If you like Ron Paul but yearn for a younger Constitution-loving candidate, no better choice comes to mind than B.J. Lawson. We at Liberty Maven were singing his praises before he handily won the inaugural Liberty Straw Poll back on September 17th by an overwhelming margin (better than 4 to 1 over the runner-up).
We rated Lawson on the Paul-O-Meter (in which we compared his policies and voting record to those of Ron Paul) and weren’t too surprised that he scored a 91 out of a possible 99 points (thus cementing his “Ron Paul Jr.” nickname).
Ron Paul himself has even campaigned for him and remarked on Lawson’s nickname by saying:
A lot of folks have begun calling B.J. Lawson the next Ron Paul. The comparison is very flattering. . . for me.
In the election BJ garnered 37% of the vote, which is quite a feat considering his district (4th) in North Carolina is strongly Democratic.
And according to the local press, BJ Lawson is planning to give it another shot. He’ll be opposing Rep. David Price next fall. Expect an announcement on his web site (www.lawsonforcongress.com) some time next week.
In the meantime, for more information, take a look at our interviews with BJ last year: Part 1|Part 2 and then get ready for another money bomb.
This is just a friendly reminder that today is Rand Paul’s mini Money Bomb. Rand has said that if he were to receive a large amount in donations to his exploratory committee he would run regardless of what Jim Bunning decides to do.
If you believe, as I do, that Rand Paul represents new hope for the Republican Party then please….
The concept of a money bomb, pooling a bunch of campaign donations in a single day, was made famous during Ron Paul’s Presidential campaign of 2007 and 2008. Many others have utilized the practice to draw in campaign funds and press mentions since then. Now, it is Ron Paul’s son, Rand Paul, who is ready for his own.
This one is to raise money for his exploratory committee for the U.S. Senate representing Kentucky. The day is next Monday, June 1st, 2009. The goal is $25k in a single day. More details are here.
We need more Ron Pauls in DC. Without cloning Ron Paul it is unlikely you’ll find someone more similar than his son, Dr. Rand Paul.
Tomorrow night (Thursday) Rand Paul is set to make a major announcement on the Rachel Maddow show. The speculation is running rampant about whether it will be an official announcement of his run for the Senate or if it will be to announce he is forming an exploratory committee to gauge the interest in his potential campaign.
The good money bet is on the exploratory committee option. Doing that will no doubt draw some main stream press and enable him to start raising money officially. Hello money bomb, where have you been?
Rand Paul is going to make a MAJOR announcement on Rachel Maddow’s show Thursday night (5/14)! It will be worth watching as Rand has discussed a potential run for US Senate from Kentucky.
For the past fifteen years, Dr. Rand Paul, son of Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, has been the chairman of the Kentucky Taxpayers United, a group that monitors and rates the State Legislature. Dr. Paul has been traveling the state of Kentucky for the past several months meeting, talking, and gauging his support.
It is a long shot for Rand Paul at this point, but this move is another sign that the future of liberty in America will not go away without a fight.
Michael Maresco pedaled across America in late 2007 spreading Ron Paul’s message of liberty to everyone who crossed his path. I spent those months following his effort on his site, RonPaulRiders.com. I warmly recall a video he shot POV-style while on his bike singing our National Anthem. He may hate me for linking to it, but here it is.
Fast-forward to 2009 and Michael is about to embark on another bike ride. This time he’s pedaling from the Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz as a warning to all about America’s trajectory from freedom to fascism. It is dubbed the Ride for Honesty.
Michael introduces his ride using one of my own favorite quotes of all time by Calvin Coolidge in a post on the new site, LibertyRider.com:
This time, in addition to casual encounters, and in response to the recent DHS Documents deeming peace-loving political activists as potential threats, I will be canvassing Sheriffs and Governors; presenting them with educational materials about our movement, providing background for sensible r3VOLutionary solutions to the problems we face as a nation. The packs will include: “The Revolution – A Manifesto”, by Congressman Ron Paul. “The County Sheriff – America’s last Hope”, by Sheriff Richard Mack. And a DVD of the speech, “The Powers of the Purse and Sword” by Dr. Edwin Vieira.
In doing so, I hope to build rapport and spark honest discussion, locally, about our great country’s apparent slide into some bizarre new form of fascism. To symbolize this, I am riding from The Statue of Liberty to Alcatraz; Freedom to Fascism. It is a grim goal to envision, a heavy to topic to carry. But, must. be. done. As Dr. Ron Paul said, July 10, 2003 on the floor of Congress, “Let it not be said that no one cared, that no one objected once it’s realized that our liberties and wealth are in jeopardy.”
Awakening the drowsy, energizing the awake, those are things I’m good at. Navigating the road, and targeting a message, are things I have a wealth of experience in. Putting them together in this trip is a natural. Following the advice of Calvin Coolidge, “Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”, I’m pressing on.
We will be following his effort here at Liberty Maven, and we encourage all of our readers to participate in assisting Michael in this proud endeavor for liberty.
Ron Paul delivered an excellent speech at CPAC this afternoon. He received a lot of applause and cheering for many of his lines. There were some obvious skeptics and shaking of heads in the audience as well, but overall he was on his game and hit all of his talking points and then some.
