How Ron Paul is Injecting Principle into the GOP
This column by Ron Paul activist and delegate Craig Westover in Minnesota’s Star Tribune is a response to accusations that our movement is somehow “fringe” and meaningless. Anybody who truly believes this simply hasn’t been paying attention to American politics for the last four years. Westover makes interesting comparisons, to both religious conservatives and the gay rights movement, and finishes by explaining how we’re injecting genuine limited government principles into the Republican Party:
First, let’s understand what a “movement” or a “revolution” is. All movements — the Pat Robertson Republican coup in the 1980s, gay rights, women’s suffrage, civil rights and, yes, the Ron Paul movement — follow a common pattern.
Movements all begin at the margins with people who have little or nothing to lose. Unsuccessful movements never expand beyond the sloganeering fringe. Successful movements — those with an intellectual and moral basis — mature to attract a mainstream following.
The gay-rights movement is a great example. Shirtless hunks in leather tutus and motorcycling “Dykes on Bikes” are no longer the point of the gay-rights spear. It’s the gay lawyer/gay accountant, lesbian legislator/lesbian physician — same-sex couples with kids and fundamental concerns about faith, family and freedom — who are now the face of the movement.
Focusing commentary on the remnants of the gay-rights fringe is something the media would never do. But focusing on the fringe of the Ron Paul movement is exactly what the Strib and WaPo commentaries actually do.
Libertarians today are on that cusp between being all about the T-shirt and all about ideas. I was a libertarian before it was cool and a Republican when it wasn’t cool.
As a political force in the 1970s, libertarians had little to lose… Times have changed…
Libertarians today are less about provocative issues and more about reversing the expanding scope of government. Government expansion is bad in itself, but the future consequences are worse: Without defined limits on government, our liberties, our American republic, are truly at risk…
The power of an idea, personal freedom, doesn’t lie in manufactured popularity.
What about that Paul-inspired “wacky,” “nutty” “constitutional fundamentalism” found in Republican Party platforms?
Sure, abolishing the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Reserve is not going to happen even under a President Paul. But a political party that seriously considers abolishing cabinet-level departments and unaccountable government entities is a political party that probably won’t advocate for a new cabinet-level “Department of the Internet” and is serious about monetary policy.
It’s a party that stands for something.
That brings us to the WaPo admonition that “Paulites” learn to compromise…
One does not compromise principle. It’s a cliché and a fallacy that, given two diametrically opposed points of view, the “truth” must necessarily lie somewhere in the middle.
The Republican problem is buying into the “compromise is good” argument and declaring victory for every move to the left that “could have been so much worse.”
Paulites won’t make that compromise.
Ron Paul delegates to the RNC will support the nominee. However, integral to that support is holding the candidate and the party to the fundamental principles of limited government and personal and economic freedom. Constancy to principle is the ultimate loyalty.
All that said, I urge our media friends to examine the
default position that government is good and invite them to think for
themselves. The Ron Paul revolution offers the media, the Republican
Party and America that opportunity. Take it.
Paul’s “Machine”
Ron Paul is 3 for 3 in his endorsements in the last two weeks. Paul endorsed Kurt Bills, and Bills is now the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota. Paul endorsed Thomas Massie, and Massie is now the GOP nominee in Kentucky’s 4th congressional district race. Paul endorsed Ted Cruz, and as of last night Cruz will now go head-to-head with Lt. Governor David Dewhurst in a Texas runoff for the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate.
Coincidence? Not according to Buzzfeed’s Rosie Gray who says Ron and Rand Paul are building a “machine:”
Ron Paul, still, if barely, a presidential candidate, suffered another landslide defeat in the Kentucky primary last week. But the Pauls won anyway:
Their hand-picked candidate Thomas Massie, backed by Kentucky senator
Rand Paul and funded by a wealthy 21-year-old Texan Paul acolyte with a
super PAC, won his hotly-contested House primary by a decisive margin.
Quietly, from the remnants of two failed presidential campaigns and the formidable online Paul organizations, a political machine is being born. The Paul agenda of extremely limited government, suspicion of economic elites, and their true outsider street cred have broad appeal in their party’s politics… The Republican Senate nominees in Wisconsin and Minnesota this cycle owe their nomination in part to the Paul influence. A Paul acolyte, Ted Cruz, is on the cusp of an upset victory over the establishment favorite in Texas Republican Senate primary. And Paul’s son Rand, the junior senator from Kentucky, is now mentioned seriously as a prospect for the 2016 Republican nomination should Mitt Romney fall short in November.
This new attention to state races is, a Paul advisor said, a matter of strategy.
“As Ron Paul moves on to a different phase, there will be other leaders who are in a position to emerge,” said the Republican strategist close to the Paul campaign. “Obviously the more people who are sympathetic to their issues, a host of those is a positive thing for the bigger movement. That’s part of the objectives.”
