Wise counsel.
I wanted to just say a couple words about the statement that a frustrated caller supporting Gary Johnson and Jim Gray made during the call-in…
The caller voice his dissent about what’s being suggested and I do understand they did so with good reasons as they strongly support their candidates. Would anyone be happy about a case in which the roles were reversed? Not really, right? For anyone who answered they would’t mind, you’re either not human or you’re lying to yourself… so I do hope you fall in the first category which although will reveal to us that you are an alien, it will carry the benefit to reveal you are no liar ;D
Anyone supporting Gary Jonson and Judge Jim Gray may not cringe (It’s Ron Paul not Mitt Romney or Obama we’re talking about!), but still won’t like the possibility of them being open to letting Ron Paul step in, which would mean both Johnson and Gray would step aside and re-enter in different roles (no doubts they will!). I believe that the libertarians have every right to be upset and I share their frustration… I know that they would also be very upset if what we are suggesting will take place with the blessing of Johnson and Gray, no doubt on that either.
Then again I believe libertarians are smart and do cherish liberty even when it brings about hard choices, at times very thought to cope with, but such is liberty. Is the most beautiful thing humans have, yet again it isn’t the easiest to accomplish and maintain… it may sound like an simple thing, but the moment we start to look closely liberty is constantly kept under attack and stripped from us in multiple ways ranging from outrageously evident to cunningly subtly and concealed.
I don’t think that to be the case with the Paul supporters asking Dr. Paul to ask the candidates running in the libertarian ticket if they would have him run instead… libertarians should not think that’s something that Paul supporters are looking to impose on them. It’s about having a strategy to gain momentum by coming together using the strongest candidate available that has the very same ticket and a huge amount of followers so that united we can get a fighting chance and add momentum to the party as a whole… why waste the huge critical mass that Ron Paul as built in the past 8 years especially when Johnson would be the first to say Ron Paul awakened him and changed his life!
I believe that those who support Johnson/Gray ticket, do support the ideals which they stand for and for which they have pledged to be truthful and honest representative of the voice of the people who gave them trust and support.
That said Johnson has made it very clear why he’s running and that he support Ron Paul completely. As himself states in the 1st video featured on his campaign site that you can watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xrU6hTWyj6s
For that and more videos: http://www.garyjohnson2012.com/
Now I also support Johnson as the alternative to Dr. Paul should he not be an option in November, so libertarians should feel no sport-match rivalry here. I believe that Johnson if elected president may be able to pull off some achievements, but he would be smart to bring on board Dr. Paul as his personal consultant since he’s been involved in Washington for a bit longer and would definitely be an asset. Johnson himself as the businessman he is would understand how key to bring Ron Paul experience and guidance would be in succeeding while in office.
This is not something personal about Paul, Johnson, Gray… it’s not about Libertarian party vs. Republicans or anything along those lines. It’s way bigger than that and Gary himself sounds like he’s fully aware of it.
So while I understand the libertarians’ passionate reaction to what we are proposing, then we all owe it to ourselves to take a deep breath and step back trying to remove personal involvement and take stock of the situation at hand and why it may also make sense (though not easy to swallow) also for the libertarian party.
I will never blame libertarians for reacting they way they are doing with outrage and yelling at us Ron Paul supporters and I would expect no different reaction from people who love liberty… at least not initially! Then though when the upsetting when the blood will have returned to a normal temperature, I would think they would see things in a different light and rather than seeing it all as an outrageous attack and lack of consistency with the message of liberty, I do hope they would see this as joining forces amongst likeminded people who feel the same about today’s political reality and are equally concerned about the future of this country.
To the caller who stated that what is being suggested is the same or worse than what the RNC did, like I stated earlier, I am not blaming you for your reaction… you’ve been far more contained than I may ever have the ability to be and I absolutely hear your point. That said, once calm will have returned in your heart and soul, I hope your thoughts will also be less obstructed by anger.
If I put myself in a libertarian’s shoes… yep! I’d be pissed as hell for the first day or so. You can bet your family jewels I would! I am human after all!
