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Coming Home

Back in February, I wrote about how I was still on the fence about finding my political home (Time To Come Home. But where is home?), torn between the Libertarian party I’ve been part of since 2001, and the Republican Party with I’ve only become involved in within the past year.

Well folks, after almost a year of deep consideration, I’ve decided that I will not be renewing my membership in the Libertarian Party next April when my years dues are up. A lot of factors went into this decision, but here are my main points.

• In the GOP, rising to power means you will realistically be able to accomplish something. For example, your influence on candidates, the people at large and policy is greater. Basically, saying you’re a “higher up” in the GOP gives you a lot more cloud, within the party and outside, than being a higher ranked person in a third party.
• The people you meet will be able to do a lot more for you as far as people to volunteer, make phone calls and raise money. Even as a Ron Paul republican, I’ve met a lot of people who have been more than willing to help as long as we can do each other right, even if they were McCain, Guliani, or Bush supporters.
• The elections can actually focus on trying to WIN the seat you’re running for. The biggest problems within the LP was that every year we struggle to raise money just to try to make seemingly simple things like ballot access a reality. As a GOP candidate, you have everything in place and you can focus your time and resources on winning your race.
• Less explanation with the general public. If you say “I’m a Libertarian” you first have to explain what that is and deal with all their questions before you can even begin to talk about yourself and what you believe. Now, I can just say “Libertarian Republican”, “Ron Paul Republican”, “Republican, more more liberal on social issues”, or “Republican who joined the party now because I like it, but because I want to change it and make it better”.
• Better Networking. It’s no secret that the LP, the Constitution Party, The Green Party, etc. inherit a fair amount of crazies and wackjobs who were rejected by the major parties. The people in the GOP, while I don’t agree with them politically 100% of the time, are already opening up to me and providing me with more opportunities and people than I could have imagined.Not to mention the Campaign for Liberty people who have been awesome.
• You get people who actually know how to run campaigns involved. Within the LP, it’s hard to find a long time LP member who has experience actually winning elections. It’s good having people on your side who actually know what it takes to win things. Basically, I’m sick of donating to campaigns to watch the money being spent on stupid things that make me facepalm like you wouldn’t believe.
• The LP is constantly badgering me for money and whatnot. The GOP, not so much. That’s nice.

Instead of paying my $35 / year to stay with the LP, I will instead be using that money towards Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty, where I’ve already signed up as a precinct leader. Which has already been a greater social networking and online resource than the LP has been. Not to mention all the educational stuff that comes with it. The people I’ve met through the Ron Paul campaign and now the Campaign for Liberty have been what the LP has needed for so long, but to realistically win elections and change the way things are done, we’re going to have to be republicans to make it happen.

So we all joined up as precinct delegates. We are coming to the meetings and conventions. We’re known and (more or less) liked (well, at least tolerated, if cautiously at times) by much of the old crowd who is excited to see new energetic people in the party (although there are some who have been less enthusiastic. BTW did I mention that I am not supporting Saul Anuzis for RNC chairman? Maybe I’ll do a blog post on that sometime soon as well for my upcoming Michigan GOP statewide election endorsements as well).

On a side note, I have also joined the Objectivist Party, newly formed in 2008 by Dr. Thomas Stevens. Just because it will be nice to help grow a party up from the ground up and this is truely a group that really, really represents my views as a person at the core, which I can even say the LP does not do, since it is geared towards America and the Constitution, Objectivism is a way of life and a Philisophy for anywhere. While it advocates free market capitalism to the point of making Adam Smith blush, it is most importantly about doing best for the self: that if everyone looked out for ourselves everyone would be taken care of. Its a message that I personally take to heart and the more I think about it the more I realize that Objectivism really has shaped the person that I am today. And while i’m no Howard Roark myself, it doesn’t mean that I can’t aspire to be.

This is not to mention the involvement I’ve had with the John Birch Society. While I don’t feel their stances on religion as much as I do the pro freedom and constitutional message, they’ve all been great people and I’m very glad I decided to join up with these folks. As a matter of fact the regional recruiter Tom Rice whom I met a few months back called me up last week just to touch base and wish me a Merry Christmas. Another person who’se aquaintence I have been glad to make this past year.

