and after Texas everyone agrees that Romney has the nomination effectively locked up. But Ron Paul’s people are still striving to rack up as many delegates as he can at state Republican Party conventions before the Tampa .

He’s continued to do it too—even after his May announcement that many in media spun as “Paul drops out,” the Texas Congressman cleanly won control of his second state delegation at Minnesota’s state convention.

This past weekend in a chaotic and divided state GOP convention in Louisiana, in which two Paul activists were injured by police, it appears likely that he controls the delegation in that state too. (Since the convention literally split in two, the national party will have to eventually decide between two competing delegations, but the Paulite convention had the majority.)

Paul also previously won Maine, and has strong hope of coming out of the state convention later this month in Iowa controlling their delegation as well.

Still, Paul’s campaign admits they know Romney will win the Republican Party's presidential nomination. This has led many to wonder exactly what Paul’s trying to accomplish at the August GOP convention in Tampa. Prominent speaking slot? Platform influence? Sway over the vice presidential slot?

But what the GOP establishment needs to wonder is: what do his supporters want, and why?

Paul himself will likely not be a political player past 2013, when he leaves the House seat he’s held since 1997. But his supporters skew so young, they’ll be shaping the Party’s future far longer than Romney’s fans will.

Paul can attract over 7,000 students to come hear him speak, a level of enthusiasm no other GOP figure can muster. He’s now got 110,000 signed-up members for his “Youth for Ron Paul” group.

Why are they so passionate about this unlikely political champion? And why is their energy so hard to contain even by Paul’s own campaign, who talk of their desire for more “decorum” on the part of their often rowdy and contentious supporters?

Most politicians sell comfort—that American is the greatest, rich and mighty and right, and what small problems we have can be solved by electing our guy and getting rid of the other guy. Ron Paul wins passionate devotion selling a vision of great discomfort.

He tells us American foreign policy is misguided and understandably earns us enemies. He sees America not on the rise, but in decline because of Federal Reserve-primed booms and busts and a crushing debt burden.

He decries the American government for not protecting our liberties but rather unjustly oppressing its citizens over everything from medical marijuana to raw milk.

Unfortunately for Paul’s fans, the radical solutions the Paul worldview demands—an end to overseas military adventurism, ending government’s ability to manipulate paper currency, severe cuts in spending on all the myriad income-shifting promises Washington makes -- don’t register as “practical solutions” to those who helped create the crises those policies have led us to. And that’s both the Democrats and Paul’s own Republican Party.

Even though Paul’s budget plan, with its three-year glide path to a balanced budget with no tax hikes, was found by U.S. Budget Watch, a non-partisan research group, to be the only budget plan offered by GOP candidates this year that would not balloon the national debt, the Republican Party is scared of him. Even though his supporters continue to win control of delegations (Maine, Minnesota, and Louisiana) or state party structures (in Iowa and Nevada), the Party doesn’t want to embrace him.

Because if Ron Paul is right about the dangers of government overextension both at home and abroad, it means the GOP has to actually be serious about this limited government, living-within-our-means stuff that is supposed to be the very marrow of conservatism.

If they have to swallow some sour apples about returning the U.S. military to its original goal of just actually defending the U.S. and make the government respect citizens’ civil liberties, that should be a small price to pay to attract the loyalty, votes and money of a rising generation of activists.

Paul’s people have given money and rallied in amounts and numbers far exceeding such other GOP hopefuls as Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Paul’s fans gave nearly as much money to his campaign as those other two candidates combined.

The Goldwater movement in 1960 was seen as too young, too radical and too outside the mainstream by the GOP establishment of its day.

The religious right during the 1988 Pat Robertson campaign was seen as an overly loud and pushy minority.

But just as those minorities grew and dominated the GOP, the libertarian-leaning energy of the Ron Paul movement is primed to shape the future of the Republican Party. With their unique seriousness about reining in a government drowning in debt, neither the Republican Party nor the country can afford to ignore the concerns of Paul’s devotees.

[Denny]

[jw33]

Right. Do everything to come together as a united party in order beat Obama. Except anything to do with Ron Paul, brilliant strategery....

