Ron Paul: This Is Much Bigger Than The Republican Party

 

Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic took place only a few blocks from the Republican National Convention and brought a crowd of nearly ten thousand despite being publicized mostly through word of mouth and the internet.

 

For those who are not aware, Ron Paul is a ten term congressman from Texas who ran for the Republican nomination on a platform described by many as “old school” or “traditional” conservatism.  Throughout the primary season Paul maintained that his party had “lost its way,” after receiving criticism for advancing views seen by the Republican base as not in line with current views of the Republican Party.  The main example being that Paul was the only anti-war Republican.  This certainly led to some very heated exchanges on the debate stage.

 

At first, Paul was viewed as a dark horse in the Republican race.  I, myself, was at Paul’s first New Hampshire fundraiser.  It was held at a house in Bedford, New Hampshire and was attended by a little over one hundred people.  It was February, 2007 and Paul was at one or two percent in the polls.

 

I followed Paul’s campaign closely, and from February to November of 2007 I watched in amazement as Paul’s campaign defied even his own expectations.  In a column I wrote for the Pierce Arrow, Franklin Pierce University’s student run newspaper, shortly before the New Hampshire Primary in November of 2007, I summed up how far the campaign had advanced:

 

Political comedian Stephen Colbert even went so far as to flash a photograph of a monkey named ‘Binko’ on the screen during his show and announce that Binko had surpassed Ron Paul in the polls.Sorry Mr. Colbert, but according to a poll released on October 25 by Saint Anselm’s College’s Institute of Politics, Ron Paul has now risen to 7.4 Percent in the New Hampshire Republican Primary. This new poll places Paul ahead of the man that many thought would shake up the primary but so far has failed to create much fanfare, Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN).

 

 

 

Paul announced on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, in late October, that he is now number three in fundraising among the GOP candidates, raising more money than Senator John McCain last quarter. Paul’s number three fundraising position was further solidified shortly there after, when the Congressman’s campaign raised $4.2 million dollars during a one day fundraiser on November 5th. Since the fifth, Paul has raised an additional three million dollars which brings him roughly four and a half million short of his campaign’s goal of raising 12 million this quarter.

 

The campaign came to be known as the Ron Paul Revolution.  The lack of media coverage did not seem to be a problem, as his supporters seemed to be everywhere and intent on spreading their message whether those listening were receptive or not.  Other candidates complained about Paul’s supporters, and the media seemed frightened at times (Fox News commentator Sean Hannity was reportedly chased down the street and made to dodge snowballs hurled at him by Ron Paul’s fans.)  Regardless, Paul and his devoted followers pushed on and ran one of the most aggressive campaigns of the 2008 presidential primary.

 

So what happened?  Where did all of the momentum go?

 

Despite all of the donations, visible support, and unexpected public interest, Paul failed to gain the support of the majority of the Republican Party.  On June 12, 2008 Paul officially withdrew from the presidential race stating that his “resources could be better spent on improving America” because he believed that his campaign would fail.  Determined to keep his message visible, Paul announced around the same time that he was launching a new organization called Campaign for Liberty.

 

According to the Campaign for Liberty website, the organization’s goal is to “The mission of the Campaign for Liberty is to promote and defend the great American principles of individual liberty, constitutional government, sound money, free markets, and a noninterventionist foreign policy, by means of educational and political activity.”

 

One of the first actions of the Campaign for Liberty was to put together the event that took place today, the Rally for the Republic.  Most politicians and political movements often retreat into bitter obscurity after their message and goals fail to gain significant traction.  However, in the case of Congressman Ron Paul and his supporters things appear to be the total opposite.

 

As explained on the Rally for the Republic website the rally was to “be a celebration of our movement and our supporters, a launch party for the Campaign for Liberty, and a clear call to the Republican Party to return to its roots of limited government, personal responsibility, and protection of our natural rights. The event will run in conjunction with the first two days of the Republican National Convention and will feature top conservative speakers, musicians, and organizations. It will also have an organizational and training function for the Campaign for Liberty and the Freedom Movement.”

 

A celebration was what they aimed for, and a celebration was certainly what they got.  The rally ran for almost ten hours and the wide variety of speakers kept the audience of nearly 10,000 Ron Paul supporters hanging on nearly every word.  MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson performed the duty of Master of Ceremonies.  When asked if he agreed with all of Ron Paul’s views he laughed and said, “There are a bunch of issues I don’t agree with him on, but that’s the beauty of people like Ron Paul.  You don’t need to sign up to a twenty point program to be a Ron Paul fan.”

 

After a few words from Carlson, Matt Colvin stepped up on stage to sing the National Anthem.  Colvin is an active duty member of the U.S. Air Force and has served three tours in the Middle East.  The crowd rose instantaneously, placed their hands on their hearts, and joined Colvin as his chorus.

