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Paul Supporters: Please Vote for Obama in November |
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The wing of the Republican Party that is dissatisfied with both George Bush and John McCain has swung back into view recently. Dedicated, activist supporters of Ron Paul are “quietly [plotting] GOP convention revolt against McCain,” the LA Times’ blog tells us. The next battleground after their “stunning success in Nevada,” DailyKos’ McJoan says, is Idaho, where Paul supporters are attempting to take over the state level GOP committee.
If his followers are organized enough, they might be able to pull off a repeat of Nevada and possibly throw a monkey wrench into the downticket races. Both Bill Sali, Idaho’s first district represenative, and Jim Risch, current lieutenant governor and the party establishment’s heir apparent for Larry Craig’s seat, have primaries. Risch, in fact, has seven of opponents, a few of them the run-of-the-mill Idaho Republican kooks (including the Californian who has never been to Idaho), and a few of them fairly serious and committed.
A serious revolt by Paul’s people, should it trickle down the ticket, might give Risch a bit of a scare in his march to the nomination. Once he gets that nomination (and he almost certainly will) he’s going to have to contend with one of two Independent challengers: the elk rancher who has made it his goal in life to harrass Risch (so much so that he decided to run as an Independent, to up his chances of being on the general election ballot), and Pro-Life, a Ron Paul supporter), who has made it his goal in life to be on the Idaho ballot every two years. Is any of this enough to really endanger Risch or McCain in getting their respective nominations? Highly unlikely, but it could make things a little more fun to watch.
Paul’s supporters and their activism aren’t the only symbol of cracks in the Republican Party. Right on the heels of the significant protest votes against McCain in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina, we have Bob Barr declaring his candidacy as a Libertarian. As Blue Texan said this morning,
The GOP brass begged Barr not to run. And Sean Hannity’s complete freak out on this clip shows you just how spooked the wingnuts are over this.
Make no mistake: this is a huge blow to the Republicans, who are already fighting with one arm tied behind their backs thanks to Dubya, Iraq, the economy and Dubya.
I think all this is not just cause for progressives to laugh scornfully at a divided GOP, but also a call for frank dialogue about our country’s future. Having battled a lot with Paul supporters on the pages of this blog I believe that some of them - not all - genuinely have a vision for this country. Though it is a powerful one, I do not agree with it. Nonetheless, I respect their urge to change their party from the inside, and I have done my best to understand their leader’s appeal.
But to Paul supporters, libertarians, and other unhappy Republicans, I have a request to make: vote for Barack Obama this fall. If your efforts bear fruit, and you can weaken McCain, great. Thank you. But don’t cast your vote for Bob Barr or write in Ron Paul on your ballot in November.
Why? Because a vote against McCain is essentially a vote for Obama, even if you cast it for another Republican. So give it to Obama directly, and give it to him as a mandate to end the war in Iraq.
We already had one Democratic president who won with a plurality (not a majority) of votes, twice, because of a third-party, right-leaning candidate. And what mandate did Bill Clinton have? What benefit did Ross Perot’s supporters reap from their votes? Did they have grounds on which to hold Clinton accountable?
If you believe in smaller government, then give Obama a mandate to end the war. Let’s elect him not with an electorate divided 43-37-19, as it was in 1992, nor even 49-40-8, as it was in 1996, but with a majority, a real majority, and one that signals to him that that majority wants the war to end.
Can we not start there? After the US leaves Iraq, you can go back to calling me a socialist, and I can go back to calling your free market beliefs naive and immoral, and whatever else we can come up with to throw at each other. But without leaving Iraq, you and I will be having those debates in a country that is poorer and weaker than it is now. A country where we worry more about our children’s futures, about whether the bridges we drive across will hold up, about whether America is going to remain competitive in science and industry.
Let’s not send a confused message to the victor of the presidential election this fall. Let’s not send the message that we are a country divided and unsure about what it wants, simultaneously pulling in three, four, five directions. Let’s send the message that the Bush years are over, definitively, and so is the war.
So do your worst to McCain. But if, in early September, we find that the choice still remains one of Obama versus McCain, then please give your support directly to Barack Obama. Give him that mandate, so that he’ll know that on at least one issue - the biggest issue of our times, in my eyes - the majority of the country speaks with one voice.
As a fellow socialist, I have to agree!
Seriously, though, let’s find a common enemy here, at least for a while. As I said, I can’t wait for the day when progressives battle libertarians instead of corporate Democrats battling corporate Republicans. Here’s hoping.
It’s funny to me that you think a President Barack Obama would actually put an end to the Iraq war. It is hilarious that you are trying to convince the most freedom-loving, liberty-minded folks in the country to vote for the most liberal socialist to ever hold a Senate seat. Most Ron Paul supporters are not one-issue voters. Most Ron Paul supporters would never vote for someone whose ideas are steeped in Communism and whose loyalty lies not with this country. I enjoyed your soapbox and share your dislike of McCain, but you’re barking up the wrong forest with this rant. As a native of Idaho living in Texas, I hope the Ron Paul delegates shake things up in the GOP. Republicans and RINOs deserve a good scare.
