Several years ago I had become a regular viewer of C-Span’s Washington Journal broadcast early in the morning. I enjoyed the objective and scaled down format, introducing a few guests on a few particular issues, with the host offering minimal commentary and leaving most of the time to fielding phone calls from the public which the guest would have a chance to respond. Every once in a while a sitting member of congress would appear as a guest on the show, and engage in a dialogue with the viewing audience, so to speak. I would usually take note of the members that I found were on point with my own personal views, and made a mental note to look out for later mention of them on particular issues, news, or legislation. One of the members whose name I jotted down was Representative Ron Paul of Texas.
For a while now I’ve been following the Ron Paul movement or “revolution”, that was initially sparked by his once improbable presidential campaign. Over the past year there have been several strong showings in the primary debates and record breaking internet money bombs. Despite not winning any primaries or caucuses outright, he placed strong 2nd in a few states and always managed to sneak in the discussion, although it was mostly online, on blogs and on youtube postings. The mainstream media really seemed to want to keep their distance. On so many different levels he seemed to be speaking the unpopular, non-conventional points of view, which if you took the time to think about them, and then actually do some independent research, you would probably come to the realization that he was consistently speaking the truth, or at least raising very important issues and just asking questions that go to the heart of our nation’s future.
The appeal of this new political movement, or whatever exactly is taking form now, really points to the principle of liberty that throughout history has resonated in the American persona and collective strength of the nation. In part this includes the right to self-determination and ability to live your life the way you want to, with the only limit on when your actions infringe on the liberties of another. This is a message that is seen across all segments of the political spectrum, liberal, conservative, right, left, moderate, radical, and across all political parties. But maybe most importantly, this message of liberty is what Ron Paul pushed to the forefront of the debate is so universal that it has the potential to carry on well after he is gone out of the political landscape. The liberty message is something that resonates quite a deal in me, it always has, just this past year has been a sort of awakening of sorts to how much of a role this very old concept plays out, perhaps more importantly today than every before in the country’s history. In considering the concept of liberty, it is important to consider that in recent years talking about liberty has been branded “out of touch” with the mainstream political parties, almost like how “liberal” became a bad word.
The other messages that I hear resonating from the campaign trail now that the nominees have been determined has been “Change” and “Yes we Can” “Security” and more recently, “Country First” – both of which may sound on the surface, or on a big banner being waived at a convention hall, but when dig deeper they end up being empty. Change is a good thing, but only if what is coming along is an improvement from the status quo. Optimism and self-confidence is also a positive message, but only if it is rooted in reality that we posses the ability and to actually evoke real change. Security of a nation is a good thing, but it should be rooted in on objective intelligence on real, credible threats, and should never be pursued at the expense of liberty.
The campaign itself came to an end with a counter rally in Minneapolis, across the river from the RNC was being held last week. The stated purpose of the rally was to first to celebrate all of the support from his 2008 presidential campaign, and to officially kick off his new Campaign for Liberty. Despite fielding a pretty impressive audience both in person (18,000 in person) and online (84,000 via the internet worldwide), both him and his supporters continue to be ridiculed in the mainstream media being out of touch, or holding radical ideas, despite the fact that just about every one of his ideas and issues that he raised during the debates which were labeled as extreme have been vindicated more or less by the current events around us. The ongoing conflicts in the middle east, continued attacks to civil liberties, personal privacy and private property, ballooning federal budgets and deficits, inflationary monetary policy, and the ongoing turmoil on the financial and housing markets coinciding with unprecedented corporate bailouts by the government – all of these should raise the possibility that he was sounding the alarm bell for a long time, and the American people were distracted by fancy slogans and party affiliations to notice.
There is supposed to be an announcement this morning to be made, apparently with some of the minor party candidates appearing as well. Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney, Bob Barr, all with a lot of speculation to what exactly it is, or means.