Ron Paul and the Struggles of Attrition

August 17th, 2008 10:09 am  |  by Jake Towne  |  Published in Activism, Big Government, Bob Barr, Commentary, Constitution, Election, History, Individual Responsibility, Libertarianism, Liberty, Politics, Ron Paul, War, campaign for liberty  |  0

My comment on Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty after reading David Nolan’s and Walt Thiessen’s recent Bob Barr pieces.

Originally published August 17th, 2008 by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution at http://www.nolanchart.com/article4520.html

You can reach Walt Thiessen’s article “Unreality at the Barr Campaign” from this link http://www.libertymaven.com/2008/08/15/a-scathing-review-of-the-barr-campaign/1489/

You can reach David F. Nolan’s article “The Barr Campaign at Halftime” from this link http://www.nolanchart.com/article4505.html

Dear libertarians, constitutionalists, and any other Ron Paul supporters,

I am writing because I think some of us do not realize the situation we are in.  We are struggling against what Ron Paul likes to term “the Establishment.”  We also need to be very wary of attrition.  First, we need to recognize that it is paramount to keep ourselves together and politically active.  Second, we need to patiently erode at the popular support for the Establishment and if possible flood the “hearts and minds” away from it.  Third, this Establishment is a hurricane that is destroying the freedom, money, jobs, economy and even the very lives of We the People.  That is what is trying to wear us down, and we need to bare our teeth into this storm, keep snarling our rejection back at it, and keep growing.

Don’t Get Lost!  Stay Together, Stay Politically Active

Principle-wise, this stuggle could also be termed a ‘war of attrition’ is no different from the colonists in the first American Revolution, no different from any other guerilla war of any minority versus a majority, of any battle of the weak against the strong.  We most likely number somewhere between the 83,000 at the Campaign’s website and the million-odd who voted for Ron Paul in the presidential primaries, but do not bet the farm on such a high figure.

Imagine Ron Paul as our general if you will.  He has planted his flag on this small hillock of Freedom called www.campaignforliberty.com.  We there all stand by him and his ideas of liberty and are basically throwing snowballs at passer-bys.  Some we whack in the face and they fire back. Some though will say, boy that stung! and perhaps become aware of some truth behind this Establishment and then join us.  Our job is to turn this little hill into a mountain, and eventually set off avalanches.  This is goal of the Revolution.

We are a collection of free women and men, and so want all who join to either to be or become.  I’ve found through my writings and communications that ‘changing minds’ simply does not work AT ALL.  Nor do I, in hindsight, ever want it to.  The only chance is if an individual already has an open mind and is willing to listen to others’ opinion before making a decision, or even to revisit their past decisions.  Our job is to present our side of the argument with principled conviction and truth. Our message should hold in it love, compassion, facts, peace, hope, and even fun and humor.  If you can’t laugh in the faces of our shadowy overlords (sarcasm) and can’t find humor in our government’s perverted version of The Law, you need a timeout.

At any rate, becoming and staying politically active and encouraging it in others, even if they disagree, is perhaps the most important of all.  Increasing levels of political activism and dissent against the government in whatever form is the main reason why I am optimistic our cause can succeed.

Win Hearts and Minds!

If we study other wars particularly the ones that have gone horribly in the past for the USA, there are wonderful lessons won at a high cost, such as Vietnam and Iraq. One indisputable commonality is that the strong (USA) lost the hearts and minds of the local populations.  When this happened, the strong lost the war.   Study the Vietnam War – the Viet Cong and Viet Minh ran circles around the South Vietnamese and Americans by befriending and caring for the local populations.  Eventually even the vast wealth, infatuation with kill ratios, and 60,000 American lives were not able to overwhelm those intent on freedom and independence. Study Iraq – there have been countless opportunities for us to win their support by methodically building the nation’s infrastructure with our billions of dollars of aid, but we have abjectly failed to do so.  Instability, death squads and sectarian fighting, American oppression and torture, have all combined to turn it into a quagmire.  Like Vietnam, the war in Iraq for hearts and minds is already lost, long before the day we decide to leave, unless victory is denoted by solely by controlling the region’s oil.

