Dr Paul Must go 3rd Party After Tampa !

[AJ Antimony]

I HATE how everyone so staunchly shouts no everytime someone suggests a third party run. If Ron doesn't run third party, I have lost all respect for him. He was my hero. My biggest inspiration. Unwavering conviction. Always fighting for the truth. Always trying to do what's right. I don't agree with him on everything, but I trusted him 100%. You're killing me Ron Paul. Nothing short of a third party one can redeem his lost credibility.

Good. Delete your account. Go away. Go join the LP. Enjoy getting 1% each election and never seeing freedom in your lifetime. The rest of us will keep reforming the Republican Party, the party that Ron Paul is a member of, and we will enjoy actually winning elections and actually changing the direction of the country.

Seriously man, you need to relax. Get off the internet for a week. Then come back and understand that Ron Paul Republicans have done more to advance liberty in the last 4 years than the LP has in the last 40 years.

 

[cdc482]

I love that all you political experts know for a fact that compromising your principles is the exact way to move them forward. After all, it's worked so well for the progressives and the small government conservatives.
How can you expect to convince anyone with such a pathetic argument. Ron Paul gets 10-20% instead of 1% WITHOUT selling out. Ross Perot got 19% without selling out. If the point is to achieve peace and freedom, how is he going to do that by compromising on the issues?

 

[cdc482]

Get over yourself. The man has done more than enough, he's certainly done more than you. If I was him, I'd tell you guys to fuck off after how you eat your own allies especially his son.

Rand Paul is no ally. He's done a lot, and now he folded. Why?

 

[AJ Antimony]

I love that all you political experts know for a fact that compromising your principles is the exact way to move them forward. After all, it's worked so well for the progressives and the small government conservatives.
How can you expect to convince anyone with such a pathetic argument. Ron Paul gets 10-20% instead of 1% WITHOUT selling out. Ross Perot got 19% without selling out. If the point is to achieve peace and freedom, how is he going to do that by compromising on the issues?

What principles were compromised? You don't know what you're talking about.

Nice useless numbers you threw in there. LBJ "sold out" (however you define that) and got 61% of the vote.

 

[AJ Antimony]

Rand Paul is no ally. He's done a lot, and now he folded. Why?

You have the most bizarre (and wrong) definition of "fold."

 

[NoOneButPaul]

Get over yourself. The man has done more than enough, he's certainly done more than you. If I was him, I'd tell you guys to fuck off after how you eat your own allies especially his son.

This.

You 3rd party people probably anger me more than anything else. The reasons given against 3rd parties have been so extensive and well thought out here yet you rabid people with your 2012 blinders fail to see the big picture.

 

[anaconda]

I am ready.

And maybe with somebody like Ed Rollins this time...

 

[Carson]

Personally I would like to see him run third party just to shake the filth off...

then again the party isn't the same party that it was four years ago and is on a whole new track back to a solid foundation.


P.S. Even with all that has happened in recent days...

and we've perceived changes.

I can see the possibility of real changes grabbing hold and propelling Ron Paul into the White House.

The pieces of the puzzle are there. Will the people be wise enough to take advantage?

 

[Fredom101]

I wish that was the case, but going off of 2008 results I don't see that happening.
Paul got 1.1 million votes in 2008 primary

LP + CP in the general got 723k votes (~66% of Paul primary voters)

Now, LP membership in in 2008 was ~250k, I'm sure most didn't switch over to vote for Paul in closed primaries. I can't find CP membership but I'm going to assume 100k nationwide (please correct me if you have the actual numbers) I'll say at most 20% of them switched over then switched back, which by reading LP press releases this sounds about right. I will also assume every member of this 80% voted in the general (I don't know what percent of the LP actually votes, once again please tell me if you know)

So 723k - 280k = 433k. Now, this number will probably be lowered once again since we can't assume all 433k voted for Ron Paul in the primary, or even voted in the primary at all. In conclusion, I can only say based off of the 2008 results that about 1/3 Paul primary supports will vote third party. I would suspect the number to be a bit higher than 1/3 in 2012, but definitely not 90%. Also, it looks like the LP and CP should more than double their numbers from 2008 in 2012.

Ahhh but you're vastly underestimating the numbers of us who stayed home on the november election day in 08!

 

[RickyJ]

But it's not gonna happen, ron has said it himself.

He said no such thing, stop making stuff up.

 

[jemuf]

He said no such thing, stop making stuff up.

Exactly! I haven't heard him say it either.

Hey the 3rd party run probably isn't logistically possible this late in the game. And Ron Paul doesn't need to or have to run 3rd party. He's done more than enough.

But what's with all the arrogant, know-it-all attitudes trying to beat down the OP?

One of things that's been pissing me off (besides arrogant, know-it-all attitudes) is what is Plan B?

Maybe you 07 & 08ers don't need a Plan B. Maybe becoming PCO's and committeemen is good enough. Well I gotdamn guarantee you that ain't enough to take this country back.

