I think the company could return part of the money. Some money refunded is better than none.
The owner is supposed to be a Ron Paul supporter. I think he would want to see some of the money refunded so it could be used for other projects and chip-ins.
Well, I for one happen to LIKE how it's working out right now, and believe that we will get a bigger bump from the attention it will receive in SC - a heavily populated early primary state - than it would in Massachusetts.
Sure, it would have been AWFUL nice to do the tea dump. No argument there, and the tie in with history would have been AMAZING. But when it comes down to actual voters in the primary, our best efforts need to be in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida. And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it actual voters that we need more than 30 minutes of feel-good MSM coverage?
We'll get plenty of MSM coverage from this ANYWAY. But in the end, the goal is NOT the coverage itself, but the VOTERS in the PRIMARY.
The goal is to elect Ron Paul by whatever means necessary. And if that means we have to be fluid and adjust to whatever situations present themselves, then we must be fluid.
Adapt, improvise, overcome. If you are stiff and unyielding, unwilling to allow current situations to adjust your planning, then you get broken by current events.
There is an old saw I learned in the Marines as an intelligence analyst that went, "No battle plan survives first contact intact." This is as true in politics as it is in war. If you are unable to adjust, and your only plan is to "quit the field" when the enemy does something unexpected, then you have no business on the field of battle in the first place.
We are in a historic moment. We are at the genesis of a movement that will change the face of America itself. We can't expect to succeed by tearing ourselves apart! We have to lift together, as a team, even when we wind up holding onto a part of the load we didn't really want to touch!
Well did Thomas Paine speak of us today when he said,
The American Crisis said:
These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value.
– Published on 23 December 1776
So is it because of a little ice and snow now we want to back out? Has the battle become too hard, painful or arduous?
NO SIR, but our forces are on line and committed tot he struggle! How can we wait until "the perfect day" to commit, when we know already that the perfect day may never come?
OUR TIME IS NOW!
When, in decades to come, will we be known as the people who sunk the liberty movement in America because it didn't roll out the way we wanted it to, or will we be known as the people who lifted and upheld the liberty movement even when it was hard for us, even when it was unpleasant?
Now is NOT the time for the summer soldier, nor for the sunshine patriot. I dare say sir, if all things must be pleasant and according to your plan before we allow them to go forth, then please quit the field of battle and leave the struggle to those committed to the cause of liberty!
Did not the signers of the Declaration pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor -- come what may? How many of our ideological brethren laid dying on the field in the hopes of securing liberty for their posterity?
Not all things will go the way we want! And if we become disgruntled and discouraged because OUR plans are not met, and thus sow discord into the ranks and files of those who would continue the eternal struggle for freedom, then do we not become more of an impediment to victory than a helper?
I say we need helpers come what may! But if someone would be only a summer soldier, or a sunshine patriot, then they need to crawl off the field of battle, depart from George Washington's army at Valley Forge, go home and crawl under a rock until the primaries. We don't WANT summer soldiers or sunshine patriots, for all they will serve to do is to discourage and disgruntle the rest of us.
Now it is time for you to choose which one you will be. Will you march through the snow with General Washington, bare tattered rags tied to your feet in lieu of shoes? A few grams of hardtack bread in your belly from two days ago, but committed to the cause? Or will you pout because your uniform is not pretty enough and go home?