So this is where I’ve nested. Officially in the GOP, the Campaign for Liberty  and the JBS with a place in the Objectivist Party as well. I’ve already begun making headway. I’m attending conventions and social functions meeting some great people. I was also recently elected the Treasurer of the Macomb County Young Republicans, appointed an ambassador in the Campaign for Liberty, and am working hard with people on all sides of the isle. I’m loving it.

And while I will still be supporting LP candidates in races in the future, I will continue to do what I’ve always done: vote for who I feel is best equipped for the job and who I feel best represents the direction the country needs to go in. Regardless of party.

Considering it all started off with me being able to campaign for Ron Paul last January, looking back it’s hard to believe that breaking my knee cap turned out to be so beneficial in the long run.

….although I stil have a hard time swallowing the fact that I’m a Republican Party member, but i’m getting used to the idea.

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The Case for Bob Barr

The Freedom movement has been torn between two people in the wake of Ron Paul losing the GOP Primary. We have been stuck between two candidates that have left many of us in a place where we aren’t sure where to turn. On one hand, you have Pastor Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party, and the Libertarian Nominee, former GOP House Representative Bob Barr. There’s little question that the LP had to sell their soul to the devil a little bit to nominate Barr, a man who they once prided on kicking out of office. Baldwin is a strong charismatic speaker and reminds me a lot of the late Harry Browne in his relentless focus in not deterring from his views no matter what. 

However, I’ve been in the Barr camp since the nomination. And the reasoning behind it is simple when it comes right down to it. 

Barr isn’t by any standards the perfect LP candidate. He was part of the GOP takeover of congress in 1994 and was quite a force as a drug Czar and called for Clinton’s impeachment on campaign finance long before Lewinskygate. He voted for the war and the Patriot Act, as well as numerous other skeletons in his closet that make him a less than attractive choice with an option like Baldwin on the table. 

However, he has since changed his stance on numerous issues, including the Patriot Act, the War, the War on Drugs, etc. He’s not 100% Libertarian by any means, but he has recognized that the things he supported in the past did not work. 

Some could easily dismiss this as a simple flip flop on issues, as we are used to seeing in elections. But this goes back deeper than that. Barr did not announce his candidacy for president until May, not long before the LP convention over Memorial Day weekend. And by then his issues were already firmly in place. Unlike former Alaska Senator (I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty sick about hearing about anything alaska-related for a while) Mike Gravel who jumped ship over to the party to try and get the nomination, Barr has been working within the LP for years now, having left congress in 2003 and endorsing Michael Badnarik in 2004. 

What I like about this is that what has happened to Barr needs to be what happens to ALL congressmen. How many times have we seen people in politics refuse to admit that their plans didn’t work? Or that their positions were wrong on something? How many times have you heard a politician say that they regretted a bill they sponsored, voted for, or a position they had? Those kind of statements are unheard of in politics. Yet Barr has the balls to come out and say, essentially, “I fucked up, what I did was wrong, and I’m looking in a new direction now”.

As Ron Paul supporters, we have made it our mission to go out and turn people around. People that would be voting for Obama or McCain have seen our way of thinking, and yet we celebrate their awakening, yet many are quick to jump the gun and call Barr’s awakening fraudulent. Of course there’s no real way of telling for sure if he’s completely genuine. But I find it hypocritical of the Freedom Movement to say that we want to get politicians and people to see our side, and here is a man claiming to have done so, long before the Ron Paul bandwagon I might add, who we immediately question. 

Is it possible that Barr is playing us like a fiddle? Sure. It is possible he’s a GOP plant into the LP? Sure. In reflecting upon this, we must also realize that it’s entirely possible that he is sincere and that he has performed a 180. And if that’s true, we need to show the other politicians that we will support them if they are able to see the way things should be done.

Things get sticky when we consider that Paul has now endorsed Baldwin. This is primarily the effect of a couple stupid moves made by Barr’s campaign manager, Russ Verney (who also headed Perot’s campaign). First Verney decided that Barr shouldn’t appear at Paul’s bipartisan endorsement at the Washington Press Club, for reasons that I’m still struggling to understand. Then we had him get Barr to ask Paul to be his VP, which was just weird. So Paul turned around and endorsed Baldwin, and I’m not going to punish Barr for a few dumb mistakes made by his campaign manager, the same as we didn’t chastise Paul for decisions made by the late Kent Snyder.

