So went a Salon.com article on the Ron Paul Revolution in early
December. Those of us who have seen Dr. Paul speak on multiple
occasions – and at this point I'd guess that's most of
us – recognize the bit as a standard component of his
stump speech and one of the most integral, not just to the speech
but to the campaign, to the man, to the movement.
Today, The Revolution is at a crossroads. Our own spinning
giddiness has to meet the road of reality. Ron Paul is not going
to win the Republican nomination. Ron Paul is, more than likely,
never going to be President. Frankly, Ron Paul has never had
much of a chance to do either, as most of us probably recognized
from the very beginning.
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These are not somber facts, or ones we should apologize for;
the deck has been so handedly stacked against us that no one
campaign was ever going to be enough. But our saving grace,
our common thread, our guiding purpose, is that neither of those
goals are, or have ever been, the point at all.
The point, all along, has been the realization that we –
we – are out there.
And that we can still create American revolutions.
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There is a heated debate going on right now about what Ron
Paul should do with his Presidential campaign. Some suggest
he ought to run on the Libertarian ticket. Others urge him to
stay Republican and end his run at the convention. Still others
say he should run independent or on some as-yet-unnamed third-party
ticket and keep this thing going until November. A few say he
should drop out now and concentrate on his own re-election.
All of these suggestions are interesting, and have merit, and
are worth debating. But the truth is Dr. Paul will surely make
his own mind up as to what path is right for him, and the movement
that his singular courage and integrity has spawned.
The question we need to be asking is what we ought to be doing.
The answer is something that is not mutually exclusive with
any of the options that Dr. Paul has open to him.
What we ought to be doing is beginning to build up, and elect,
more Ron Pauls. To begin electing our own candidates –
Revolution candidates – to the House and the Senate.
The task is both enormously difficult and stupidly simple.
Difficult in that it requires Dr. Paul's leadership. Nobody
is going to agree 100% with any candidate, and everybody will
have qualms with anybody put forward. There is not going to
be another Ron Paul. But we need to begin putting single-issue
differences aside and start pushing forward candidates who advance
the cause that Dr. Paul has led us in championing. These candidates
will vary from district to district, from state to state, from
party to party, but if they're willing to stand with Dr. Paul
in Congress, and if Dr. Paul is willing to endorse them, then
we ought to be willing to put aside our own partisan tics and
ideological crib-sheets and start working towards something
that, taken as a whole, can make a real difference. Republican,
Libertarian, Democrat, it doesn't matter. If they're willing
to sign on with The Revolution, than all of us should be prepared
to sign on with them.
How this is managed, of course, remains to be worked out. It
might be a good idea, in the beginning, for Dr. Paul to found
and personally staff his own PAC – something similar to
the Republican Liberty Caucus (if not that exactly) –
and seek out and personally put his stamp of approval on candidates
as he sees fit. We should keep our Meetups, our organizations,
our connections, and begin to orient them towards identifying
and supporting candidates all across the country. It is not
enough to be satisfied with playing the role of mere critic.
We need to begin the machinations necessary to advance our own
agenda. It is not enough to sit back and sound off from the
comfort of the sidelines. We need to actively get in the game.
The fight starts, of course, with Ron Paul himself. Let's all,
hand-in-hand with his constituents, make sure that he retains
his House seat for as long as he seeks it. Call it a "first
order of business."
But beyond that the candidates, already, are out there. Readers
of this site know well Murray Sabrin, who is running for Senate
in New Jersey. He represents the first Senate candidate endorsed
by Dr. Paul. His campaign, like all of ours will be, is an uphill
climb, but there are already efforts underway to help him on
his course. A money bomb has been scheduled for February 29th,
aptly called Scholar For Freedom. A Senator Sabrin, needless
to say, would be an incredible step forward for The Revolution.
Likewise in The House – and perhaps less well known –
is Jim Forsythe, running for Congress in New Hampshire, also
endorsed by Dr. Paul. Anybody who worked in New Hampshire knows
Jim well; I'd go so far as to say that nobody in The Revolution
has worked harder for Dr. Paul than Jim Forsythe. A PhD in Aerospace
Engineering, a successful business owner, a veteran Air Force
pilot who flew tours in Bosnia, Iraq, and Somalia (and a founder
of the Military for Ron Paul Meetup), Jim is running for Congress
as a Ron Paul Republican, and his too is an uphill battle. A
money bomb has been organized to support him also, Fly To Liberty,
scheduled for the 21st.
