Liberty Maven

Now that Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign is over it is time for reflection. What were the expectations? Were those expectations met? What was accomplished? What will happen in the future?

I started writing about Ron Paul online in April of 2007. This writing was purely accidental. I had just started blogging on my personal site. I ended up almost writing exclusively about Ron Paul. That was not my intent, but Ron Paul had a gravitational pull on my mind that I could not resist. Luckily it was an attraction that I did not want to resist. Watching his “In The Name Of Patriotism (Who Are The Patriots?)” speech online almost brought me to tears in a “proud to be an American” sort of way. It was not his oratorical style that did it, but rather the substance of his words. Little did I know at the time that would become the underlying theme of his campaign: Substance over surface.

Ron Paul’s own expectations were most likely equivalent to my own at that time. We live in a country where the superficial is awarded and the substantive is ignored. Paul’s lack of smooth talking used car salesman media appeal was one of my reasons for believing his campaign was dead on arrival at the time. The other reason was that his penchant for plain spoken brutal truth would alienate many voters immediately. Ron Paul has recently said that when beginning his campaign he had no idea that there were so many believers in the Constitution. I felt the same way then, but today, like him, I stand corrected.

Unfortunately, Ron Paul’s campaign was not ready for the massive support it received. It seemed that he was running an “education” campaign instead of a “get out the vote” campaign for far too long. I firmly believe if two specific things were done at the beginning of the campaign he would have been a true player for the nomination (in the conventional sense). The first is the precinct leader program. The second is releasing his book, “The Revolution: A Manifesto”. Granted the title of the book likely would have been different. There are several reports of former Ron Paul bashers becoming supporters after reading the book. The precinct leader program is the perfect tool for a grassroots campaign. It was created far too late. Hopefully, its use can benefit future liberty minded candidates in a more comprehensive way.

It is true that hindsight is 20/20, but there are also new elections and candidates every year. Newly minted liberty candidates can use Ron Paul’s campaign as an example for what not to do, and what to do in order to gain the most support possible. That being said, there is likely never to be another Ron Paul. There will be candidates that take his message, massage it in order to further its reach into new minds like Bob Barr is doing. There will be candidates that copy it verbatim and foment Ron Paul purists like Chuck Baldwin is doing. There will be imposters that claim they are “libertarian, like Ron Paul” but no one is Ron Paul except the good Doctor himself.

This split amongst the Ron Paul faithful is inevitable. It pains me to admit that because if all of his supporters were to get behind a single candidate it could truly help spread the message far and wide. Perhaps some day there will be such a candidate. Today, Bob Barr is not likely to ever be supported by Ron Paul purists due to his voting history. Chuck Baldwin worries the more moderate/pragmatic Ron Paul supporters because he’s using the same perceived inflammatory rhetoric as Ron Paul on “abolishing the Fed”, “lowering taxes to zero percent”, “calling for a new investigation into 9-11″, and preaching against the “New World Order”. Regardless of the truth, this rhetoric scares the average voter away. Ralph Nader courting Ron Paul supporters is akin to Mike Gravel calling himself Libertarian. Both are imposters to liberty with their anti free market approaches.

So it seems for 2008 the Ron Paul faithful will be split in several directions. Some will vote for Bob Barr. Some seem insistent upon writing in Ron Paul. Some will vote for Chuck Baldwin. Some may even vote for Obama, McCain, or Nader.

Ron Paul announced his new educational effort, the “Campaign For Liberty”, when he officially exited the Presidential race the other day. He set a goal of trying to have 100,000 signed up members by September 2nd, 2008. It’s only been a few days and it’s already almost half way there with more than 47K registered members. It’s an interesting move because this new effort isn’t new at all. Ron Paul’s educational “Campaign For Liberty” serves exactly the same purpose as his Presidential campaign minus the FEC regulations.

It will be interesting to see how this new effort plays out. Most interesting will be to see what candidates the organization supports. Will the organization donate money to Bob Barr’s campaign and/or Chuck Baldwin’s campaign. Will the organization endorse either or both? The first item on the “Campaign For Liberty” mission list is to promote “candidates for public office who share our commitment to freedom”. Certainly Baldwin and Barr are among these candidates. With the new organization Ron Paul can politically distance himself from directly endorsing non-Republican candidates while allowing the organization to do the dirty work. It will allow him to say, “I’m not endorsing these candidates, the organization is.”

Looking further into the future, what influence will the Campaign For Liberty have on the 2010 and 2012 elections? This is surely unknown. Will Ron Paul run in 2012 for the GOP nomination? Or will he utilize his support and rally them behind a specific candidate? Will he retire from Congress before the 2010 election in order to set himself up to run at the head of an independent/third party ticket in 2012? What do you think will happen?

Whatever does happen, hopefully the country will be a new place. A place where the average voter actually investigates a candidate’s political positions rather than how popular or electable he/she is.

“You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” – John Lennon