But then I’d start a cool-down period when I’d start thinking and eventually I’d arrive to a conclusion. Either I fully support Gary Johnson and Jim Gray and I’ll trust his judgement and choices, or I won’t.
And that will be completely independent from the what a group of Ron Paul supporters are saying on the web and social media. As a matter of fact, if I was a libertarian and Ron Paul and his supporters didn’t even exist, I’d have the same situation at hand: either I trust and support my candidates and trust they will act in the interest of representing myself and the ideals I believe in… or I don’t trust them at all. I hope that’s a clear enough concept because that’s actually the same thing I will have to do in dealing with whatever Dr. Paul will decide in as his next steps, or lack thereof.
So whether libertarian or Ron Paul supporter, I will have to stand behind all the decisions my candidate will make. I won’t praise him if I agree and denigrate him if I disagree. Anyone should be able to agree that that’s a fact.
Now…with that in mind, in the event that Gary Johnson and Jim Gray would decide to let Dr. Paul in as the new presidential candidate asking all libertarians to support them in this hard decision, would you stand strong with them and continue to be proud of your candidates showing to be so selfless as they believe Dr. Paul will bring outstanding value to the cause of liberty? Will you consider that the merging of intents and efforts, the joining forces and momentum to support each others in the common pursuit of restoring liberties and the Constitution shall be beneficial to getting a step closer to getting the chance to transform our ideals from dreams to a possibility they would become a reality?
I don’t believe Johnson and Gray would take such decisions lightly. Sure won’t be out of whim, for personal interest, to disrespect the members of the party who supported them or because they all at sudden became insane… I think it’s relatively safe to assume that.
So I now ask you my fellow liberty loving citizens who are the sole reason for which I am still proud to have become one myself… would you still believe that your candidate is acting in your interest and that of the entire movement you hold dear? In case the answer won’t be a positive one, then perhaps it may be time to think hard why you are a libertarian and what you’re truly ready to sacrifice for the cause of liberty.
To me this goes so far beyond the people involved and the party lines, that I am sure in hindsight we’ll would all end up agreeing we shouldn’t have even debated about it, but put up a massive and strong call, unifying all our voices in choir calling for this to try and make it happen adding the finality to end bipartisan system and add libertarian and independent voices to turn all the promises and projects into reality. Perhaps starting with banning money from Washington completely give an overhaul to campaigning for election to remove the influence of corporatism, the control and distortion and boycott of the media and the and the control and corruption of the election system that our free and open system should be! But I digress…
Perhaps unifying our voices together will also help create a much needed critical mass as more and more from the younger generations will be interested enough to return to believe in politics, rather than dismiss it as the thievery corporation that continues to put them off… all at the advantage of said thievery corporation who is left to pillage and oppress with complete disregard for the people as the less interested they are the better it is for their shady business conducted in the name of the people but not for their benefit!
And maybe more youth will decide to become active citizens, and the message of liberty will continue to soar and reach more hearts and minds… be it that of former republicans, former democrats, of those who have had no interest in politics, or of those who’ve given up hope, especially after they’ve been duped by Slick Barry and the establishment’s cronies.
The thriving of the message of liberty that has been continually nurtured and put forth by Dr. Paul, despite the repeated refusals, boycotts, nay-saying, bashing, derision, slandering, false accusations and so on from ALL sides, is something that is awakening more hearts and minds than ever before.
Would you want to lose the opportunity to awaken more? Those who consider Paul and Johnson supporters some pot-smoking, gun-loving, delusional individual will be the next to wake up and join… I’ve seen that happen and believe me it’s possible! People are not stupid… freedom is popular and never like before people are more open and receptive to at least acknowledge the truth… and eventually they will research further on their own becoming more informed and believing each day more in liberty until they’ll finally see the real truth we all came to know at which point they’ll start to activate themselves to spread the message even further.
It happened to me and it happened to others close to me. So I know what that means, I know it’s possible! I know it can be done!