Put both of those dates on your calendar now.
Those are just the two endorsed by Ron Paul. There are already
many more of us stepping up to the plate, even this year, to
take the Revolution to its next phase. Foot soldiers in the
Revolution all over the country are coming forward, running
for delegate, state houses, and larger races. It was never going
to be enough to push Dr. Paul to a great showing (and, despite
what the hand-wringers or mainstream analysts might say, Dr.
Paul's run has already been extraordinary, re-writing the book
of what is possible for strict constitutionalists and libertarian
candidates working within the major parties). Dr. Paul has proved
that liberty candidates can raise money. That there is a veritable
army out there willing to fight for the cause. He was at his
most competitive among the young, among the independents, among
new voters. Most importantly, he has shown that what's necessary
to succeed in these ways is to create the networks, to bring
us together, and to channel us. That is a role he can retain
long past this election.
These current candidates – Jim and Murray and the myriad
of others – are just the opening salvo in what could be
a true Revolution.
Here's what's key: all of these races will be tough slogs.
As we've discovered with Dr. Paul, resistance to liberty, to
the constitution, to free markets, to peace, runs strong.
But even if we lose, if we fight, we win.
As Dr. Paul has shown, to win a single campaign is not always
the end-all-be-all. The first order of business is to draw the
forces of freedom out, to advertise that there is still a place
for them in the political landscape, to bring our voices to
the national conversation, and to use those voices to persuade.
This has been phenomenally true of Dr. Paul's campaign; indeed
it has been the central truth of it – all of us, I expect,
have had the experience of attending a Ron Paul event and being
amazed at how many and how varied we were, after years of us
all, individually, feeling alienated and lost in the dark in
the realm of contemporary politics. And the experience of marveling,
in spite of ourselves, at how powerful the message truly is.
But it's even more true for other campaigns. Congressional
candidates who lose, but who show an ability to raise money
and to viably compete, gain respect and a place at the table,
for themselves and their ideas. Most people who lose congressional
campaigns but lose well are put on a bench for the party, and
the next time they run, they find more support than they might
have otherwise expected. The more we run Ron Paul candidates,
the more we begin to remake the respective parties from within.
And the more we win, the more we begin to reshape Congress,
and the national paradigm with it.
Imagine if, upon Ron Paul's retirement (many years from now,
we hope), he is no longer Dr. No, a single voice in a choir
of statists. But if he is instead the elder statesman of a small
but powerful and vociferous caucus: 20, 30, 50 Ron Paul congressmen
at his side, a contingent in the Senate as well. To get there
requires that all of us stay active, continue pressing our advantage,
but it is possible.
I said it would be stupidly simple as well.
It would take Ron Paul another 10–20 million dollars
to be reasonably competitive in this Presidential race. All
of us would be willing to front that money to him in a heartbeat
should he so ask it of us.
But a million dollars makes a candidate for the Senate instantly
competitive. A half a million dollars vaults anybody into viability
for a House seat. The need is different for every district and
state, but the point is that 10–20 million, dispersed
to candidacies every two years for a variety of seats, can,
in short time, go a long, long way.
There are many candidates out there deserving of our efforts
who will otherwise never be a blip on the radar for the major
parties – which means we will never be a blip on their
radars. If we begin to show a select group of them even half
of the time, effort, money, and creativity we've shown for Dr.
Paul, we can change America.
This is already beginning. Sites like Liberty Congress.org
and Paul Congress.com have begun to spring up, and projects
like the Liberty War Chest have followed. But to truly succeed
at turning our movement's focus, we need to all begin pivoting
towards these and related endeavors, we need to work as hard
as we have for the Presidential race, and we may well need the
leadership of Dr. Paul himself to do so.
It is time to move from this run for President to this run
for liberty.
It is time to begin thinking beyond one campaign, and to start
thinking about where we – again, we – go from here.
To go from one campaign to many.
Because it was never about the Ron Paul campaign.
It was always about the Ron Paul movement.
And The Revolution starts now.