Of the major strategic goals that Paul’s camp is focusing on now — picking up delegates, getting issues onto the platform at the convention, and getting libertarians included in the mainstream Republican party — the last is “critical,” the strategist said:“You’ve got a bunch of other people who can go and lead and build off our infrastructures…”
Quietly, from the remnants of two failed presidential campaigns and the formidable online Paul organizations, a political machine is being born. The Paul agenda of extremely limited government, suspicion of economic elites, and their true outsider street cred have broad appeal in their party’s politics… The Republican Senate nominees in Wisconsin and Minnesota this cycle owe their nomination in part to the Paul influence. A Paul acolyte, Ted Cruz, is on the cusp of an upset victory over the establishment favorite in Texas Republican Senate primary. And Paul’s son Rand, the junior senator from Kentucky, is now mentioned seriously as a prospect for the 2016 Republican nomination should Mitt Romney fall short in November.
This new attention to state races is, a Paul advisor said, a matter of strategy.
“As Ron Paul moves on to a different phase, there will be other leaders who are in a position to emerge,” said the Republican strategist close to the Paul campaign. “Obviously the more people who are sympathetic to their issues, a host of those is a positive thing for the bigger movement. That’s part of the objectives.”
Of the major strategic goals that Paul’s camp is focusing on now — picking up delegates, getting issues onto the platform at the convention, and getting libertarians included in the mainstream Republican party — the last is “critical,” the strategist said:“You’ve got a bunch of other people who can go and lead and build off our infrastructures…”
“Congressman and Senator Paul are both deeply dedicated to
helping elect principled Constitutionalists to office and are both
working directly and indirectly with dozens of candidates across the
country,” said Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton.
A few high-profile candidates, like Ted Cruz in Texas, have been particularly successful at profiting from the Paul anointment. Father and son appeared with him at a rally in Texas and conducted a moneybomb for him. And recent polling suggests Cruz will make it into a runoff with Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in July, a scenario many believes favors the outsider.
Kurt Bills, a Minnesota congressman who recently won his primary to face off against Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also benefited from an unusually strong Paulite apparatus in that state, one that also took over the states convention. Bills benefited, too, from Paul himself campaigning and fundraising with him, and sending out fundraising emails on his behalf.
An email on Paul’s Bills endorsement from the end of March: “If elected to the U.S. Senate, Kurt will join my son, Rand, in leading the fight for fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, and constitutional principles in Washington, D.C…”
A few high-profile candidates, like Ted Cruz in Texas, have been particularly successful at profiting from the Paul anointment. Father and son appeared with him at a rally in Texas and conducted a moneybomb for him. And recent polling suggests Cruz will make it into a runoff with Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in July, a scenario many believes favors the outsider.
Kurt Bills, a Minnesota congressman who recently won his primary to face off against Sen. Amy Klobuchar, also benefited from an unusually strong Paulite apparatus in that state, one that also took over the states convention. Bills benefited, too, from Paul himself campaigning and fundraising with him, and sending out fundraising emails on his behalf.
An email on Paul’s Bills endorsement from the end of March: “If elected to the U.S. Senate, Kurt will join my son, Rand, in leading the fight for fiscal responsibility, individual liberty, and constitutional principles in Washington, D.C…”
“These congressmen and state officials and new federal officials are
lining up with us because we have the soldiers,” said Paul adviser Doug
Wead. “If you want to run for office, you have to have them. They are the activist base of the Republican Party now…”
US terror strikes kill 31 in 72 hours
A US terror drone fires a Hellfire missile (file photo)
US terror drones and attack helicopters have killed 31 people in Yemen, Pakistan, and Afghanistan over the course of 72 hours.
A non-UN sanctioned US assassination drone strike in the southern Yemeni province of Bayda left seven people dead on Monday. The drone fired missiles on a convoy of three cars near the town of Radda, 160 kilometers south of the Yemeni capital Sana’a.
A local official said the target of the strike was al-Qaeda's leader in Bayda province, Qaed al-Dahab, and his brother, both of whom escaped uninjured.
Also on Monday, two separate US drone attacks killed at least twelve people in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area, which borders Afghanistan.
Both airstrikes took place near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.
The first attack happened early in the morning in the town of Hassokhel, 25 kilometers east of Miranshah. A Pakistani security official said US drones fired four missiles at a compound, leaving eight people dead.
The second attack, late in the evening, targeted a vehicle in the Datta Khel district, 30 kilometers west of Miranshah, and killed four people.
Monday’s second airstrike was the fifth attack on North Waziristan since Wednesday. The five non-UN sanctioned US assassination drone strikes left 31 people dead in Pakistan -- five on Wednesday, ten on Thursday, four on Saturday, and twelve on Monday.
In Afghanistan, US attack helicopters launched an airstrike that wiped out an entire family.
