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.
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.
Rand Paul was interviewed on Fox Radio’s Brian and The Judge show this morning. Once again Rand demonstrates his ability to be a future leader for the Republican Party. The big question is will the neo-con wing of the GOP welcome or shun him?
In many re-branding efforts a new mission statement is derived. My choice for a re-branded GOP: The Free Country Project. The mission could also be worded in this way, “Do the polar opposite of whatever Lindsey Graham suggests.”
I apologize to the wonderful Free State Project for bastardizing their efforts with such a suggestion, but I am quite serious. Instead of putting energy into calling the Obama administration socialists why not abandon the petty, kindergarten-style, partisan bickering and look within? Come up with a new 1994-style “Contract With America” but this time don’t renege on the contract. It should not be called anything similar to “Contract With America” though. Yes, that bad taste is still lingering.
Dubbing it “The Free Country Project” and making more than a half-assed effort to bring libertarianism back into the GOP could be a winning formula. Of course, many will have to tuck their neo-con tails between their legs and embrace Ron Paul and his libertarian friends. I’m not talking about a macho homophobic half-hearted embrace here. I’m talking about a full-on bear hug that will make gawkers worry about dropping the soap in the GOP country club shower.
By now I’m sure you’ve seen the two video clips (here’s the latest) of Lindsey Graham unnecessarily attacking Ron Paul and libertarianism in general. It is odd for Graham to do such a thing unless he feels threatened by Paul. So I take it as a good sign that he is doing so. It is also a good sign that there are people out there, even in Graham’s home state of South Carolina willing to embrace the libertarian label like Mark Sanford as he does when questioned about “libertarianism”.
Lindsey Graham represents the GOP in a death-ward spiral. He is at the point of kicking, screaming, and clawing his way out of the Republican pit of despair. To really illustrate how the Grahams of the GOP operate see the video below. The sad thing is that this kind of behavior is no longer surprising. It is expected. This is the giant wall those that are trying to rebrand the GOP with the same old neo-con leaders are up against. The GOP should take Stephen Gordon’s advice and embrace libertarians of all stripes, otherwise the Grand Old Party may be destined to be the Tired Old Party by 2012.
The Republican Party is more or less in shambles. It is the political equivalent of New Orleans post-Katrina. All of the tired old neo-conservatives are scrambling around trying to make sense of the disaster but “making sense” has never been a ubiquitous neo-conservative trait. Finding the next GOP “leader” is quite easy. It’s hard to step anywhere in DC without having to wipe Red state leadership off the bottom of your shoe. Just about every Republican you bump into these days is trying to use political muscle to be the next Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan. All these attempts will likely fail.
The real problem with the GOP is the lack of activist and faithful followers. When everyone is trying to be a leader, who is left to do the following? The GOP is a city where every building is a comedy club holding an open mic night all on the same evening. The only people in the audience are Democrats laughing out of pity. Well, they are bleeding hearts after all.
The Republican Party doesn’t need new leadership. It needs old-style leadership, very old-style leadership. Newt Gingrich with a makeover is still neo-con Newt. A kinder gentler Rush Limbaugh? I thought the GOP was against drugs? And please don’t let me go down the lipstick on a pig avenue again regarding Sarah Palin. What a giant heaping pile of leadership!
Ron Paul appeared on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC this evening. He discussed his own role in the GOP’s future. Pointedly, Maddow asks Paul his thoughts on Newt Gingrich.
“I don’t think either party right now offers a whole lot to the American people who want to see some really serious changes.”
In an excellent article by David Weigel we get a peek into just how Ron Paul’s efforts to educate his peers in the ways of Austrian economics are going. It appears that Tom Woods great book “Meltdown” is one of the the more useful education tools Paul is using to win friends and influence his lawmaking peers.
No, there is no massive support among his GOP colleagues but he is winning over a few of them and building his own “Old Right” coalition of sorts. Many Paul supporters were critical of McCain’s buddy Lindsay Graham saying that Ron Paul is not a leader of the GOP (see video). However, isn’t it an indication of Paul’s growing support that Graham felt the need to make such a statement in the first place? The old tactic of “ignore Ron Paul and he will go away” is obviously no longer working for the neo-cons. Ron Paul isn’t going anywhere, and it’s about time the GOP recognized their true conservative roots, a time before the neo-conservatives incrementally hijacked the Republican Party.
And then there are the luncheons. The off-the-record talks have brought in speakers such as ex-CIA counterterrorism expert Michael Scheuer, libertarian investigative reporter James Bovard, iconoclastic terrorism scholar Robert Pape, and George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. Perhaps the most influential guest has been Thomas Woods, a conservative scholar whose previous books include “The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History” and “Who Killed the Constitution?: The Fate of American Liberty from World War I to George W. Bush,” and whose current book “Meltdown” has inspired Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to question Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about economic fundamentals.
No, Ron Paul won’t be ignored and he isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, there is a younger more charismatic version of Ron Paul preparing to make his own mark on the American political landscape. Meet Rand Paul.
Even though Ron Paul may not run for president in 2012, we do have hope for the future since his son, Rand, has been a great speaker on his father’s campaign trail and is now considering a run for the U.S. Senate, according to the Associated Press:
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Yet another Republican is considering a run for U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning’s seat.
The latest is Rand Paul, son of U.S. Rep. and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas. He told The Associated Press on Thursday that he would consider entering the race, but only if Bunning drops out.
Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, is complimentary of Bunning and stressed that he is in no way encouraging the 77-year-old baseball icon not to run. [Continue article]
Ron Paul appeared on CSPAN’s Washington Journal this morning for a very nice 30 minute segment. Much of the first half of the interview centered on much of Paul’s own philosophy in our current economic and political climate.
The first few callers were of the (perhaps typical) “crazy sounding” variety that CSPAN tends to attract.
The final caller, one which I wish was taken first had a woman accusing Ron Paul of believing in an “absurdity” when it comes to free markets.
Paul replied with a simplistic yet profound answer:
“You are for socialism and a I am for freedom.” (paraphrased)
Indeed that one sentence sums up the current political debate in America. So, are you for socialism or are you for freedom? They are mutally exclusive. I choose freedom.
Liberty Maven
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