Republicanism Versus Conservatism, Minnesota Style
While the GOP parodies conservative principles at the Republican National Convention, the few conservatives with a clue have convened just miles away to rally for what used to be stalwarts of Republicanism: tiny, decentralized government, anti-interventionism, the gold standard, fiscal frugality, death to taxes, and a live-and-let-live paradigm.
Regarded as “renegades,” these several thousand Ron Paul supporters are not the revolutionists they’re heralded to be. Indeed, that they are held up as visionaries underscores just how far off course the Republican Party has veered.
Their political philosophy is not a new one - it’s just been so long since Republicans adhered to it that the old again seems new.
Poignantly and paradoxically, former presidential contender Paul spoke not about what he wanted to do as president, but what he didn’t want to do.
“I did not want to run people’s lives. I did not want to run the economy and I did not want to run the world. I didn’t have the authority to do it, and I didn’t have the Constitution behind me to do it.”
Those aren’t the words of a mighty man - that quality that we’re told is so important in politics - but the words of a man of might.
Paul knows his role, a phrase and a notion understood by Jesse Ventura, former Minnesota governor and one-time WWF wrestler, who also spoke at the Rally for the Republic.
“It is time for us to take our country back, and to make these elected people start looking at that document called the Constitution. What can our country possibly be without the very document that holds all of it together. Today, the Democrats and Republicans could give a damn less about the Constitution. They violate it all the time.”
Word.
That’s, in essence, what the Ron Paul movement is all about: Knowing our role, as defined by the Constitution, and not coloring outside the lines of that. Those who have difficulty with that concept are nominally American, swapping liberty for liturgy and pretending that there’s no difference.
Comments
By 9/11 Truthers Meet in Minn. on September 4th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
The Ron Paul meeting is just a front for these 9/11 Truthers. Give me a break.
Real conservatives?
Ron Paul sought and obtained millions of dollars in pork for his home district over the decades. He fought for the earmarks, then voted “no” on the budget, so ignorant boobs like you would parrot his talking point: “I’ve never voted for a single earmark.”
These guys are prideful, and they will be the death of the conservative movement.
If Bob Barr does like Ross Perot did and hand this election to the liberals, they will make the Supreme Court uber-liberal for a whole generation to come.
But be proud Mandy! Be proud that the libertarians are going to hand Obama the White House! Be proud that the unborn will be sentenced to another generation of the knife and vacuum! Go Ron Paul! Great work! Screw the unborn!
By RepublicanGoneAmuck on September 4th, 2008 at 7:17 pm
I’d vote for Ron Paul in a N-E-W Y-O-R-K minute.
Replace Bushie with McCain-o here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kTctirEPns&feature=related
By Chris on September 4th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Holy cow. Something like this at FITS? I tried to convert Will when he was busy bashing RP a few months ago to no avail. Maybe you’ll have better luck, Mande!
By Tim on September 5th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
So this is the confession that Will was with us all along… It doesn’t take much to have figured him out. I knew it, but the neocons won the image war.
What about the others? I blame everyone who supported Huckabee and Fred Thompson. Fred was the most obvious decoy and hitman, throwing the primaries to McCain. Huckabee is left-of-McCain and an utter sham. Imagine if Huck’s 30% and Fred’s 15% in our SC primary had gone to the only actual conservative in the race. It was pretty lonely being the only Quinn employee to resign over this.
By dan on September 5th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Ron Paul is a nutcase. His followers wear tin foil hats. They are all looney bins. This is all I hear about him.
However if you stop listening to what the media regurgitates and start looking at the source of the information, people will come to the same conclusion as this author.
History is on Ron Paul’s side and that is why the movement will never die. Your not supposed to listen to Ron Paul or his supporters and automatically believe what they say, the purpose of spreading the message is to raise people’s consciousness and awareness and make them genuinely interested. A democracy is pointless if the population is uninformed.
By Ron Paul is a true statesman on September 5th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
The fact that Ron Paul was not allowed to even speak at the pseudo- Republican convention - when he got more primary votes than 9/11 Rudy or Sleeping Fred - speaks volumes. No McCain Republican(did u know McCain was a POW?) has a plan or a desire for balancing our budget - or for stopping our needless wars or spying on our citizens .
If you listen to Faux news or read or listen to the neo-cons you need to wake up and expel their propaganda. The pseudo-Republicans are a dying breed.
Long live the Ron Paul Revolution- Read Dr. Paul’s book -The Manifesto - and gain a true understanding of our Constitution and what conservatism is really all about.
By Libertarians are reason for Republicans losing? on September 5th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
#1 I love the absurdity of someone blaming Nader for Bush winning in Florida or for Bob Barr costing McCain the election this fall. This argument is for the folks who do not want to take responsibility for their party’s numerous shortfalls.
