Politics and I: The 2008 Elections

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So, politics and I sort of always had this understanding.  I didn’t bother it and it didn’t bother me.  I was a registered Independent.  Though, to be honest, being a registered independent is akin throwing away your party affiliation in my state as all primaries are closed anyways.  So, I changed my affiliation to Republican as, in my county it was beneficial, and I figured I needed to have my say I n the primaries, even if I wanted to vote third party in the general election.  That was, however, until I was introduced to Texas Congressman Ron Paul.  One must understand that I did not know my political affiliations.  For someone, the average Fox News or MSNBC viewer let’s say, to be introduced to Ron Paul is no easy task. 

It seems to me that to mention in the MSM [main stream media] Ron Paul is verboten.  One ‘classic’ example is the South Carolina debate.  I will avoid the argument that his questions were tougher or the prescreening of the audience, as people have written extensively on that subject.  I will simply state that pundits like Pat Buchannan were ‘shocked’ to see that Ron Paul had performed as well as he did.  Their litmus test seemed to be a text message poll, which Ron Paul beat his opponents handily.  There are two polls which I’ll use to prove my point.  In the MSNBC poll, Paul received 48% of the total votes, whereas the second place contender lagged behind by some 30 points [only receiving 18%].  This trend is continued in the ABC News poll.  Ron Paul received some 18,000 votes. 

Shockingly, no other Republican candidate received more votes than ‘It doesn’t matter who won, I wouldn’t put America in another Republican’s hands’.  After the ‘I don’t care’ category, the next closest candidate is Mitt Romney, with 265 votes.
Having seen that it is difficult for the typical MSM viewer to be exposed to Ron Paul, let’s fast-forward to September 2nd, 2008.  Ron Paul was excluded from the Republican National Convention.  Despite his performance in the primaries, receiving 16% in my home state of Pennsylvania, he was not offered a speaking role.  Though, in the RNC’s defense, they could have offered one only to have it turned down in favor of what Ron Paul had planned, the Rally for the Republic.

Ron Paul gathered together popular libertarians, such as Tucker Carlson and Lew Rockwell, to discuss the state of the republic.  The so-called ‘shadow convention’ took place a scant 7-miles from the Republican variant. At the convention, Ron Paul’s political baby came to term.  His idea, the Campaign for Liberty, strives to educate the populace and save the Republic.  Ron Paul’s and the wider libertarian political philosophy were put on display.  I will not, exhaustingly, go over Ron Paul’s political positions [view them here].  Nevertheless, having performed the Rally for the Republic, Ron Paul saved his coup-de grace for September 10th, 2008 when he deployed his ‘special announcement’.

At his press conference, he claimed that some 60% of voters are dissatisfied with their political party.  Furthermore, Ron Paul claimed that, to save the political process and the country at large, one must vote for a third-party candidate.  Though, which candidate he remained vague.  One would think that the libertarian candidate, Bob Barr, would be a great choice for Ron Paul supporters.  Unfortunately, Bob Barr was consciously absent from the press conference [whereas the three other third party candidates, Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader and Chuck Baldwin appeared].  To me, this prompts the question; Ron Paul is a Republican, why is he telling others to vote against his party? 

Could it be that he is often alone in his party?  In spending bills the vote is often 434-1.  The singular dissenting nay vote comes from Ron Paul himself.  For this, Ron Paul has garnered the name Dr. No.  This is a play on his is profession as a doctor and his opposition to spending bills.  Though, things are all gloom and doom.  There is now, as we speak, a rise in aptly named ‘Ron Paul Republicans’ being elected at all levels of government. These politicians espouse the libertarian tenants of smaller government, lower taxes, private property, and at the national level—a non-interventionalist foreign policy. 

So, what can you as the average voter do?  You can support liberation candidates at all levels.  Our country is in trouble and we, as citizens, can no longer stand on the sidelines and let partisan politics destroy our country.  So maybe, Ron Paul’s advice is prophetic—vote for a third party.  At first it will be hard; taking a country back to its roots is never easy.  At times, it will feel like you are pushing against a glacier. To be frank, Ron Paul is the only politician I ever gave money to; I donated $1.00 to his campaign for liberty just two weeks ago.  To me, that’s $1.00 towards changing the country.