I didn't start supporting Ron Paul because I give two shits about 2016 or Rand Paul.

Every major organization pursuing a major goal has a Plan B. We should too. How about a write-in campaign? But a write-in campaign won't work without substantial organization.

I want to vote for someone with a substantial organization behind them or someone on the ballot.

 

[Slacker]

I wish he would just because he could actually qualify for the debates, unlike Johnson, and he would easily run circles around Obomney, but it ain't happening.

 

[Razmear]

Every major organization pursuing a major goal has a Plan B. We should too. How about a write-in campaign? But a write-in campaign won't work without substantial organization.
I want to vote for someone with a substantial organization behind them or someone on the ballot.

Johnson is my Plan B. He isn't perfect and certainly isn't the 'next Ron Paul', but he's a far better choice than Romney or Obama, and sadly write ins are meaningless.

 

[TheTexan]

Pfft... everyone knows 3rd parties never win... he should go 4th party

 

[Dogsoldier]

Maybe the reason Ron has said from the beginning that he will not run 3rd party,played nice with Romney through out the debates is because Rand has a vp shot.

Everybody needs to quit jumping to conclusions.Rand is on our "liberty watch list" list for sure.

I'm not jumping to any conclusions.

I would never support a Romney/Rand ticket and I know many of you won't either.

As of right now I don't know what Rand is thinking and niether do any of you.

What rand did was wrong but it doesn't change anything for any of us.We are still here.

In liberty!

To the Republic!

 

[Peace&Freedom]

The 3rd party route is still quite possible if Paul works out a deal with Johnson and the LP to be substituted as that party's nominee. But a lot of folks here (and apparently the Paul campaign) declined to reserve this Plan B, and eschewed a plan to aggressively confront Romney at the convention. We have no leverage, as a result. People have been yelling for a contingency plan all along, but got shut down by the "let's do it through the Republican process, all other discussion is a distraction" response. So how's Plan A looking now?

The plan to "reform the GOP" as the main path to grow the movement was always going to lead to compromise. This was one reason why the 3rd party option was raised by myself and others---it creates leverage the grassroots otherwise doesn't have. You either are in the control position to get a compromise your way, or you compromise to somebody else in the control position. Rand's compromise (and Ron's complicity in it) is part of the "get-along to have viability within a major party" routine. When you choose not to pursue election fraud, choose not to challenge false flags, choose to reject going outside the GOP when you have the tools necessary to successfully run outside the system, etc, this is what you get. Yes, Paul needed to run 3rd party, to make his GOP run more possible. So far he hasn't, and the lack of leverage that decision results in, leads to the current impasse.

 

[Occam's Banana]

We must go 3rd party? Why?

So we can get the rush of uselessly spinning our wheels in an irrelevant echo-chamber no one ever pays any attention to. /sarcasm

The ONE thing the establishment wants more than anything else is for the liberty movement to render itself impotent by taking its marbles and going "home."

My question is: why do the 3rd-party/independent people want the same thing the establishment wants?

 

[Veteran Citizen]

Not all press is good press. Ask John Edwards.

 

[Liberty74]

I was for the third party running as an Indy from the very get go. Unfortunately, Paul has another agenda.

This idea that "we", our 10% is going to take over the GOP is delusional. It ain't gonna happen. The powers to be - the establishment who hates us with venom - won't let it happen. The way you pose a threat to the two party criminal system is not to be co-opted by the establishments (it has already begun by Rand claiming Mitt has always been for an audit of the FED despite the fact that Mitt said there was no need) but to come at them from the side. You need to have the masses behind you. Stop with the LP and CP crap as an argument against a third party. You aren't thinking BIG. People are leaving the GOP and Dems in droves and heading to the Indy Party where 40% of the voters now reside. We go Indy. We plot our platform there. Then and only then will we be a threat to the GOP and the entire system. The GOP will have to build coalitions as well as the Dems. The system would have to move in OUR direction and that is called real change my friends. But as long as the system has us stuck in the the two party criminal system, nothing will change. Oh, you might have dreams and might get a feeling tingling Chris Matthew leg, but trust me, they got you in a trance.

Look at what happened to the Tea Party. Completely co-opted and they have already sold out by getting behind Mitt. Some of you people still don't get it.

 

[cheapseats]

Being in a third party is right where they want you.

Preposterous. They want y'all in the Republican fold.

You can't take over the GOP if you are in the non-threatening LP or CP.

You can't take over the GOP with 10-15% of its base and a fraction of its wealth EITHER.

SPARE ME that y'all are gonna sneak up and "takeover" the RICHEST, MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE ON EARTH with a long-term methodical strategery...that the Rich & Powerful sit still and let come to fruition. When people say shit like that, OTHER people discount them as STARRY-EYED DREAMERS.

Starry-eyed Dreamers are a KEY INGREDIENT in the Perpetual Activism paradigm, by the by. Perpetual Activism, like Perpetual Campaigning and Perpetual War, enriches the Few at the expense of the Many.