About Those Ron Paul People... - Granite Grok

About Those Ron Paul People…

Ron Paul

Yesterday, fellow-Grokster (and blogger-extraordinaire), Steve, put up a post called “About All That Ron Paul Business“, where he makes some good points.  Being a Ron Paul supporter myself, I figured I would provide my point of view.  After all, there are always two sides to an issue.  Not intending to start a volley, just to shed some light from the other side, here is my response…(I suggest you read his posting first).

While I agree that there are players in the Ron Paul sphere who are incorrigible (and, unfortunately, they are usually the loudest), it is unfair to generalize and say that all Paul supporters fit into this description. They do not.  You approach this issue in the very last paragraph – but it is lost under the weight of anathema. I would have provided the caveat a little earlier-on.

In fact, I would say that there are as many (maybe more) reprobates in the establishment (and Sununu is their spiritual leader), but they are in the position of advantage, while Ron Paul supporters are in a position of the minority/outsider, and have been repeatedly kicked to the curb by the establishment; acts which do not endear the Paul crowd to simply give up and cheer the winners. In fact, based on their inherent passion, it causes them to scream louder.

Please remember that this is a tug-of-war, and there is no tug, no war possible, without two teams on the field.

Romney, as the presumptive leader of the GOP, would have been wise to send gestures of conciliation to this years-old movement. Instead, ignored and insulted, their anger is justified, so they return the anger and insults, continuing their mission, looking for a movement to collaborate with.

While I don’t usually say this to people, there IS a level of “cognizance” (for the lack of a better word) acquired when you finally realize that you are a Ron Paul supporter – I experienced this. You see things in a different way. You break the emotional attachment to Party (both of which have screwed us so badly and deserve equal scathing). You no longer feel confined by it, and reject the notion of picking the lesser of 2 evils, free to pursue the issues and the person who best fits your requirements. In this state, I discovered that, deep down, I really didn’t believe in some of the principles that I had previously espoused simply because the general community did.

For example, I was always strong on national defense, to the point of being strong on national “offense” – until I acknowledged that there have been some “diplomatic” episodes in our past that have come back to bite us – not to mention the heavy appreciation for the impact our foreign relations have had on our debt. Not abandoning either side of the equation, I changed from favoring costly, sometime-foolhardy intervention, to favoring fiscal sanity.

This idealism and shedding of practical politics, however, is extremely frustrating, as inevitable party shenanigans and “anyonebutitis” surrounds you.

It is difficult to be in this position, in a country that, generally, isn’t quite ready to go there or never will.

I will agree that some Ron Paul supporters have not managed this frustration well, and they create a pungent evangelical faction that turns people off. I have personally had this discussion with a number of people, asking them to apply a more logical “pull” approach, rather than pushing. Some listen, some don’t.

There’s a lot of good in the Paul movement, and it should not be thrown out with the bathwater – specifically, that essence of political idealism – which was core in the Founding Fathers. If we balance this with the practicality of party, it could make our country better and stronger. I wish Mitt Romney had decided to take that first step, but he didn’t.

Note: The GOP platform has some new additions to it lately (below), mostly as a result of the Ron Paul and Tea Party movements.  How well a Mitt Romney Presidency aligns with and adheres to these, remains to be seen.  According to RNC Chairman, Reince Priebus, “it is the platform of the Republican Party; it is not the platform of Mitt Romney.”

  • Audit the Federal Reserve
  • Internet freedom
  • War only under a Congressional declaration
  • Support for a gold commission
  • Fighting back against domestic drones
  • Reject Agenda21


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