Digg this story ? I’ll begin by saying that I am thoroughly disgusted with Ron Paul and the Campaign for Liberty. I don’t regret supporting them; a great deal has been accomplished. Now, they are, for lack of better words, pissing it away. For the first time I can recall, Dr. Paul has publicly endorsed statists. Vote for a statist, he says, so that we may…defeat statism?
There is a great deal of controversy today surrounding Ron Paul’s press conference, which was attended by Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and Chuck Baldwin. Bob Barr had been scheduled to attend, and then decided not to, about thirty minutes before the event. Instead, he held his own press conference.
The whole event has been chronicled over and over throughout the blogosphere, so I won’t go into any details about the personal spitting matches that have been going on for the last few days. But, I’m willing to say what almost everyone in the know knows but none of them want to say: Ron Paul broke his promise to Bob Barr.
Don Rasmussen, in a dishonest and quite frankly absurd statement distributed across the internet today claims, “I look forward to hearing him explain how breaking a promise to Congressman Paul constitutes a wise campaign strategy. ” Invoking the morality of a promise over the course of events started by a broken promise. This, ladies and gentlemen, is political rhetoric at its finest.
Here’s the truth:
Back in March of this year, Bob Barr and Ron Paul met. There were no press reports about it, but those of us who were deeply involved heard about it through the grapevine. Eric Garris, in a post at LewRockwell.com gave us a one sentence heads up.
What took place at this meeting? That was another open secret: Ron Paul offered his endorsement to Bob Barr if he would run for president. Barr launched his exploratory committee in April. While Barr was interested in running for president before that, he had more or less written the idea off (hence the draft Bob Barr effort) because he didn’t think a serious campaign was possible. This all changed when Paul offered his support in that meeting.
(Obviously, all of this is hearsay–unless Paul himself admits it, it will remain hearsay forever, but I trust my sources and what they told me is backed up by the LewRockwell.com report, today’s events, and a little bit of information about what has been going on in congress.)
On May 28th, David Weigel or Reason Magazine, mentioned Ron Paul’s current troubles in congress:
He’s worried, and rightfully so, about losing his precious banking committee seat if he hands over too much support to third party candidates who are trying to bleed the GOP.
I suspect that this sort of pressure is why Dr. Paul decided not to endorse Bob Barr.
On July 25th, the Campaign for Liberty sent out an email announcing the Rally for the Republic. In it, they said,
And the evening will afford a legendary speech by Dr. Ron Paul. This will be the most courageous moment of Dr. Paul’s career. You won’t want to miss it.
The question that was on my mind during that speech was, “when is he going to endorse Bob Barr?” I suspect that amidst all of the pre-rally/convention wrangling with the McCain camp (as reported by the Washington Post), Dr. Paul got cold feet. Or, he was made an offer he just couldn’t refuse (i.e. wanna keep your seat on the house banking committee?)
Those in the know from the Barr camp tell me that Paul kept putting off the endorsement. A huge, high-stakes game of political chess was going on behind the scenes.
I am glad that I supported the Ron Paul campaign. We made more progress in one year than I thought we would make in fifteen. Now, Ron Paul is done. He has quit. By telling his supporters that not voting, or, even worse, voting for statists, constitutes even semi-effective advocacy of liberty, he has essentially thrown away his chance to educate his numerous casual supporters who are receptive to libertarianism but are drawn, like moths to the flame, to theocratic statists like Chuck Baldwin.
Dr. Paul, you had so much going, and you’ve thrown it all away. Shame on you.
To Bob Barr: I hope that what you did proves to be prudent. You got more attention this way than you would have ever gotten standing on stage with those statists.
(By the way, Bob Barr isn’t perfect, but he is saying the right things, and introducing people to libertarianism, and that’s what needs to happen right now.)
To Don Rassmussen, who wrote that nasty hit piece: Shame on you, too! Remember the conversation you and I had at the Iowa Straw Poll? I didn’t realize how much you really meant it when you said that you are a moderate libertarian. Moderate enough to support statism! Wait…you did that in Costa Rica too, didn’t you? Why are my words so harsh? Because you know better! You are well acquainted with libertarian philosophy, and as such ought to display moral courage. Grow a pair and stand up to Dr. Paul!
One more open secret (since I’m no longer interested in keeping my mouth shut about it): Remember the racist newsletters? They were written by Lew Rockwell…one of Dr. Paul’s closest confidants. Ah, the honest Doctor!