[Forever_frost]

Right. Do everything to come together as a united party in order beat Obama. Except anything to do with Ron Paul, brilliant strategery....

Ron would get chewed up by Barry. He has zero charisma and his foreign policy scares a lot of people. He also sucks at explaining pretty much anything to the Barney level

[Denny]

Ron would get chewed up by Barry. He has zero charisma and his foreign policy scares a lot of people. He also sucks at explaining pretty much anything to the Barney level

Instead, we'll just go with the lying crook... perfect!

[Forever_frost]

Instead, we'll just go with the lying crook... perfect!

I didn't say I agree with it, I liked Newt and Cain. We need a businessman instead of someone who was a community organizer. Since Paul can't seem to express himself in a manner that is easily digestible or broken into soundbytes, he had no chance.

Edit: And until we require a test on the constitution to vote, we'll keep getting bad choices.

[Denny]

I didn't say I agree with it, I liked Newt and Cain. We need a businessman instead of someone who was a community organizer. Since Paul can't seem to express himself in a manner that is easily digestible or broken into soundbytes, he had no chance.

Have you actually heard Cain?!?! LMMFAO!!! He shouldn't have been in there in the first place.

As for Paul, all of his stances are the way they are because he refers to our Constitution for guidence... even foreign policy. Like it or not; it's the way it was designed.

[Forever_frost]

Have you actually heard Cain?!?! LMMFAO!!! He shouldn't have been in there in the first place.

As for Paul, all of his stances are the way they are because he refers to our Constitution for guidence... even foreign policy. Like it or not; it's the way it was designed.

You'll notice I added to my statement. And I liked Cain. He took failing companies and made them profitable.

[Denny]

You'll notice I added to my statement. And I liked Cain. He took failing companies and made them profitable.

Then hire him to run your chain of restaurants, not our country.

[jw33]

Ron would get chewed up by Barry. He has zero charisma and his foreign policy scares a lot of people. He also sucks at explaining pretty much anything to the Barney level

That's not really the point I'm trying to make however in that regard polls have shown Paul right up there with Romney against Obama more than once with very little to zero help from the news.

The fact is that in one breath the party says they would like to get new young blood into the party and congeal everything into whatever it takes to beat Obama. But in the very same breath there isn't a moment wasted to shit all over Paul for essentially nothing more than a few passionate followers while he literally hand delivered their grassroots movement wet dream to them on a silver platter. It pretty fucking ponderous and IMO is going to cause more of a headache than actually changing their tone.

[mschmoyer]

Ya'll say Ron Paul "sucks at explaining anything" yet just about everything he explains makes perfect sense. Does he just need to dumb it down for everyone like the rest do?

I stick behind him in this post is because hes the ONLY guy in the entire government whose not trying to sell you something, and I like pessimists - they see the shitstorm before everybody else does.

[Forever_frost]

That's not really the point I'm trying to make however in that regard polls have shown Paul right up there with Romney against Obama more than once with very little to zero help from the news.

The fact is that in one breath the party says they would like to get new young blood into the party and congeal everything into whatever it takes to beat Obama. But in the very same breath there isn't a moment wasted to shit all over Paul for essentially nothing more than a few passionate followers while he literally hand delivered their grassroots movement wet dream to them on a silver platter. It pretty fucking ponderous and IMO is going to cause more of a headache than actually changing their tone.

The Republicans don't want Paul or libertarians to take over the party. Hell, they don't want the Tea Party to take over the party. The R's will die out and another party will lead the way.

[Forever_frost]

Ya'll say Ron Paul "sucks at explaining anything" yet just about everything he explains makes perfect sense. Does he just need to dumb it down for everyone like the rest do?

Yes.

[jw33]

I wouldn't say the rest really dumb it down, it's more of a pandering to whatever people want to hear. And if that doesn't work as well as you hoped or you just want to hear some applause you run the other guy up a tree regardless or your own record/past. People generally don't want to hear that something they participated in or supported might have actually been part of the problem.