Our goal is to see if there are any other hearts and minds out there who want to join, who want to do something but are either apathetic or ignorant of our ideas.  If they join or are open-minded, fantastic.  If not, debate for awhile if you want but move on.  My personal mantra is to educate but also seek to be educated – it’s a two-way street, I find.

Ron Paul’s decision to stay within the Republican Party was at the time widely contested, at the Chart and elsewhere, but it now appears to me the decision was a wise one. If we study American political third parties, we find that they have been roundly defeated by the Reps and Dems or minimized, many times subverted by infighting.

While a national campaign like Ron Paul’s served its primary purpose of spreading the message of peace, freedom and prosperity to a wide audience, the battles we need to fight must be won in the local and state trenches.  Here at the Chart [and Liberty Maven], I’ve found that the most provoking writings on this are from Jahfre Fire Eater, a strong proponent of focusing on influencing local politics, who, even better yet, acts out his convictions.

Here are the targets:

1) Hearts and Minds of Libertarian Party members

After reading David Nolan’s “The Barr Campaign at Halftime” and Thiessen’s latest “Unreality at the Barr Campaign” on the sinking stone that is the Bob Barr candidacy, it struck me that there must  be plenty of Libertarian Party members who have not joined the Campaign for Liberty (C4L).  There are 200,000 LP party members and as of today here are only 83,000 total  registered at  the C4L.  Hey, if it’s the third party path you’ve chosen, fine.  Others would phrase it that you’ve effectively removed yourself from the political process, but I have no problems with this.  I even wish you lots of luck though as we have the same goal and same principles.  However, you do not need to switch party allegiance to join C4L.  I happen to really like the LP constitution and think it has a lot of great ideas. However, one is struck by its similarity to the C4L’s Statement of Principles.  It makes me wonder why not all of LP’s 200,000+ “Party of Principle” members have not yet rushed to sign up. Is it a question of ignorance, apathy, lack of principles, trying to ‘herd cats’ or something else?

If any LP party member of Nolan and Thiessen’s articles read and agreed with them, you might want to try my earlier articles where I predicted Barr was a bad choice – one written before I had even researched him, entitled “Bob Barr – Assassin of the Ron Paul Revolution?” and a six-part  letter to Bob Barr as I was researching him. [By the way, Barr DID eventually add 'Monetary Policy' to his presidential website as I had demanded, although the statement is, as Nolan notes, fairly general and toothless.]  Barr may get my vote this November, but even though I follow him fairly closely, I am just unable to summon the same kind of excitement about his ideas than Ron Paul inspires with his almost 30-year congressional record.  However, cross-fighting on the presidential campaign doesn’t do us much good.  Why?

#1 It is fairly inconsequential. In all likelihood McBama will be elected president, but their platforms and principles are so similar it does not really matter.

#2 Fact of the matter is with the Barackcuda unmasked recently as just another imperial socialist versus what I can only describe as Bush’s older, meaner elder brother, if the LP nominated a Big Mac with a side order of fries, and these were the only three options, despite my hatred of fast food, my tick would be to Super Size it because at least that does not conflict with my principles, and the LP constitution agrees with them.

2) Hearts and Minds of Republican Party members

This is the political party Dr. Paul has decided to stick with, and it is up to us to eat it alive.  Besides acting as a voice of reason and moderation against the neocons, we all can have an impact on it.  Consider the verbose 93-page 2004 Republican platform for Big Government. Over 40% was dedicated to the primary goal of “Winning the War on Terror.”  As I am a registered Republican and a stalwart against the Global War on Terror, I have had the pleasure logging in at the party website and commenting on the 2008 platform.  As I live abroad and unfortunately have close to zero local political experience myself, this is at least satisfying.

We should keep in mind that there are roughly 55 million registered Republicans and 35 million did not bother to vote in the primary.  Only 9.5 million or roughly 17% voted for McCain. If a fellow Republicans agree with us that the party of the Republic is no longer for limited government, lower taxes, peace and freedom, then the C4L may become a viable choice for them.