He talked about his bill calling for more Federal Reserve transparency. He claims it is getting bipartisan support in the Congress. That would be a great first step. He also spoke about abortion, foreign policy, and individual vs. groups with respect to liberty.
There were a few lines that I loved. It reminded me of the many rallies during his campaign in 2007 and and early 2008.
Dave Weigel at Reason magazine sat down with Bob Barr for a kind of exit interview for his failed bid to become the first Libertarian President of the United States. The Ron Paul phenomenon is discussed openly except for one particular answer about access to fund raising lists.
reason: What did matter? Campaign funds? At the convention, Russ Verney told me that he hoped to raise $30 million, and the campaign eventually raised about $1.2 million.
Barr: If certain things had happened that we expected to happen early on, like gaining access to certain lists very quickly, I think we could have gotten there. But those lists turned out to be not available, unfortunately, and that prevented us early to turn over and over again into significant fundraising. We didn’t get that seed money early on that we anticipated. We realistically anticipated it. We didn’t sit around say ‘it would be nice to have all that money.’”
reason: Was one of these Ron Paul’s fundraising list?
Barr: All I can say is that it appeared very realistic that we would have a list that let us raise a large amount of seed money that we could build on. And that didn’t happen.
Quote of the Day: “In the long run men hit only what they aim at.” — Henry David Thoreau
Subject: How to cure political loneliness
* How many Americans want smaller government?
* How many Americans would support the “Read the Bills Act” and the “One Subject at a Time Act,” if they were introduced to them?
In today’s Dispatch we’ll answer the first question, and explain how we can use $50,000 in pledges made by two generous donors to answer the second question. We’ll also tell you how you can see and receive our new “I Am Not Afraid” t-shirt.
We start by tipping our hat to David Boaz at the Cato Institute for constantly calling attention to the kind of data we’re going to share below, and to Ramesh Ponnuru for providing a good recent summary of this information.
CBS pollsters have been asking the following question for decades, “Would you say you favor smaller government with fewer services, or larger government with many services?”
From 1996 through Jan. 2001 the smaller-government side had an average lead of a whopping 20 points. This lead has slipped in the current decade, but as of March-April of this year the sides were tied.
For most of the past three decades a majority of Americans (often a vast majority) have favored smaller government. And even now, when the propaganda drumbeat for more government in areas such as health care and the financial system has been extremely loud, the support for smaller government is close to a majority, according to this poll.
If you read the essay you’ll see in the intro that he once told a Senate committee he favored an end to the Federal Reserve and a return to gold money.
When Greenspan gained the power to run the Federal Reserve he changed his tune. He stopped singing the sound-money song, though when pressed in interviews he would still say that gold was the most stable money system.
If you accept what Greenspan said in interviews, then he still believed in sound-money and he still opposed centralized banking. But his actions betrayed his professed beliefs. He was now the Counterfeiter-in-Chief, and he played the role with gusto. He inflated and deflated the money supply, doing exactly what he had criticized before. As a result . . .
Alan Greenspan was one of the many contributors to the boom and bust cycle in general, and to the current boom and bust in particular. Greenspan clearly knew better, so what are we to conclude from his actions other than that . . .
On Thursday, October 9th at 6:30pm at the University of Maryland College Park’s Comcast Center, Ron Paul will be attending a rally and fundraiser to support Maryland’s Republican Congressional candidates, such as Collins Bailey (5th district), Mike Hargadon (7th district), Peter James (4th district), and Richard Matthews (MD-2).
“Our platform is popular and increasing in publicity every day. This event will be a large part of that,” said Matthews, who began airing “Shame on you” ads directed at incumbent Dutch Ruppersberger on WBAL last week. Matthews added, “Last week our campaign zinger ‘If you go Dutch, YOU PAY’ proved prophetic, with Ruppersberger voting yes on the bailout package twice. Flip flopping was not a problem for the incumbent, as he stood against the Maryland taxpayer but with Wall Street without equivocation.”
James, who had praised his opponent, Donna Edwards, for her initial opposition to the bailout, was disappointed by her capitulation later in the week. “There were a lot of people who worked very hard for her in the primary who were devastated by this vote. Some of them are beginning to give my campaign a look.”
Bailey’s approach has remained consistent throughout his campaign. “If you’re happy with how things are going in Washington,” says the 54-year-old businessman, “then vote for the other guy. If not, you may want to consider voting for me.” The “other guy” in the race happens to be House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the longest-serving House member in Maryland history. But Bailey believes that Hoyer’s votes for unconstitutional bills like FISA and the bailout gives his campaign a boost, as Bailey has maintained his opposition to such legislation. “Congress must balance the budget without raising taxes,” said Bailey.
Hargadon’s campaign will join with Matthews in airing anti-bailout radio ads on WBAL this week. “My opponent, Elijah Cummings, can talk the talk with the best of them, but when it comes down to his vote, he sells out his constituents for special interests,” said Hargadon. “Actions speak louder than words, and my constituents will know I represent them by the votes I make.”
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