Posted on 08/31/2012 12:02:37 PM PDT by alan8228
This is a major reason why I despise Ron Paul. He convinced donors to give him money based on this cockamamie and evolving strategy of getting delegates to the RNC convention. And what did they get out of it? Zippo. And the worst part is Paul knew all along it wouldn't work.
First, Paul tried to convince people he knew the delegate process better than Mitt Romney and could successfully get enough delegates to steal the nomination. People gave him money in droves. Next, he changed the strategy so his delegates could influence the party platform as if that had any effect on real policy. People then gave him more money in droves. Following that the rumor was he was working a deal to either get Rand Paul on the ticket or a prime speaking role at the convention. People continued to donate their hard earned cash. None of the aforementioned stated goals ever came to fruition. In fact if you actually believed any of those goals then I've got a bridge to sell you. Now the talking point is he is trying to lay the foundation to change the Republican Party in the coming years to a more libertarian philosophy.
In other words, there is no clear goal. He has found away to keep the wallets of his supporters open for an indeterminate amount of time. He can keep peddling this notion of transforming the GOP until he thinks of some other way to get your money. And people will keep writing checks. This frustrates me to no end because I hate seeing so many people get taken advantage.
If you think I'm wrong then answer this one question. If you can't answer it off the top of your head then you've been hoodwinked: What is Ron Paul's single greatest legislative accomplishment? How about his top 3? He's been in and out of office since 1976. You'd think he'd accomplish something, right? If you did then you'd be wrong:
Of the 620 measures that Paul has sponsored, just four have made it to a vote on the House floor. Only that one has been signed into law.
House colleagues say the genial Paul has often shown little interest in the laborious one-on-one lobbying required to build a coalition behind his ideas. This year, for instance, Paul has sponsored 47 bills, including measures to withdraw from the United Nations, repeal the federal law banning guns in school zones and let private groups coin their own money.
None has moved, and 32 have failed to attract a single co-sponsor.
Now Uncle Crazy can just fade away or join so “truther” group somewhere either way we don’t have to listen to him anymore.
This was akin to pitching a penny stock. Anyone remotely rational knew it was a long shot.
This was akin to pitching a penny stock. Anyone remotely rational knew it was a long shot.
It did, however, cause a lot of chaos and cause the “e” to make a poor reaction in regards to rule changes.
It actually hurt Santorum the most.
The point was to deny Romney the nomination and force a contested Convention.
It was a long shot.
Santo was out at that point.
Pauls strategy actually left the door open for Santo.
It was Rience Priebus that slammed the door.
We will see how it all pans out for us. You must remember that if Mitt and Obama were running under any moniker other than the republican and democrat they couldn’t get elected as an animal control officer.
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. - Douglas Adams
I understand where you are coming from.
But...
Someone (Walter Williams?) once said, we would be better off if we paid all 535 congress critters a million dollars a year. The condition of the deal would be they did nothing at all.
When do we say enough laws already?
I'm not a Paul fan, but I disagree with this measure of success. If Paul had not managed to pass any legislation at all but had succeeded in stopping TARP, Bailout, Stimulus, Cash-for-Clunkers, ObamaCare, or any of the other terrible and shockingly wasteful federal bills from passing, I would consider Paul a congressional success and a great man. With someone like him, whose goal is limited government, to measure success by the expansion of government is absurd. The problem with Paul is that he failed to prevent so many horrible laws from passing. I'd like to see him form more alliances to stop the terrible bills that "successful" Congresscritters push through.
Funny that there was no mention that there were enough members of the rules committee to require a floor vote, which would have given the Paul delegates a chance to act; but the bus driver for the Virginia delegation “got lost”, and drove them hither and yon while the rules committee was meeting, so the committee voted without them and adjourned.
In other words, a rotten, low-down, political dirty trick has now marginalized current and future delegates to the RNC, so that only the monied interests will now select who the candidates will be in the future.
Ironically, a similar dirty trick was used in the Soviet Union to make Nikita Khrushchev the General Party Secretary.
But because the Republican leadership pulled this dirty trick off and won, both the Republican grassroots and conservatives are marginalized in the future.
So celebrate! The Ron Paul you so despise has lost.
And so have we all.
Karl Rove, and people like him, Beltway Bandits and lobbyists, now control the Republican party.
If people want to give their hard-earned cash to a worthless snakeoil salesman, there is not a lot we can do to stop them. The problem is that no-one seems to feel it’s worth the effort to factcheck his blatherings. It’s a totally thankless job to be sure, but there are some principles a person should stand on, like the concept of actually having principles ;)
The only difference between Ron Paul and Alan Keyes is that Paul actually runs for an office he can win-—which he uses as his means to legitimize his other “campaigns”-—while Keyes always “runs” for offices he has no chance ever of winning. Love to see Paul try his schtick out running for a senate seat in TX and see where that gets him.
The GOP has done serious damage to themselves and is too stupid to know it. I and a whole lot of other non Paul supporters like Limbaugh, Levin, Savage, Palin and Malkin aren’t buying the lie.
The GOP has become as dangerously deranged as the democrats and justice won’t be pretty.
No it's not. It's to represent your district in the manner you promised to when you ran. If you the promise to try to change the establishment and they don't go along, you can hardly be blamed for that.
Where are all the FReepers who said Romney wasn’t going to get the nomination (even after the primaries were over)?
Are they out drinking with the ones who said Baraq & Biden wouldn’t be on the D ticket?
Oddly enough, I would call it almost a mirror image of what happened to the Democrats in 1968 and 1972.
In their case, in 1968 their parties radical wing tried to take the party by storm and were met with force and crushed, with the Democrats losing to Nixon. But by 1972 the radicals were strong enough to take the convention and displace the old guard. And the radicals have controlled the Democrats ever since.
However, in this case, the Tea Party has been slowly and methodically taking out the RINOs and liberals who control the party. So this year is possibly their last convention in control. They have won this battle, but whether or not Romney wins, by 2016, if the Tea Party keeps it up, the old guard will be overthrown, and conservatives will control the party.
And once the RINOs and liberals are overthrown, that will be their political end for a very long time. People like Karl Rove will be out on the street, stripped of power and influence.
Just don’t underestimate the lengths they’ll go to in order to hang onto power. Just look around FR at how many have gone full Alinsky in an effort to destroy opposition to their masters.
These people have no problem with a gestapo as long as the target is right.
Of all the things Ron Paul has NOT managed to do, passing a bunch of new laws is by far my favorite.
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