The Ron Paul Moment: November 5th 2007
One of the pleasures of this political season is finding myself out-radicalized. I advocate a gradual process of civil disobedience and gradual de-legitimization of the central government, with an eventual goal of freedom through peaceful secession.
Apparently there are a lot of Ron Paul supporters who want to just blow the whole thing to hell. What a pleasant surprise! I didn’t think that sort of thing was a winner, and out of practical political concerns (it being the art of the possible and all that), I advocate only those things I think possible. “Possible”, I’m finding, is a moving target in light of today’s events.
November 5th, today, is Guy Fawkes day, in commemoration of a Catholic partisan who attempted to blow up Parliament several hundred years ago. More recently, it has been associated with a cult around the movie “V for Vendetta”. This movie (which I don’t recommend watching, both for its liberal political bent and sexually deviant content- besides, the best parts of the movie are on the Ron Paul youtube mash-ups) turns Guy Fawkes day into a sort of celebration of rebellious anarchism against an abusive British government of the future.
The protagonist, at the end of the movie, sends a subway train full of explosives under Parliament and does the deed Guy Fawkes attempted to do. This movie was originally scheduled for 11/5/2001 but was too hot after 9/11 and was delayed for a later release.
Ron Paul supporters organized a “money-bomb” for this November 5th, largely inspired by the anti-government anarchist theme of the film. Today, Ron Paul raised a record amount, by far the largest amount ever raised in a single day by ANY Republican candidate, outstripping by hundreds of thousands Mitt Romney’s record of $3.1 million earlier this year. Whereas Romney was supported by fatcats, Paul has over 30,000 supporters who donated an average of $100.
Even if Paul loses the election, I can tell you from political experience that that donor list ensures the survival of his revolution. After all, it was Goldwater’s list that Richard Viguerie exploited to put Ronald Reagan in the White House.
And so I sit and think, reconsidering whether my own “political model” has been much too moderate, not radical enough.
I wonder what the Beltway people in Washington, DC must be thinking, as the largest political donation day in US history commemorates an event whose obvious parallel would be a crater where the Capitol building currently stands- there are 30,000 politically motivated people out there with money who would be most happy to see the whole thing blow up. The largest donor army in political history wants them gone. Not just a change in power, but they want the whole money-stealing fetus-aborting IRS-auditing gun-grabbing Evil Empire out of Washington eliminated.
Oh, that the late Sam Francis could have lived to see this moment: the hope of this country, his Middle American Radicals rising up, at long last, in symbolic revolt to the government.
I remember and reflect on my own initial support for Tancredo, my dismissal of Paul as too radical to win, even though I liked him. I remember my initial reaction to the Guy Fawkes Day appeal: “this is too radical, it will never work.” Wrong.
The American people rallying around him have shown the greater wisdom: for they have seen that the hour is too late for mere reform, for incrementalism. The only solution, our last chance to save the country, is radicalism. Ron Paul, as I’ve said before, doesn’t want to reform it, he wants to take it out back and kill it.
Many of my conservative friends have commented that even if Paul wins, they will kill him. There is too much at stake, and this man is too much of a threat, to allow him to become President.
This Guy Fawkes Day campaign for Ron Paul, and the implicit undercurrent of revolutionary violence it carries, should also serve as a warning to the ruling elite of this country. If we elect this man and you kill him, all bets are off. If we play by the rules and you kill him, we are no longer going to play by the rules. The whole thing will burn.
So remember this 5th of November. You may have witnessed the beginning of the third American revolution.
November 6th, 2007 at 12:38 am
It is about time! Bush Republicans and Pelosi take note. The Revolution has begun. Don’t count out a win for Ron Paul. We are just getting started!
November 6th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Amen. Great Post.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:00 am
I think it is a long way between donating $100 to a campaign, and armed rebellion. However, I believe that we are indeed living in a dying empire, and people sense it. Ron Paul only hopes to shed some of the trappings of empire, that we might live on a little longer as a whole nation.