 

The first speaker was Barb Davis White.  White is running for the U.S. Congress in Minnesota’s fifth congressional district.  “I am running for Congress in the Fifth District here in Minnesota against Keith Ellison, and we’re taking the Fifth District back from liberalism, fascism, and socialism!”  The crowd cheered, White certainly knew her audience.  She ended her remarks with a prayer she had written, “Thank you, dear Heavenly Father for Dr. Ron Paul!  For his wife, for his children, and thank you for sharing him with all of us.  Thank you for his vision to take back this country for liberty, freedom, and justice for all!”

 

One by one the other speakers expressed praise for Ron Paul and shared with the crowd their knowledge of the issues so important to Paul and his followers; peace, adhering to the United States Constitution, less government intervention in the lives of Americans, abolishing the federal income tax, ending the wars in the Middle East, and abolishing the Federal Reserve System. 

 

The speakers included; chairman of the Conservative Caucus Howard Philips, author Lew Rockwell, author Bill Kaufman, presidential historian and New York Times best selling author Doug Wead, constitutional scholar and columnist Bruce Fein, former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist, the current Governor of Minnesota Gary Johnson, and former Congressman Barry Goldwater, jr.  There were also musical performances from Aimee Allen and Sarah Evans.

 

“The speaker besides Ron Paul that really stood out to me was Jesse Ventura,” said an older man in the audience sporting a Rally for the Republic t-shirt and a holding a sign that read “DUMP MCCAIN!”  Ventura spoke for close to half an hour to an obviously electrified crowd, who were so enthralled with his remarks that he had to pause from time to time to let the “Run, Jesse, Run!” chants die down.  “Let’s remember something,” said Ventura, “I am not a Democrat!  And I am not a Republican!  And I say that very proudly today because I think these two parties are destroying our country! Remember something if you will about voting.  Voting is not a horse race, voting is voting your heart and your conscience.  And when you do that, don’t ever, ever, let a Democrat or a Republican tell you you’ve wasted your vote!”

 

After an entire day of speakers one would think that Ron Paul’s supporters would be “revolutioned” out.  However, when Barry Goldwater, Jr. led the crowd into a “Ron Paul!” chant, the crowd was more energized and excited than it had seemed all day, and from the previous events one would think that a crowd could not get more energized and excited than they had been before Dr. Paul took the stage.

 

As Ron Paul took to the stage red, white, and blue confetti shot off from locations all around the auditorium and Paul stood and waved to the crowd for several minutes before the cheering died down so that he could speak.  Even after his national campaign, Paul still appeared very humbled by the affection and admiration of his supporters, “believe it or not, I still think of myself as a country doctor that has gone to Congress and I’m the quiet little Congressman from Texas,” he said, “And for thirty years I was rather quiet, but in the past eighteen months it was discovered that the ideas of liberty and the revolution was alive and well and we’re celebrating it here tonight!”

 

The crowd hung on Paul’s every word as he spoke about what had been accomplished during his campaign for President and assured his supporters not to be disappointed that they were not able to sway the Republican base back to it’s roots, ““This is much bigger than the Republican Party. . . . In a true revolution, believe me, the revolution does not occur within a single party.”

 

He added, “They asked me about what I wanted to do as President, you know, I really look at it differently.  I want to be President because of the things I don’t want to do!  I explained that 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! They said, ‘well that sounds like a weak President.’ Well, I don’t think so, I think resisting the temptation of power and we don’t need more government power!”

 

Ron Paul closed his remarks by thanking his supporters for all their hard work and reminded them that their message needs to keep growing, “I sincerely believe that our day is coming. Could you imagine from going to those twelve spammers we had in the beginning to what we have here tonight!?  In eighteen months we had a thousand percent increase in energetic freedom fighters.  What if we had a thousand percent increase with those who are with us today.  We have a large crowd here tonight, but what about the country?  We’re not talking about ten thousand, we’re not talking about a hundred thousand, we’re not talking about the million point two who voted for our campaign in the election we’re talking about millions of people in this country and around the world who have heard this message and it’s growing and it seems like even they tried they can’t stop us!

 

One thing that has been truly unique has been watching Ron Paul take his message from that small house party in New Hampshire, energize thousands of people across the country, and leave the country with a movement and message much larger than just himself.  In an off stage interview with Barry Goldwater, Jr., when asked if the Rally was a “last gasp” he said, “This is the beginning! It [the revolution] will keep moving and growing.  These kids down here have gone to school and learned about politics and how to start a home grown organization.  They’re going to go back to their home states and develop a grass root organization of attracting people to the cause.  This is only the beginning.”

-Justin Martell