I was awaken by Dr. Paul like Gary and I happen to side with Gary on more points that I realized… as a matter of fact in this well done test here:
http://www.isidewith.com/presidential-election-quiz I matched Johnson at 73% (upon re-taking results were 95% as I stuck without adding my own opinions and used only provided ones). I sided with Dr. Paul at 62% when was still available, which could be because like Johnson some of my views may be different on some key issues like immigration, abortion, healthcare and be more libertarian than Republican
Increasing the liberty party weight would also be key because with Dr. Paul gone from the political realm today’s Republican and Democratic parties aren’t worth anything at all. Bringing the libertarian view into the political arena would help the US mitigate the totalitarianism of the stale and corrupt bipartisan system that has no longer been working for the people and for longer than any of us should wish such systems to remain in place.
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6 people like this.
Mike Cann Call Ron Paul, ask him to endorse and join the Johnson campaign today! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCqzIqSbscE&feature=share&list=PLCB8544F39F06830BYesterday at 7:18am · Like · 1
It seems to me that other than the differences on specific issues, you appear to be trying to get away from the vote being about reverence for a particular person. I understand that, but you ought to realize that unifying liberty activists…See More
Yesterday at 11:16am · Like · 1
Heidi Livengood This teleconference alone proves that it is not impossible to unify us. This can be done. Keep the emails and phone calls coming!Yesterday at 11:29am · Like · 1
A.j. Arias Only Ron Paul.Yesterday at 11:47am · Like
Think about it, if Ron runs on Libertarian 3rd Party, all the insiders whether Left(Libertarians), Middle(Independents) or Right(Evangelic’s, Fundamentals) of the entire Republican Party will vote for the Paul ticket. Don’t you understand what this video did. It was released on all the major Facebook sites involved last Monday during hurricane Issac. Don’t pay attention to how many alleged plays it received, take my word all insiders saw it, which was the only video released on all those pages the day before the RNC. All those independent republican insiders and delegates in the middle were instantly convinced that Psyops(Alex Jones)(Adam Kokesh)(Luke Rudkowski)(Mark Dice)etc. some from the Putin Regime have been causing psychological manipulation not to vote for Ron Paul. You see Alex Jones like’s to convince people not to vote for Ron Paul, but with the evidence that he is a Psyop and works for Putin along with these other cronies have convinced the insiders of the Republican Party who were not going to vote for Paul, now to do so in third-party vote. Also I won over the Right wingers with my eschatology. So it’s like a chain reaction. Alex Jones may not be world renown, but he pride’s himself on tricking intelligent people. You see he who can psychologically manipulate the intelligent one’s can manipulate everyone else in a ‘garbage in, garbage out—>Chain Reaction’ following from the most intelligent to the least, until you have a bunch of Sheeple calling Ron Paul Racist. And being that I just exposed all the Psychological Operations whether they work for Putin the Chinese or maybe even Obama Himself, once the man behind the curtain in allegory to the ‘Wizard Of Oz’ is revealed, Dorothy can ‘clearly see’ through the lies of a clever old man behind the curtain. We can still win this election, if Ron run’s third party there are MANY MORE PEOPLE who would vote for him as opposed to the Sheeple who MIGHT vote for Obamney. And now we have our own chain reaction from the insiders of the GOP.http://youtu.be/RrRHmKNENhM
Yesterday at 11:48am · Like
Nemo Outis Posting this to my new website PaulJohnson2012 http://bit.ly/PJrSkQ2 seconds ago · Like
PaulJohnson2012 
To find this page with this article was sure a surprise for me. I wasn’t aware that comment on facebook pages could be taken verbatim and posted as a blog article and it would have been quite nice to be asked if I would mind, which I don’t 🙂
Some may already know I’m not secretive about my views on this topic (or would not be posting replies on social networks like facebook) and those who didn’t will easily make such deduction after reading the post above ;D… then again, I am still quite a believer in fairness and good manners (call me old fashioned), but here fell I can very safely chalk off the lack being used the courtesy to be contacted prior to lifting the post to be repurposed elsewhere, to being truly driven by genuine passion. Therefore I truly won’t mind that my post has been repurposed on the web other than the context where it was originally posted… and if it will serve to make even a single fellow countrymen question our current bipartisan system, be what gave someone the chance to start an awakening process, or become the faint spark that will ignite yet another libertarian fire, then not only I won’t mind, but I’ll absolutely welcome the repurposing of my thinking out loud.
