PaulJohnson2012 Mission Statement.
The Early Hours of September 3rd, 2012.
This site is dedicated to a Paul-Johnson or Johnson-Paul ticket for the 2012 presidential race. There is no intent to disenfranchise voters or campaign contributors, pressure candidates or staffers, or anger the grassroots or the electorate. There is only the desire to create a winning ticket by asking Gary Johnson, Jim Gray, and/or the Libertarian Party to make accommodations to the Ron Paul camp. This does not mean anyone should blackmail or belittle or berate the Gary Johnson team, but simply that we should ask them to weigh the requests and arguments and decide, voluntarily for themselves to potentially forgo one or both of their chances of becoming the president or vice president, for the sake of the cause. For those Libertarian Party members out there who find this idea reprehensible, I respect their rights, but I question their reasoning. I am certainly not for winning at all costs under any circumstances, but I am for asking all the candidates and officials in question to consider the merits of proposals such as what will be posted and promoted on this blog. Namely that the Libertarian Party make room for Ron Paul.
First, and hardest of all to accomplish would be having both Gary Johnson and Jim Gray step down so that Ron Paul can be placed at the top of the ticket and Gary Johnson at the bottom. Secondly, perhaps easier but still likely to elicit an initial backlash if not permanently damaged relationships between lovers of Liberty would be to have Jim Gray step down so that Ron Paul can take his place at the bottom of the ticket. And thirdly, would be to have Gary Johnson and/or Jim Gray and/or the Libertarian Party promise to appoint Ron Paul to a cabinet level position. There may be the chance that they plan on doing this anyway, but were they to make the promise, and to contact Ron Paul directly about it, before the November election, preferably soon, it could boost their polling numbers, their campaign contributions, and their voter turnout by a considerable margin. Enough to get media attention. Enough to make it into the debates. Enough to compete. Enough to win.
There will always be those die hard Ron Paul supporters, some of whom like Gary Johnson, and some of whom just don’t trust him, that do not plan on voting for Gary Johnson for a variety of reasons. This is their right. All men should be free to vote their conscience. Ridiculing them for this serves no purpose but to alienate you from them and them from you. How does this promote the cause of Liberty? But the numbers of such stubborn people would decrease considerably were they to be given some reassurances. These might include acquiescence to one of the aforementioned proposals, an endorsement of Gary Johnson by Ron Paul, or Gary Johnson convincing people of how much he and Ron Paul have in common, in spite of Gary Johnson’s perceived, though relative, ignorance or halfheartedness on so many issues ranging from the Natural Law to Economics to the Constitution to Foreign Policy to the War on Drugs.
If all of this could only come about at greater cost to the Liberty movement than benefit, the very idea should be cast aside lest a schism rends all that we have fought for asunder. Such rifts only occur for ideological reasons, and even then rarely. They should not be found to arise between former comrades who merely disagree on a few items of strategy.
I would appreciate any and all feedback, great or small, positive or negative. Please note that none of these things are originally my idea. I simply felt compelled by recent events (namely the Evan Alaska Conference Calls, one the night of September 2nd, and another on the night of September 6th, as well as rumors on the DailyPaul that gained traction after the Convention and particularly with the news of Ron Paul’s September 4th appearance on Jay Leno) and the hard work of others to become a part of this. For the record, I am a Ron Paul supporter who likes Gary Johnson but remains wary of him. I don’t even know that I could vote for him without some of the above requests being granted.
PaulJohnson2012 
I felt like that initially. I joined my local libertarian Meetup.com list a few weeks before the real “Ron Paul isn’t even electable” reality sunk in. I decided just to vote Gary because… well… he’s *really* close to the R3volution mission, if not it’s champion (I post a lot of his transcripts and summaries at my site, iamrising.com) The trick is just getting over the Ron Paul let down, and accepting that my love was accidentally placed into the man rather than the message. Once I realized the message was sort of a torch pass between champions, I was able to see the light in Gary Johnson. I look forward to more posts from you 🙂 Overout! April
April,
Thank you for stopping by with your input. That is what this site is about. I want to engender a discussion about all things Paul-Johnson-2012 so that we can all know all the possibilities. If the very thing I am promoting does not come to fruition, it is probably because it is not viable. The LP, Paul’s base, Paul, Johnson, and Gray all need to come to their own decisions. If they decide against this, then either JohnsonGray works best for them or Paul just no longer has the stomach for politics (though I hear VP is a fairly cushy gig). In either case I immensely respect those decisions. AT this point I am testing the water, getting the word out, maybe even moving things along. Hopefully in the next few days (particularly with Thursday evenings Evan Alaska conference call) the best alternative(s) will be known, be it leaving things as they are, a minor change, or a major change. Supposedly the National LP is polling the state LP to get their take on a JohnsonPaul ticket. There are some receptive to the idea, though no word from either Johnson or Gray to my knowledge. Paul has spoken to Evan Cutler on the phone about it but remains uncertain. I checked out your site (again) earlier today (technically yesterday) because I am considering reblogging some things. After having read them, and with your permission of course. Until then, Good night and keep the home fires burning for Liberty.
I’m not sure I’d be a good source to reblog in full, my posts are all written in character, pulled out of the context of the sum total they’d be an awkward experience. But if you want to just cut and paste the more universal parts (should you find any!) into a new post and link back to the original I’ll totally take your ping 🙂 Expect pings from me too! Yours is one of the perspectives I’ve been generally paying attention to the past couple days, you’re voicing something I suspect most of the Ron Paul movement is currently experiencing – a sort of headless mass hysteria right? 🙂
Indeed. I have no idea where any of this is heading. I will take your advice on reblogging. I did notice that about your stuff. It is fun to read though.
Depending on what happens in the next few days I will either be shutting this blog down (maybe with the occasional idea or thought between now and November 6) or shifting things into high gear.
Pingback: PaulJohnson2012 Mission Statement | PaulJohnson2012