I remember watching this video in the heat of the 2012 MN district conventions and feeling a sense of pride, being from Minnesota and fighting for the underdog.
That was then.. and what really stands out now is the overwhelming enthusiasm we had to make things happen during that time, to win delegates, to do whatever it took to win, including withstanding violence being used upon us, dirty politics, ramming through delegates that had no business being rammed through, having signs stripped out of our hands in the middle of conventions, or having entire delegations removed at the snap of a finger. It seems like that is now a distant memory. What happened to that passion?
I don't think it is Rand's fault like Collins insists. Rand was not the best candidate to ever live, not even close, but it's not the candidate that makes or breaks a movement or election, it's the people that support them that do.
How do both the Republican and Democratic party put pure crap out there as their party representative year after year, election cycle after election cycle? They aren't putting great candidates out there, haven't in decades, yet these people still win. The media is one piece of the pie in answering this, but there are a lot of pieces left to still figure out. These political parties have a base as strong as stone that never waivers, shows up, participates, and gets the job done. We stood strong in 2012, but faltered in 2016.
I guess there are a lot of questions I don't have answers to that I am still in search of and why I still come to this site every day. What is it going to take for our tiny liberty group of people to consolidate as strong as stone, the same as Democrats and Republicans seem to be able to? Do we need to get behind a new political party, ie: constitution party, libertarian party? Do we need mainstream politicians like Rand, to join the libertarian party like Ron Paul once did? Do we need to come up with something revolutionary that has never been done before, to gain the attention of millions of non-voters, to bolster our ranks? What is it going to take to create a group strong enough that does not flinch, even if we don't have a candidate as pure as someone like Ron Paul?
We can't wait around for 50 years for the next Paul, Rothbard, Goldwater, or whoever is next. We have to fill in the gaps between these great people with other good people, and if we have no base to prop these people up, then we are going to continue getting into these discussions about how good or bad politicians like Rand Paul are and miss the point completely that it's only up to us, the people, to make this thing happen, not any single individual.