3) Hearts and Minds of Democratic Party members

It has been my experience that most Democratic members have the same desires as Republicans in terms of prosperity, peace and freedom, but they want the government to help everyone out for the “greater good.” They also view themselves as in opposition to the Republican’s War on Terror.  First, there is no Democrat that I’ve met that has taken my suggestion to read Bastiat’s The Law and has not had to rethink at least part of their view on the Democrat’s socialist policies.  However, Obama recently exploded the idea of the Democratic Party as the peace party.  Since the defeat of Clinton, he has clearly gotten behind the banner of the War on Terror, and now just offers Americans a different choice of a war to support.  Individually, he is possibly even more imperialistic than McCain, who himself grew up traveling from military base to military base with his daddy the Admiral.

The Obama mantra is “Change We Can Believe In.”  This slogan pretty much sums up why so many of my peers (young adults) support Obama, not because of his stance on issues but simply because he does not remind them of George W. Bush.  My efforts to debate on Obama’s views have ended in failure, normally due to lack of response.  When I write and show that Obama is just a smooth-talking warmonger, no response.  Most of his younger supporters have open minds at least, and perhaps if they decide to spend some time thinking about what freedom and liberty really is, they will realize Obama’s silky promises will just bring more death and forms of enslavement to the world.  However, there are those who choose to be enslaved and if they cannot defend their ideas or do not want to listen, leave them alone.  Not worth the time.

4) Hearts and Minds of Anyone else

If you do the math and estimate the total Republicans at 55 million, the total Democrats at 72 million (which may be a bit low), and use the 2006 Census result of 220 million eligible voters with only 136 million registered, there are less than 8 million independent or third party voters. Just this simple math gives credence to why third parties have such trouble – the LP is the third largest party with a piddling 200,000 as stated above.

However, do the math.  This means there is roughly 144 million, or 65%! of all eligible Americans who are either are politically apathetic or refuse to associate themselves with the two current parties. This is a huge potential for any political movement to tap into.  How many of these would desire our version of liberty if they understood it remains to be discovered.

However, I do not limit C4L just to eligible voters or even just to Americans.  We should talk with any mature young adult who wants to learn our ideas of liberty, and just inform them.  They can then make up their own mind.  It is obviously why enlisting the help of other foreign nationals living in the United States would help, many times these people are more open to new ideas than the average American, and sometimes feel frustrated they have no voice.  Those living without, whether they have false perceptions of America, or not, are also targeted hearts and minds if for no other reason that one of our tenets is disengagement from all supranational organizations where Americans have no elected representatives.

The Evils of the Establishment

Our country is hemorrhaging.  Literally, the corpses of well over 5,000 Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan can attest to this truth.  The bleeding continues in the housing crisis which in turn is exacerbating the banking crisis.  Accelerating inflation is bleeding away our dollar’s purchasing power, unemployment is on the rise, and the dollar index is feeling a relentless pull downwards, despite the latest intervention.  The Bush Administration is inexorably turning central and southwest Asia into a giant battleground.  Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are nothing new, but Operation Brimstone and Congress are moving towards unleashing hell on Iran.  The American mainstream media is completely missing the fact that tensions at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border are exploding. Georgia and South Ossetia make interesting distractions.

The current government, whether McCain or Obama wins it really makes no difference, promises more of the same.  “We must fight them over there to keep us safe here.”  They have increased the government spending, services and welfare to better serve us when we lose our jobs because the government signed our sovereignty away in an alphabet soup of international organizations, WTO, NAFTA, UN, and MFN with China.  They give more bailouts to Big Money like Bear Stearns, Fannie and Freddie, and protection for the rest of the banking industry.  While the thought of bankers in dire straits in their skyscrapers fails to bring tears to my eye, the loss of credit will stifle our economy.  Perhaps the insurance and credit card companies will soon have a crisis as they sit in their skyscrapers as well. Meanwhile, Congress passes pork bills that do not even bother to read, as they make weak and ineffective gestures to individuals who need to be saved from poor decisions with their mortgages, or, although I am socially liberal, to those whose life is just not going along smoothly.

All the time the government legally plunders our money from us, whether overtly through taxes, or covertly through debasing our money and increasing our debt and servitude to foreign nations like Saudi Arabia, China, and Japan.  Our best and brightest grow up to become lawyers and tax preparers instead of learning to innovate, produce or contribute to the economy and our society.

