The point of everything is NOT the presidency

[josh24601]

That's what the third-party diehards and the "true believers" who yelled TROLL at anybody willing to say this - that RP is NOT going to be president - never understood.

The presidency is a MEANS TO AN END. The END that Ron Paul is after is the restoration of the Constitution, and the liberty that results. THAT IS THE GOAL HERE PEOPLE. A Constitution-honoring president is a BYPRODUCT OF THIS. Dr. Paul said it himself - change comes from the bottom up - not vise versa. Ron Paul as president could not restore the Constitution without a willing citizenry. Creating a willing citizenry is OUR job every bit as much as it is his. Our job is not to follow Ron Paul, it is to lead the country.

The presidential campaign was, very obviously, a fantastic vehicle to aid in this fight. It is a fight that Ron Paul has been waging for DECADES. The last year or two does not define the movement, it is a glorious chapter OF the movement. The Revolution. Citizens that are now aware of the freedom movement have been multiplied hundreds and thousands of times over as a result of the campaign. The march on Washington is merely a culmination of this chapter of the Revolution, an exclamation.

In short, this is not the end of "the reason we are all here." It is the very beginning of the next stage of our reason to be here, doing this.

If you don't understand that, then you will always continue to be flummoxed when you see a video like this. You will always be frightened and confused when Dr. Paul continues to refuse to be The Leader. A movement of individual liberty for everyone will BY DEFINITION be COMPROMISED BY a Leader.

Think back to the American Revolution. Who was the "leader"? That Revolution had no Ron Paul. Of course, it had many great leaders. And so do we. IT IS US.

Again, if you are disappointed or depressed or confused, it's because you have yet to truly understand what the goal is. The goal is the restoration of the Constitution of the United States of America, and that goal has become light-years closer because of this campaign.

Now is when we see if Ron Paul's faith in that message is vindicated by people rising to take action, or betrayed by a society that will forever beg to be dictated to by A Great Leader. North Korea has its Great Leader, Germany had its Great Leader, and there are many in our country that have the same yearning. Do not look to Ron Paul to assume this position, it is anathema to everything he is striving to accomplish.

Dr. Paul's campaign has empowered us with the knowledge, momentum, organization, and community to join (or continue, as the case may be) this movement. What we do now is up to only us.

It would be nice if we could have a Hillary or Obama or McCain to look at as a transcendent figurehead that will solve all of our problems, destroy all of our enemies, provide for all of our neighbors and lead us to a new and prosperous future. But they will not, they can not. We are smart enough to understand this (RIGHT!?).

The answer to our goal is not in the installation of one man into the position of President, it is the installation of a demand for the Constitution in the people of the United States. The president we desire will come from this and this alone.

So get crackin'.

 

[anonymous6728]

The next presidency is a means to our end

Few people, including Ron Paul, fail to recognize how important this election is. The USA is living in denial. Not one candidate was willing to bring up 9/11. This War on Terror is a war crime. The Patriot Act violates the Constitution, as do Homeland Security and Guantanamo Bay. We are living under martial law. If we do not reverse our course immediately, we will be following Nazi Germany's footsteps to ruin.

There will not be a second chance at the presidency or a revolution. If it doesn't happen now, it never will. This will be our future if we don't wake up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxpx7AKoPzw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gwxfQkQpFo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufOtew_VZ-Q&watch_response

"In America, they came first for the Muslims, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Muslim;
And then they came for the revolutionaries, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a revolutionary;
And then they came for the activists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an activist;
And then they came for the illegals, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an illegal;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

A lesson in history from Niemoller

 

[Peace&Freedom]

Few people, including Ron Paul, fail to recognize how important this election is. The USA is living in denial. Not one candidate was willing to bring up 9/11. This War on Terror is a war crime. The Patriot Act violates the Constitution, as do Homeland Security and Guantanamo Bay. We are living under martial law. If we do not reverse our course immediately, we will be following Nazi Germany's footsteps to ruin.

There will not be a second chance at the presidency or a revolution. If it doesn't happen now, it never will. This will be our future if we don't wake up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gwxfQkQpFo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufOtew_VZ-Q&watch_response

"In America, they came first for the Muslims, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Muslim;
And then they came for the revolutionaries, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a revolutionary;
And then they came for the activists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an activist;
And then they came for the illegals, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t an illegal;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."

A lesson in history from Niemoller

A cogent response to the first post. A lot of us started this effort last year with the belief that this may be THE last free election (or one of the last) that America will hold before martial law is fully imposed. Others think the long term solution begins with reform of the Republican Party, when that vehicle has failed to reverse any aspect of emerging total state in over seventy years.

The point of everything IS the presidency if we wanted to achieve change in the time we have left. WE WILL NOT HAVE ANOTHER 70 years to restore things, and probably don't have another seven. I look forward to seeing a few younger successors to Paul being elected to Congress (like Sabrin), but not much more from the 'save the GOP' effort. I don't advocate armed or violent revolution, but wouldn't be surprised if it happened as other avenues seem to have been cut off.