On Sunday, a spokesman for the governor of Paktia province said Mohammad Shafi, his wife, and their six children died in an airstrike late on Saturday in the village of Suri Khail in the Gurda Saria district.
“Shafi was not a Taliban. He was not in any opposition group against the government. He was a villager,” the official said. “Right now, we are working on this case to find out the ages of their children and how many of them are boys and girls.”
The US is conducting airstrikes with warplanes, attack helicopters, and drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
Washington claims that its airstrikes target militants, but local sources say civilians have been the main victims of the attacks. The UN has called the US drone attacks targeted killings that flout international law.
On January 31, President Barack Obama confirmed that the US uses the unmanned drones in Pakistan and other countries.
In reply to questions about the use of the assassination drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube, the US president said, “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA” -- Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
GJH/HGL
Pope condemns 'gratuitous' media coverage of Vatican leaks
The Pope has condemned as "gratuitous" the media's coverage of a scandal involving the arrest of his butler on suspicion of stealing confidential Vatican documents.
Pope Benedict XVI is flanked by his private secretary Georg Gaenswein, top left, and his butler Paolo Gabiele Photo: AP
In his first public comments on the affair, Pope
Benedict XVI spoke in unusually forthright terms about the scandal,
which has led to days of fevered speculation in the Italian press.
The Pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested last week and is being held in "secure
rooms" inside the Vatican by the city state's Gendarmerie.
His cell, and an attached bathroom, is subjected to 24-hour camera
surveillance.
He has agreed to co-operate fully with Vatican
investigators, suggesting that he may implicate others in the scandal,
possibly much more senior figures within the Catholic Church.
Vatican magistrates are reportedly collaborating with the Italian secret
service in intercepting suspects' mobile phone calls and emails.
A specially-appointed team of three cardinals, including one from the Opus Dei
movement, is hunting for other moles within the Holy See in a scandal that
has escalated into one of the worst crises of Benedict's seven-year papacy.
"Suggestions have multiplied, amplified by some media which are totally gratuitous and which have gone well beyond the facts, offering an image of the Holy See which does not correspond to reality," the Pope, 85, said at the end of a general audience in St Peter's Square.
Many Vatican experts believe that the 46-year-old butler did not act alone, and that he may have been used simply as the courier of the stolen documents by more powerful figures.
Many of the leaked papers reflect poorly on Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state and de facto "prime minister" of the Vatican, and there is speculation that disaffected cardinals unhappy with his style of governance are deliberately trying to discredit him.
The Pope addressed the issue directly, denying that the Vatican was riven with jealousy and intrigue.
"I would like to renew my trust and my encouragement to my closest collaborators and all those who every day, with faith, a spirit of sacrifice and in silence help me to perform my ministry," he said.
He told crowds in St Peter's Square that it was sometimes necessary to deal with "conflicts in human relations, often from within one's own family".
A German cardinal who has known the Pope for decades, said he was "saddened" by the scandal over the confidential documents.
"He is saddened, naturally, but he is also calm because he has complete faith in the help that he is receiving from on high," Walter Brandmuller, 83, told La Stampa.
Catholics had also been pained by the scandal but now felt "closer than ever" to the Pope because they shared his anguish, Cardinal Brandmuller said.
While the majority of the Curia, the Vatican's administration, was loyal to the Pope, "unfortunately one can never exclude that there could be cases of disloyalty," he said.
"Suggestions have multiplied, amplified by some media which are totally gratuitous and which have gone well beyond the facts, offering an image of the Holy See which does not correspond to reality," the Pope, 85, said at the end of a general audience in St Peter's Square.
Many Vatican experts believe that the 46-year-old butler did not act alone, and that he may have been used simply as the courier of the stolen documents by more powerful figures.
Many of the leaked papers reflect poorly on Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state and de facto "prime minister" of the Vatican, and there is speculation that disaffected cardinals unhappy with his style of governance are deliberately trying to discredit him.
The Pope addressed the issue directly, denying that the Vatican was riven with jealousy and intrigue.
"I would like to renew my trust and my encouragement to my closest collaborators and all those who every day, with faith, a spirit of sacrifice and in silence help me to perform my ministry," he said.
He told crowds in St Peter's Square that it was sometimes necessary to deal with "conflicts in human relations, often from within one's own family".
A German cardinal who has known the Pope for decades, said he was "saddened" by the scandal over the confidential documents.
"He is saddened, naturally, but he is also calm because he has complete faith in the help that he is receiving from on high," Walter Brandmuller, 83, told La Stampa.
Catholics had also been pained by the scandal but now felt "closer than ever" to the Pope because they shared his anguish, Cardinal Brandmuller said.
While the majority of the Curia, the Vatican's administration, was loyal to the Pope, "unfortunately one can never exclude that there could be cases of disloyalty," he said.
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