In the end, my belief is that the era of huge nations, and huge corporations is coming to an end. With the collapse of the dollar, world war, depression, high unemployment, and a major energy crisis on the horizon, civil war is likely — probably on the same lines as the Civil War. That is, individual states, or groups of states, pulling away along cultural and racial lines.
And who knows? Can anybody say for sure that “we” are better off, having “won” the Civil War? Does any American alive feel that “he” is not part of the “we” who “won”? Did “we” really “win”? Is not a smaller, more local, government better able to serve the needs of it’s citizenry than a remote goliath, overseeing all?
In any case, with or without Ron Paul, something must give, and soon. The next decade should be very interesting.
November 6th, 2007 at 1:29 am
Wow… couldn’t have said it better. You, as a lot of Ron’s supporters are fearful for his life. He is a true patriot that is for sure, and god only knows what would happen if the worst were to happen. Let’s hope that we never have to find out!
November 6th, 2007 at 2:46 am
I absolutely loved this article. I don’t know how entrenched you are in the Ron Paul grassroots movement, but many of us absolutely view it as a revolution. We are full of passion for the Constitution and liberty and freedom, and we are willing to sacrifice our hard earned cash to put someone into power who will also uphold those same beliefs. We have also given hundreds of thousands, if not millions of voluntary man hours of promotion for Dr. Paul.
Thank you for your unbiased, dead-on accurate summation of this grassroots movement. Articles like this are what make all of our hard work worthwhile.
November 6th, 2007 at 4:19 am
great analysis. i agree there is a crapload at stake and would not be surprised at an attempt on Dr Paul’s life.
ever read about the ousting of Milosevic? great model for revolution.
November 6th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Final numbers, from Breitbart.com:
AWESOME job for the marginalized “lunatic-fringe” candidate!
November 9th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I wish I could embrace your enthusiasm for Ron Paul. As do you and others I feel the other candidates are automatons and say what they feel their audience wants to hear.
They do not speak truth but roam all over the place in their efforts to snow their listeners.
The American people are basically totally brain washed and have been cultivated to think a certain way about politics and politicians. The average American is brain dead when it comes to understanding what we have lost as a constitutional republic. If they ever knew.
Ron Paul for all his earnestness comes across as a little too flaky and too extreme. He affects me this way and I am genuinely sympathetic to him.
I do not think for one minute that he can win anything. Primary or general election.
He unfortunately has become a caricature of a politician and has been painted by the press and conservative opponents as a comic figure. There is nothing harder to overcome than demeaning ridicule.
It doesn’t matter how much money he raises he will not be able to rid himself of the image that depicts him as a certified kook who has lost touch with political reality.
Barry Goldwater presented a much better image to the general public than does Ron Paul, yet he was painted as an H-Bomb throwing nut, and it stuck. At least long enough to eliminate him from any future presidential consideration.
November 9th, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Edward, we could debate your points, but I frankly don’t see an alternative. In the futures markets (more accurate than polls), Paul is now in third place behind Giuliani and Romney:
http://www.intrade.com/jsp/intrade/common/c_cd.jsp?conDetailID=443007&z=1194115708968
If not Paul, then who?
I admit he gets a little heated in the debates, but isn’t passion, even if a bit awkward, better than the plastic men beside him? Your worries might be assuaged by his TV ads:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay4vXZWxeuU
You also have to remember that the media’s not as powerful as they used to be.
Consider this also: Bush has grown non-military federal spending by the largest percentage since LBJ. He makes Clinton look like a conservative in this light.
Would you rather a 60% chance of Hillary and a 40% chance of Giuliani, or a 70% chance of Hillary and 30% chance of Paul?
That comparison probably isn’t valid, as this guy thinks Paul is Hillary’s worst nightmare:
http://noelgibeson.townhall.com/g/07b41aa2-616f-433c-a049-b62f557fcfd0
http://www.lewrockwell.com/ostrowski/ostrowski83.html