 

[spacehabitats]

Josh is exactly right.

This election is not everything. Anyone who says that this election is the end forgets that the quest for liberty is a never-ending struggle. Ron Paul has not given up, he is just trying to teach us what true patriots have always known. We need to redouble our efforts and scramble for every vote and every delegate seat. Now we will find out who the fair-weather patriots are.

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson

 

[jab]

I love RP, and I still pray he will somehow get to be POTUS, but I also agree that this is Americas LAST chance.. I've allready been stocking up on ammo and new arms.. and I will continue to as I'm SURE this country is heading for a real revolution. I'm not a dooms-day, tin foil hat wearing, nay-sayer.. but I truly believe we are heading for VERY bad times.

Until then though, I'll continue to try everything I can to get RP elected, but I'm not wearing blinders to the truth of the future.

 

[raystone]

it is the installation of a demand for the Constitution in the people of the United States.

I agree...however....how do you see this happening ?

 

[Just Come Home]

Everything is not the presidency... It was just a nice rally point. But since that's going away, so will all the enthusiasm to rally.

The crowd is dispersing. Ron Paul has given up.

 

[josh24601]

There will not be a second chance at the presidency or a revolution. If it doesn't happen now, it never will. This will be our future if we don't wake up.

The danger that I see happening a lot on this forum is that you will stay riveted to the outcome of this election and, not to say this about you personally, but the people who seem to be the most easily swayed by "vote rigging" type conspiracies that have zero evidence other than results that don't match their expectations are the ones who have put all their chips in this election.

Four years ago, it was the most important election of our lives. Four years before that... guess what.

It's important to keep the campaign moving at 100%, and it's important to continue preparing to defend your liberty by any means necessary. But it's also important to have perspective of the finish line, which is not in November of this year.

Again, we will never have a president that respects the Constitution until we have a people that respect the Constitution and demand it of their leaders. A president like Ron Paul will come when the people put him there. That means our mission is not to topple the government, but to educate the people of the United States.

Change comes from the bottom up - taking away the top will do nothing if the people remain uneducated. Dr. Paul has done more to that end with this campaign than anybody has in ages, and it's up to us to take the ball and run.

 

[josh24601]

Everything is not the presidency... It was just a nice rally point. But since that's going away, so will all the enthusiasm to rally.

The crowd is dispersing. Ron Paul has given up.

Again... anybody who "disperses" because they view Ron Paul as having "given up" doesn't understand what any of this was about in the first place.

It is pretty surprising to me how many of his followers genuinely don't understand.

 

[josh24601]

I agree...however....how do you see this happening ?

In short, by keeping an alternative to the growing nanny/police state visible to as many people as possible. I personally know a lot of people who have been awakened by this campaign, and I know I'm not going to let them forget about it.

 

[TheMadCow]

In short, by keeping an alternative to the growing nanny/police state visible to as many people as possible. I personally know a lot of people who have been awakened by this campaign, and I know I'm not going to let them forget about it.

Yeah, it's a comfort sandwich to talk about the long term and how "it's okay"... but the reality is that we're facing McCain and Obama for POTUS. We don't have the time to retool the entire government, even through key placements - before we reach a tipping point that we can't return from. Ron Paul was seen and hoped to be the embodiment and catalyzing force that was going to pull this back from the edge.

I have serious doubts that the sort of change being bandied about so glibly can be effected within the time frame that is needed to avert. Even Ron Paul envisions the collapse of the US, how encouraging is that? There's just too much inertia from "business as usual" to sweep the needed changes into place WITHOUT a primary position like we were shooting for. I'm not giving up, but I'm also not going to stop purchasing ammo and making prudent alternative plans.

 

[josh24601]

I'm not giving up, but I'm also not going to stop purchasing ammo and making prudent alternative plans.

That makes great sense to me. Just remember that by informing the regular citizenry one person at a time, you may not need that ammo.

To make a religious analogy (which is valid regardless of your religion): Jesus certainly had an agenda, and was looking to make big changes. Did he do it by trying to take over Rome? Did he try to become the new Caesar so that he could enact sweeping changes of society? Or did he talk to people in the street? Rome eventually adopted Christianity not because Jesus installed a leader in Rome, but because he changed society one person at a time, until society demanded it of Rome. (Save the discussion about how Rome handled Christianity for a different thread!)

And not just Jesus. Ghandi, MLK, you name it. The American Revolution, although an armed one, didn't happen overnight. It needed a populace that was informed and cohesive enough to understand, support and fuel the effort - and even then it was not a unanimous situation.

But I can't keep stressing it enough. Ron Paul said it himself in the video, and he's said it many times before. Look at the examples above if you don't want to believe him. This is not a movement that follows one person. The only way it can succeed is if it is a movement that is led by many people.

So many here became so fixated on making him Leader of the United States that they forgot he had to get elected to that position, and that will never happen until the populace is informed enough to make that decision. His campaign has done more to that end than anything in a long time, but I keep feeling the need to stress this: change must come from the bottom up, and it must happen through us. A leader taking over is not the answer - it is a result of the true answer.