I have a right as a citizen to vote for the person who I think will make the best President - I do not support the current two party system - which has only one more party than the Communist countries.
When(not if) McCain gets thumped by Obama, it will not be because I and hundreds of thousands others voted for Barr or another third party candidate- it will be because McCain is a very poor choice for President.
By Robert on September 5th, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Good article.
I’m always amazed at the idea that those who fail to vote for one of the two major parties are “stealing” votes. This is representative of a very warped mentality. To “steal” something is to take what rightfully belongs to another. Neither Obama nor McCain is automatically entitled to my vote. My vote belongs to me and to whomever I choose to give it.
I used to vote for the lesser of the available evils, but, in recent years, the lesser evil has become so evil that I can no longer condone that methodology.
The only way we’re going to achieve any meaningful change is if we begin to support better candidates for office, and we can’t do that if we continue throwing our votes to the establishment. Change for the better won’t happen overnight. It will take a couple of elections to make third parties more serious contenders, but we didn’t get in this current mess we’re in overnight, either. It’s unrealistic to think that it can be fixed in a single election. But the more of us who withdraw our support from the system, the more viable third parties will seem to others would like to go third party but are hung up on the “lesser of two evils” mentality. At the very least, growing support for third parties could cause the Republicans and Democrats to change. They would have to, or else they’d be faced with their own inevitable extinction.
Come November, the blame for whichever evil takes the White House will rest solely on the shoulders of those who voted for him. As for me, I plan to vote for Bob Barr: http://www.bobbarr2008.com. If the Republicans want my vote back, they’re going to have to shape up. In particular, they’re going to have to give up their interventionist foreign policy, their police-state measures, and their continued devaluation of our dollar.
By Timothy Moultrie , SC on September 5th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
The Republican Party had the opportunity to claim a leadership role in restoring this nation. They threw that opportunity away when they vilified Dr. Ron Paul. The torch has now passed to Bob Barr http://www.bobbarr2008.com
By Cooter Brown on September 5th, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Hells bells, y’all!
If’n you all dont know dat there ain’t but two parties, ‘publican & sinner, den ye ain’t been a payin’ attention since dat partie invaded dis lan’ and his demons burn’d down my pappy house in C’lumia.
Dat Doktor Paul, hes a true an Amerikan as I seen in my day.
If’n ye embrace da ‘publicans, God help ye, ye git whatcha deserve. If’n ye embrace da sinners, dem dema-crats er what-ever in de wirld day call demselves, ye ar’ a fool fer sure.
Slaves and sheep, trin’ to belive in a dad-burn lie ’cause ye gots no testi-clues!
Jimminy dam cricket! Ye halves to fen fer yeself in dis life! Shame on ye all fer lettin’ a perty lil’ ladie from da frozen tundra make ye believe da good is evil an’ evil is good.
Screw ‘em I say. I’d vot fer dat Doktor Paul whose belivin’ in libertie and da principles on witch my fathers fought an’ dyed– not some shuch ‘n jive bull shinola Arizonea carpet baggin’, Lincoln-lovin ,big govment, one wirld wanna be emperor.
The youngins te-dat– I swanie!
I loves da truth– hit make ye free (so sets da good book).
If’n deres a rev-eh-luton on de horizon, bring hiton. Weeze way pas’ due!
Go Doktor! Der’s still a few uf us left who loves libertie and freedom!
Hell wit d ‘publicans! Hell wit da sinners! Viva da dam rev-eh-luton!
By HP on September 5th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Ron Paul will have news next week:
[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] < cartwheels
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/
…………………………………..
I’m trying to warm up to Bob Barr. But he looks kinda funny. I’m not sure I could pull the lever.
By Nick on September 5th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Ventura got uncomfortably close to 9/11 conspiracy stuff for me….but that shouldn’t soil the whole deal…RP is intellectually genuine and has dismissed those conspiracy theories outright before, unlike most of the R-hacks in the party now.
By the way, is it important that the votes be recorded accurately during the electoral process? Google RP and electoral votes and witness what the R insiders did to the electors who tried to cast their vote for him at the convention….turning off mics…trying to confiscate passes…etc
Good thing we are “bringing democracy” to the rest of the world.
It’s a bit ironic that the first commenter blames RP for “handing Obama the White house” decrying what will continue to happened to the unborn…yet he/she/it shows no remorse about sending our young people off to die in deserts. So are babies more valuable then 18 and 19 year olds? Are our babies more valuable than Iraqi babies?
Oh the hypocrisy….
By Dean on September 6th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
So now it’s Bob Barr’s turn at bat, isn’t it? The Libertarians finally put up someone who is actually qualified to be president, he’s going to get millions of votes, which is a whole new level for the ‘tarians, and sends the biggest message in my lifetime (and I’m not a spring chicken) that we’re tired of Dems and Pubs dishing up the same old crap all the time, and just packaging it in different wrappers!