Glenn,
My name is Glen Bradley, a former NC State House member, and widely known as a leader in the Ron Paul movement. I don't tell you this out of ego, but for the sake of credibility. I hope I may be able to help bring understanding, and maybe even healing. God knows America is nearing her last dying breath and if we stay at each other's throats there will be no way to stop it.
This email is going to be longer than I want, because of the breadth of information I will be covering, but I will try to be efficient about it.
First, the complaint about libertarians eating their own is very legitimate. While I consider myself a strict Constitutionalist rather than a Libertarian, both philosophies are based in radical individualism, and as such everyone is married to their own view, and everyone has their own drop-dead issue and they like to completely freak out about their pet issue, and if you are 99% rather than 100% you become the reincarnation of Hitler. You will get no argument from me that this is insane. Bear in mind however that this is an issue that plagues the ENTIRE right, just more so the more philosophically dedicated one becomes. Otherwise, why would Ronald Reagan have famously said, "The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally -- not a 20 percent traitor." As for me, I have far more wounds from friendly fire than I do from any enemy. I know this one personally.
Second, the liberty movement's suspicion of you is far more justified than you let on in your recent video. Let me tell you that I am a coalition builder. I have happily built and worked coalitions with people far less liberty minded than you have presented yourself. This is not about ideological purity for me, but about touching a hot stove so many times before finally deciding it's a bad idea because you are likely to get burned. Understand this well: I was the guy defending you in 2007, 2009, and 2011 during your last three libertarian conversions. I was the guy catching flack for telling the liberty movement (of which I am a major leader) that I think he's catching on, I think he's starting to get it. Only to get burned in 2008, 2010, and 2012 as you inevitably discredited any candidate (not just Ron Paul, but every candidate) pushing for a restoration of the Constitutional order, and insisting every single time that we must support the anticonstitutional establishmentarian. In 2013, for the first time, I hope you will understand that after getting burned again and again and again this time I have taken a very jaundiced view of your latest libertarian conversion.
I'm willing to stand in a coalition with loony liberals around the few narrow issues we may find agreement on. It's not about an intellectually pure backwater for me, it's about building coalitions to achieve victory. You have to understand that you have stood in the way of much of that potential success by capturing our target market and directing them away from principled candidates and towards unprincipled candidates. It's like the old phrase "once bitten twice shy" except now it's "three times burned, the fourth time I'm shying away from defending you."
Third, I am successfully building a major coalition of Tea Parties, libertarians, constitutionalists, fiscal conservatives, Ron Paulers, paleoconservatives, and even a few establishmentarians sick of the status quo in my run for Vice Chairman of the North Carolina Republican party. The coalition is both possible and very necessary, and that coalition is not around the Bill of Rights, it is around the entire Constitution. What I tell people is that if we are going to have any hope of saving America, then we must rally around the Constitution, the whole Constitution -- even the parts that scare us. Because the part that scares me, you probably like, and the part that scares you I probably like. The one thing we can all agree on is that we have to obey the whole Constitution, every jot and tittle. The Bill of Rights alone is not enough to save America, because that leaves the full scope of welfare, and the full brunt of undeclared wars intact.
I recently received a standing ovation from 19 year old libertarians and 90 year old social conservatives at the same time when I explained this saying that we all have to compromise to (not from) the Constitution. For the social conservative it is frightening because the federal government will no longer have the power to make drugs illegal. For the libertarian it is frustrating because the States will have that power. Both of us, however, believe in the Constitution and both of us can agree to set aside our angst and agree to go back to strict construction, because that's the only way we are going to save America.
Fourth, we are beyond the point in America where a 20% guy like Christie would be any better than a 1% guy like Mao. As an individual, you will get no argument from me that Christie is way, way closer to correct than Mao. 200 TIMES better using the above random numbers. The problem is that America is now gone so far to the edge that the 20% will carry us over it just as surely as the 1%, and what ideology do you want getting the blame for the collapse of America...conservatism or liberalism? Until we reach something like Reagan's magic 80% the end result will still be the same. Not because Christie is the same as Mao, he isn't, but because America is on the precipice and 20% just won't cut it. To me, Ron Paul would be a 98%, Thomas Massie a 96%, Justin Amash a 94%, Rand Paul a 90%, Mark Sanford an 85% and Jim Demint an 80%, and Marco Rubio maybe 60%. Don't expect me to vote for anybody less than an 80% ally in 2016, because I will only be voting for someone who can actually turn this nightmare around, and I will NOT be responsible for conservatism getting blamed for the collapse of America.
I really hope you are telling the truth this time, because America is dying and we have only one hope left: to become adamant in only supporting candidates for office who are willing to obey the whole Constitution, every time, no matter what. The truth is we need you, and we need your voice. We desperately need you to be telling the truth this time, because America doesn't have long left for this world if you are just going to turn around in 2014 and 2016 and push everyone back to the anticonstitutional establishmentarians like you did in 2008, 2010, and 2012.
I was your chief defender amongst the liberty movement in 2007, 2009, and 2011, and every time the elections rolled around you made a liar out of me. Now in 2013, after getting burned so many times I just don't trust you anymore. I pray to God you make a liar out of me in 2013 also. I pray to God that THIS TIME your libertarian conversion is real. I pray to God that you will learn and understand that with America on the precipice the way she is, a 20% guy is effectively no different than a 1% guy when it comes to slowing or stopping the collapse, and setting up conservatism to take the blame for destroying America would be more harmful than a liberal actually doing it...because we are a strong people and we will always rebuild, but who gets the blame for the collapse will have a profound effect on the model we use to rebuild from.
It's time we put egos aside and decide what's really important. Your criticism of the liberty movement is legitimate. These people go apoplectic over meaningless nonsense. Please realize also that the liberty movement's criticism of you is also legitimate, every odd-numbered year you go through yet another libertarian conversion, only to turn around on the even numbered year and implore that people vote for the guy who hates the Constitution.
Because of that pattern that you have established, most of these people are just not going to trust you until you demonstrate that you have broken that pattern by standing up for a Constitutionalist, and having the backbone to stand by that conviction all the way through the elections.
Please read this in the heart that it was intended. I know it is hard to take criticism, even well intended criticism. However, America is dying. We no longer have the time nor the space to be gentle about this. We are in an emergent crisis, and frankly we just can't afford for you to do in 2014 and 2016 the same things you did in 2008, 2010, and 2012. So please understand where I am coming from and why I have told you these things. If you really are sincere this time, then you need to know the real source of the anger. It's not the 10% we disagree on, it's the history of trust/burn/trust/burn/trust/burn. If you understand that, and I mean really own it, then maybe we can reconcile in time to save this country.
It's worth a shot, no?
Glen Bradley
wishes glen bradley was running for office in colorado
