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Alabama loves Ron Paul
The truth is always somewhere in between. So goes convention wisdom. Even if that were true, Dr. Paul would still be in the high 40’s. My guess is that Ron Paul will absolutely win the New Hampshire Republican Primary with a plurality of the votes. He will pull what Pat Buchanan pulled in 1996.
Will Ron Paul become President? I sure hope so. Not to sound pessimistic but let us take a lesson from both Buchanan and Ross Perot. In the event Dr. Paul does not become President Paul, the Ronvolution needs to continue to educate the American people on the subject of liberty. Perot’s United We Stand America and later the Reform Party were never able to SUSTAIN Perot’s initial surge. Likewise subsequent Buchanan organizations never were able to SUSTAIN the victory in New Hampshire they had back in 1996.
The real trick will be build a credible faction that can allow other liberty loving citizens to run and win elected office regardless of whether Dr. Paul becomes President Paul. This is an opportunity to eclipse the negligible numbers found in the Libertarian Party.
No, I do NOT speak of a third party or more popular version of the Libertarian Party. Many months before his untimely death I had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Harry Browne who I consider to be an intellectual mentor and I asked Mr. Browne who railed against participation in the political process why he had decided to run for President in the Year 2000?
His response was rather obvious. It was essentially “issue advocacy.” In fact, I myself came to learn about libertarianism in large part due to his Presidential campaign. I can’t imagine how many thousands if not tens of thousands of minds are learning about freedom issues as a result of Ron Paul’s Presidential run. The great megaphone that Dr. Paul has is the fact he is in Congress and is running as a REPUBLICAN. Likewise, if he were running as a DEMOCRAT, his reach would be far greater than if he were the Libertarian Party nominee in 2008, remember he ran under the LP banner in 1988.
Like it or not we have a two-party system. The best the Libertarian Party could do is to give their nomination to Dr. Paul, ditto the Constitution Party and other non-Socialist third parties. This time we all need to drop the egos and the cults of personality that doom many of these third parties to a juvenile existence.
A word of caution. There will be schisms and fights. All patriot movements have ideological and procedural battles that escalate into splits. Everyone wants their own little fiefdom. Where is Ross Perot’s Reform Party now? Even the Libertarian and Constitution Parties have had tectonic tumultuous tirades that have pitted members against members.
To paraphrase the late great Harry Browne: “while I might not agree entirely with what someone is doing, I won’t stick my foot out to trip them if they are moving in the same direction as me!” This is precisely the attitude we need to embrace. While I may personally NOT favor a flat tax or pro-choice platform, I will NOT disregard someone that shares those beliefs if they want to move toward SMALLER government. Once we reach that phase where the “power to abuse” has been diminished then we can debate about just how small government should be.
The word of advice is to lay the foundation for a permanent coalition in favor of smaller government, regardless the outcome of the 2008 Presidential elections.
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