Dr Ron Paul: Our Inspiration

Note: If you are a US citizen living in Australia, and want to know how to vote for Ron Paul, please email me at anthony(AT)la.org.au OR visit the US Federal Voting Assistance Program website at http://www.fvap.gov/

United States Congressman Ron Paul announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican Party Presidential nomination on the 12th of March, 2007. At the time, he was relatively unknown, even in the US.

That would soon change.

Around that time I was browsing YouTube, which was then still in its infancy. Somehow, I found myself watching a video of this bloke. I can't recall whether it was a debate, interview or speech, but it took about 15 seconds for his message to deeply resonate.

Below: Dr Ron Paul debating in early 2007 (left) & early 2008 (right)

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I watched the debates online, read every article, watched every interview and listened to every speech. Immediately I noticed the media and the other candidates were treating this man with utter disdain. It was so obvious, and so irritating. They would variously ignore him, laugh at him, slander him, and ask him ridiculous questions designed purely to embarrass.

This strengthened my resolve to do something.

From then on I did everything I could to support his campaign, notwithstanding the obvious difficulty of not being American or in America. I donated to auxiliary causes (international donations to the campaign are illegal), I made many YouTube videos, I joined different forums trying to convince Americans to vote for him, and I started an "Australians 4 Ron Paul" website, containing information on how Australians could help, and how American Citizens living in Australia could register and vote in the primaries via post.

I spent countless hours on RonPaulForums.com, where I would find many other Australian supporters. One of them, Michael Conaghan, would help me design and direct the building of this website, which was conceived in January of 2008. We wanted a professionally built central hub for Australians who are fiercely anti-state. It took a couple of years of hard work and tens of thousands of dollars to build and although it hasn't yet become what we envisioned, hopefully it will in the future, as the Australian branch of the movement grows.

When Ron Paul ended his campaign in June of 2008, I was spared the empty feeling that so many of Ron Paul's American supporters felt (I urge you to watch the "For Liberty" documentary). After spending so much time studying the political process and the entrenched oligarchy in the US, I wasn't under any delusion that he was going to affect a revolution over the course of a year. Ron Paul was trying to change the course of history. He was fighting against an entrenched establishment that has been present for over 100 years, since the time of Theodore Roosevelt, the progressive ideologue who turned his back on the framers of America's Constitution. A true revolution was going to take time and persistence. You can't overthrow something this powerful by simply running for and eventually attaining the US Presidency.

During the campaign Ron Paul was able to make himself a focus point. He was the glue that held together a coalition of constitutionalists, traditional "old right" conservatives and libertarians, with a major anti-war emphasis. He also bought new converts into this fold, who had never before heard this message. They were previously either apathetic or of other political persuasions. This was the beginnings of a winning coalition. A coalition that explicitly and fervently excluded Neoconservative influences and shattered the destructive left-right political paradigm, which had associated free-market economics with vicious war-mongering and lack of compassion.

When Ron Paul ended his campaign, this coalition might have broken up, but Ron Paul didn't allow that to happen. Indeed, this is precisely why the campaign ended far earlier than it could have. Using his remaining campaign funds, amounting to a few million dollars, he was able to siphon the massive momentum of his presidential campaign, into an organisation that would continue working in the same direction, on many different fronts. This kept the coalition together and prevented a tragedy.

Alternatively Ron Paul could've continued campaigning, using that money to make a bigger name of himself. He didn't. His sole end was always furthering the message. This was the beginning of a revolution and he was just "lucky enough to be a part of it".

Initially he called the organisation Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty. The words "Ron Paul's" were present in big letters in the official logo. Then, as time wore on, his name got smaller, until it completely disappeared. Ron Paul is a humble man. He knows he's not going to be around forever, and he has no interest in being the focus and beneficiary of a personality-cult. He wants the philosophy, not himself, to be the glue that holds this thing together. So very often he refers to "we" and "our" rather than "I" and "my". Solely, he wants to further the cause, regardless of whether he is alive to see the benefits.

In the interim period between 2008 and now, his organisation has grown. And it's an organisation not only designed to spread a philosophy, but to win elections.

I had no doubt that Ron Paul would run again for 2012, if for no other reason than to further spread the message. This time though, the movement wields real political power, and is threatening a victory in the Iowa Caucuses, the first contest of this primary season. The 100-year establishment and its minions in the media, business, think tanks and the two major parties, are absolutely hysterical.

I learnt, during the 2008 campaign, that the mainstream media is completely and utterly controlled. Unbiased news in major media is a myth, including in Australia. Propaganda techniques are rampant, whilst a veneer of plausible deniability to the ill-informed, unattentive general populous, is maintained. They inflicted maximum damage on Ron at key points in the campaign, using omission, distortion, straw-men, out-of-context quotes, awful photos and repeating over and over again, key words and phrases like "kook", "flake", "crackpot", "fringe", "conspiracy nut", "racist", "no chance to win". All of it designed to destroy the rational thought process of the viewer.

Back in 2007-2008, I'd be having constant conniption fits over the media treatment of Dr Paul. This time though, the propaganda has increased to such an extent that I try to siphon my anger into working harder, rather that wasting time screaming at the walls. The media's war on Ron is now pretty widely accepted, at least in part.

One of the most laughable smears against Ron is that he is anti-Semitic. Laughable because one of his heroes is Ludwig von Mises, a Jew. Dr Paul calls Mises "the greatest economist of the 20th century", and wrote a whole book on the subject.

As far back as 1988, when he first ran for President, Dr Ron Paul was attacking the US federal government's "drug war", saying its a racist policy that results in a disproportionate number of black folks being locked up. Black people, who have known Ron Paul for 20+ years, call the accusations of racism against him ridiculous, including free market economist Walter Williams PhD and the NAACP Director for the Austin, Texas branch, Nelson Linder.

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With regard to his ghost-written newsletters from the 1980s and 1990s, yes, Dr Paul made a mistake in not policing what was going out under his name. The man is not perfect, but he is the closest thing to perfect you're ever going to get. That is why the establishment-controlled media desperately needs to find ways to keep the distorted newsletter story in the news cycle. New angles, new comments, continual badgering. They simply have nothing else on him.

Now Ron Paul is on the verge of taking the state of Iowa in their Caucus on January 3rd, the first election of the race. He is also polling second in the state of New Hampshire, which will be the second election a week after Iowa. This is the cutting edge of the movement to overthrow the establishment. They will pull out all the stops to prevent a Ron Paul victory. Nothing, including misleading polling, is too extreme for these people.

I urge Australians to do everything they can to support Ron Paul.

1. Get American citizens to register and vote in the primaries. Voting is important, even when there is fraud, because it makes fraud more difficult and allows it to be uncovered.

2. You can donate to auxiliary causes like ...

• This website
• The Daily Paul & Ron Paul Forums websites, who will put the money to good use.
• Some chip-ins for things like road trips to Iowa and New Hampshire and Ron Paul meetup groups (look out for these. They pop up here and there.). Eg; here

 3. Talk Ron Paul up on US forums, make YouTube videos, post blogs etc

And be sure to call out Australian media outlets (especially the Murdoch rags) for distorting Ron Paul's views or smearing him to Australian audiences.

update: Strong 3rd in Iowa (with questions remaining about vote fraud) & 2nd in New Hampshire !!!!