You’re dodging the issue here and you know it.
I guess calling Obama a socialist is an easy way to score points, but you know that he’s not. If Paul’s supporters have the sense of American history they claim to, certainly you will recognize that your statement that Obama is “the most lieral socialist to ever hold a Senate seat” is blatantly false exaggeration. He is not even the most liberal sitting senator. Bernie Sanders, for what it’s worth, is a self-described socialist.
Whether Obama will really end the war is an open question. But again, you’re dodging the issue - do you think he’d be more likely to end it if he won with a 55% majority or a 48% plurality?
What are you going to do in November, stay home? Write in Ron Paul and feel superior?
Obama is widely known to vote to the left of Bernie Sanders. Look at their records side by side and you will see what I mean. My assertion about the war is that Obama’s supposed determination to end it is, in my opinion, smoke and mirrors. The War is a gigantic machine with such deep pockets, a puppet American president alone cannot control its course.
The moral of the story is that it doesn’t really matter who moves in to the White House. Our problems in this country are much larger than the figurehead who presides over them. No, I will not stay home in November. I’ve always voted for names printed on my ballot. I just don’t think this election is very important in the grand scheme of things. There is such little real difference between the three frontrunners, it’s pathetic.
My focus personally and professionally is in issue education. It’s my only hope. Politics is no savior; neither is government.
I think there are some points of agreement here; what’s too bad in these discussions is that I think progressives and Paul supporters often project a lot onto each other instead of talking as individuals. I think I share some of your disenchantment with politics. At the same time, though, I’ve racked my brain trying to think of how to end the war. I write about it. I’ve attended anti-war protests. I’ve voted against Bush. Whenever the war comes up in conversation, I speak out against it. I’ve opposed it since the beginning.
I regard a vote for Obama as one contribution to ending the war. Even from the perspective of self-interest, he has a stake in ending the war. If he doesn’t move toward withdrawal, I doubt he would get re-elected. And if the country speaks out this year, he’ll know where the majority stands.
Does that mean I won’t continue other antiwar activities? Certainly not. As you say, issue education is important. I intend to keep writing, keep protesting, keep thinking, keep throwing events, etc.
But to say there is little difference between Obama and McCain is, I think, willful blindness. When McCain talks about staying in Iraq for 100 years and Obama talks about leaving in 16 months, the choice is clear. It’s partly cynicism that has gotten us into this mess. If we don’t reward politicians who move toward messages we like, then we may as well stay home.
If you want a pet - get a dog. If you can find him an ID maybe he will pull the trigger for you.
I worked for the RP campaign in Iowa and Nevada and I will be casting my vote for Obama in November.
I respect that, Mike. Are you following what’s going on in Idaho now?
You sir are a commie. Your visions are and will kill America forever. If you would start hearing the message instead of shooting the messenger you might actually get it and not have to be thrown into a FEMA concentration camp.
As a Democrat, I’m not much concerned with mandates, just with winning the White House after idiotic failures in 2000 and 2004. If Paulites choose to back Bob Barr (or write-in RP) and coax potential McCain voters into doing the same, I don’t have a problem with those votes not falling in Obama’s column.
But no, I don’t expect them to be electorally disingenuous since, yes, Senator Obama’s views are much different than those of Representative Paul’s.
You don’t think there’s an important difference between a 43-37-19 win and a 55-45 win?
Johnson won with over 60% in 1964.
Carter won with 50.1% in 1976.
Clinton never had a majority.
I think it’s time to reverse the trend.
The funniest part of this opinion is its attempt to coerce Paul supporters to vote a certain way… You must see the humor in that. I mean, we are talking about libertarians here. We don’t respond well to coercion, be it from our neighbors or from our government. I might vote for Obama, but it wont be out of some notion that I am compelled to out of the rational that you present.
If you are attempting to appeal to the third party, free-thinking, peoples that you address here, then I would suggest a different approach.
Also, I would love for you to illustrate to me how free-market capitalism is “immoral.” Amoral, Ill accept. And your categorization of our beliefs as naive simply suggests that you have probably never read any of the literature published by those who study the Austrian school of Economics. If you have, please let me know and I would love to discus your Keynesian views.
That is totally outrageous, Ron Paul stands for just about everything that Obama does NOT….
While John McCain isn’t any better, that is not the point…
They (Paul and Obama) both are against the Iraq War that is about the only similiarity… And even at that I’m not convinced Obama really wants to pull us out of there…
He is certainly “with the program” as far as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran are concerned (he will not hesitate to blast them back to the stone age), and I don’t believe he voted against the Iraq War the first time…
Obama is pro “big brother” (Patriot Act, illegal surveillance, etc) and Paul is against dead against it..
Paul wants to abolish the Federal Reserve, whereas Obama is in bed with those that profit from the Federal Reserve! (via his ties with Brzezinski/Rockefellers)
Obama is for a global tax to make all of us poorer in the name of “helping poverty worldwide”. Ron Paul wants to pull out of the UN, WTO, and all of the other world government alphabet soup organizations… You couldn’t be anymore different…
I mean, really, this is some of the biggest bull I’ve ever read in my life…