529,227 of our young men and women, our soldiers, our heroes and heroines, are dying in the sand and grit of farflung foreign deserts and nations while our country’s infrastructure of bridges, roads, schools, energy, drinking water, and airports falls apart. [Try Doug Eberhardt's America's Infrastructure article.  The country was rated a D in 2005 by the American Society of Civil Engineers.]  When they return stateside wounded, our medical care is often insufficient.  They think they are fighting for freedom, but in reality their fight is just for Bush, Cheney, Rice, and Rowe. Fortunes are being made off their flesh (Army privates in 2007 earned an average of $1,301 per month) by a hideous military-industrial complex.

“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, [and] the hope of its children.”

- President Dwight Eisenhower in his farewell address, ex-WWII Allied Supreme Commander

That’s right! And I have had enough! In Liberty,

Jake, the Champion of the Constitution

www.CampaignForLiberty.com

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

As always, unlike the NFL, the author grants full permission to allow any accounts of, rebroadcasts, retransmissions, repostings in part or full of this article to your blog or anywhere else in order to promote the Restoration of our Republic.

Veritas numquam perit. Veritas odit moras. Veritas vincit. Truth never perishes. Truth hates delay. Truth conquers.

Author’s Note: Thanks for reading, sorry its a bit of a rant.  I usually like to just sit back and watch the Libertarian-vs-libertarian-Republican commentary but I decided to weigh in with my opinion, as small and insignificant as that may be.  For background, I have been a fairly apathetic Republican since I became old enough to vote, which wasn’t too long ago. Last year I became overly fed-up with the Iraq War and starting listening to this Ron Paul guy.  I have chosen so far to stay a registered Republican although my views are solidly libertarian.  My activism is mostly in the form of writing antiwar and now some monetary policy articles here at the Nolan Chart [and Liberty Maven].  Some are listed below, would love to know what you think!  [Reach the Author Here!]

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The Money Matrix Series

The Money Matrix – Prelude (PART 1/15)
Published: August 1, 2008
Prelude and Source List to a Series on Global Monetary Policy of Control and Explaining Big Government’s Finances

The Money Matrix – What is a Dollar Bill Worth? (PART 2/15)
Published: August 2, 2008
“Living so free is a tragedy when you can’t see what you need to see!” – Powerman 5000 ‘Free’

The Money Matrix – What Makes Money Money? (PART 3/15)
Published: August 3, 2008
A quick history of money per Rothbard followed by the properties of money per Ron Paul

The Money Matrix – If You Don’t Know Who the Sucker Is, Then It’s You! (PART 4/15)
Published: August 7, 2008
The Money Matrix series rolls on by asking ‘What are the Types of Money?’ and ‘What is the “Best” Currency and Why?’

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Recent Articles by the Author

Bush and Gang Prepares to Unleash Hell on Iran. Is the Georgian War a Stepping Stone?
Published: August 12, 2008
Operation Brimstone and the Georgian War may combine to form WWIII. The Dogs of War are running amok. Do you care?

Response to Disgruntled Reader on “Malalai Joya” Article
Published: August 11, 2008
The pain and psychological shock trauma of 9/11 and the War on Terror continues. When will the shock wear off?

A Galactic Look at all this War-stuff and the Fibonacci Sequence in Tool’s Lateralus
Published: August 8, 2008
An Invitation to a Party and a few thoughts from Jake

A Salute to Malalai Joya – Afghanistan’s Tom Paine
Published: August 8, 2008
Malalai Joya, a brave lady and banned legislator from Afghanistan, fights for justice, human rights, and democracy. She battles both the Warlords in power, the Taliban… and the American Government, which is probably why you have never heard of her.

Iraq Smolders as American War Deaths in Afghanistan Reach All-Time Records
Published: August 2, 2008
With Iraq “Pacified” for McBama’s Election, American Troops are dying off at record rates in America’s “oh, that Other War” in Afghanistan

Police State Invades Mayor’s Home & Kills His Dogs (UPDATED)
Published: August 1, 2008
“It was inconceivable to me that my government would be coming through my door.” – the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, or a recent police raid on his residence

Jesse Ventura Joins Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty!
Published: July 31, 2008
At long last, Jesse Ventura and Ron Paul officially join forces in the fight for liberty!

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Older Articles by the Author referenced above

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