Best of luck to all of us in the road that lays ahead.
Salvatore,
I confess to not even have been thinking (in your case I was so mesmerized by the points you make!) about whether someone would mind. I am glad that you do not, even if in other cases you wouldn’t.
From now on I will be sure to ask.
I just started up this blog the evening of the first conference call. I don’t know what, if anything I will accomplish by it, but at the very least I hope to create an open discussion about a potential Paul third party run. I want to hear and publicize as many takes on it as possible so that we may know our options and so that we do not kick ourselves afterward for not having at least considered them.
Have a pleasant day tomorrow.
Dear Evan,
Thank you for your kind followup to my comment and for considering my points something worth sharing. Like many have done on the call I thank you for your time and dedication to the cause of liberty and it will continue to require our efforts spreading the same message to our fellow Americans. I too don’t know where this will lead or what a post Ron Paul ReLOVEution would look like, I am aware many will need a charismatic leader to be awakened to the same messages we’ve been awakened to, but the fact that we’ll be on our own in years to come remains and the message won’t lose validity because it is no longer being spread across the country by a charismatic figure.
The principle of advertising would certainly help. Having Dr. Paul would be a catalyst to accelerate speed and extend the reach the liberty message, without it will be more difficult to spread, but we will have to continue to do all we can to allow it to be heard by fellow American who may be completely ignorant about it as I once was.
Many of us tend to become confrontational when it comes to exchanging different political beliefs (often not limited to politics) because they strongly believe in their current convictions. Despite the strong reaction of some, I don’t detest or hate them. I’ve been there myself, I learned that is a part of human nature and is an instinct of self preservation that triggers such immediate reactions. Responding in a similar way will not yield anything of value on either sides as one can only lead a horse to water, but can’t force the horse to drink it.
I needed some time myself to realize first and get rid then of the conditioning I had been subjected to for years. It’s not easy to admit to the indoctrinating brainwashing that came from multiple sources of influence year after year, and it’s even more difficult to learn to become immune to it. I take it one day at a time and I know that it will remain a constant work in progress. So, while I may strongly disagree with someone’s views and positions, I can never blame them for their convictions. Realization of the substance and implication of specific axioms will come in time but only by keeping an open mind, making conscious efforts to shift points of view, use critical thinking and reflection and maintaining a willingness to learn, without being afraid of questioning our own choices or our most engrained beliefs adjusting them as we progress through our learning experience and come to new degrees of awareness.
For instance even the very consistent Dr. Paul himself, changed his position on death penalty (incidentally I was glad he did so I wouldn’t have to disagree on that issue), by going through the very same process each of us has gone and continues to go through as we awakened to the message of liberty.
My hope is that in time, more of my beloved countrymen will come to the same realization and will eventually demand to take control of our common future, and we’ll live with one another thriving in peace building a truly free country in complete respect of each other’s liberties.
You may say I am a dreamer… but I’m not the only one (J. Lennon) 🙂
I am not Evan. Just an anonymous (hence Nemo, Latin for no man, and Outis Greek for nobody) liberty lover in middle America trying to promote what Evan is doing, because getting the word out through alternative media is one of the many things we can do. If I may, I would like to post the comment you just made as well. Beautifully written!
Should’ve guessed that you (pauljohnson2012) and Evan aren’t the same person as he would’ve posted as himself and may have asked being my friend’s list on FB since after the call. Sorry for making that mistaken assumption and thanks for pointing that out.
I appreciate you taking the time to post more content in support of the cause of liberty and I also thank you for asking to repurpose my reply comment as an article. You absolutely may and thank you again for your kind words.
Thank you. Are you going to listen to the call? 5 PM Alaska time 9 PM Eastern tonight?
My pleasure PJ2012. About the listening to the call, I could not make it and had to miss it unfortunately. Will listen in to the recording though.
There will be another one this coming Monday at the same time.
thx for the heads up PJ2012 🙂
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