I’ve seen Chuck Baldwin speak. He’s a fantastic man and I would have no regrets about voting for him. I’ve watched him speak before, and he is a man of whom I have a tremendous amount of respect for. However, odds are I’ll be voting for the man who I feel has led the example for all mainstream GOP and Democrat politicians to follow, and that is Bob Barr. Best of luck of course to Barr and Baldwin, let’s show ‘em that liberty is NOT dead.

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Rally for the Republic Part I

So last night at almost 8pm sharp we departed for Minnesota. Aside from a few stops for gas and whatnot the only real stopping we did was for Dinner at Big Boy before we had even left Michigan. I took something to help me sleep and out I went, somewhat waking up at a few points during the night. I’m just now coming out of my haze from this medication (apparently if you don’t get enough sleep that it messes with you, I was slurring my speech a bit before I came out of it recently and am now even coherent to type!). But considering we were all alive and well when I woke up I’m assuming everything with the trip went swimmingly.

After a healthy McDonalds breakfast we drove around the Twin Cities for a bit to see what was going on, not a whole lot anywhere. So we went to the hotel to see if we could get into our rooms early, of course, no dice. And since we were looking to help out we went down to the Target Center to see if there was anything we could do. None of our people were there yet so after some waiting and deliberation we decided to try the Hotel again. Of course, no rooms. But we could change clothes and are currently waiting in the lobby to go to the book signing. I’m the only one really awake at this point, everyone else is drifting out of sleep.

But I’m gunna catch up on some reading before the book signing, so I’m going to help myself to some free coffee with my free wireless and will update again later tonite.

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Time to Come Home. But where is home?

I received a letter from the Libertarian Party last week that’s been at the forefront of my mind since I got it. During the first parts of the Paul campaign, people were talking about how they had joined the Republican Party so they could possibly serve as delegates or something of the like. While others, such as myself, believe(d) that the infiltration of the party would be too difficult and that we need to stick to the LP platform in order to get things done.

But lately, I’ve been on the fence about it.

The letter from the LP talked about how people had joined the GOP for voting purposes and other things, but now it’s time to come back home to the LP. The points being that the GOP is not going to give us the time of day and that we are stronger as a political party force as Libertarians. Which was always my philisophy to begin with. They made the point about how we would have never become a country had we tried to infiltrate the British instead of going against them. They’re saying that we all did what we had to do, but it’s time to come home.

I hate the 2 party system, but there’s a strong argument on the other side too. Despite being ignored by the media, Ron Paul would have never gotten the movement together that he did if he was still on the LP ticket. While infiltrating the republican party would be hard to get anything done, doing it as a Libertarian is nearly impossible. We are working to change that, but at the same time, it is very very hard. I also think this is much different than the idea of infiltrating the Brits. For one, we weren’t allowed to. We didn’t have representatives in their government and were pretty much at their mercy. Where as the GOP can be changed if we get enough people behind our ideals. Even in the past 30 years the GOP has gone through many changes as far as what the party represents and who is to lead it.

So the question that crosses my mind: Do I stay the course with the LP and continue to build on that. Or do I decide it’s best to support constitutional and liberty minded republicans instead? There are people like Jim Forsythe and a couple dozen others around the country that plan on running as “Ron Paul Republicans”. Where in lies our greatest chance for change? For restoring liberty and constitutional freedoms? I don’t know yet. I’m still thinking.

But I can’t belive I’m considering joining the Republican Party to do this. Ugh. Talk about something I never thought I would do.

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March for Freedom

So today was the Ron Paul March down in Detroit. Considering the first a lot of us in the 586 had heard about this was a few days ago I think we got a good turnout from the Tri-County area. We started out with about 25 people and that number had about doubled by the time we were all done and going to disperse.

After we all figured out where we were meeting we were stopped by the police (of course) while waiting for the rest of our revolutionary comrades, he said as long as we didn’t block the sidewalk and we weren’t protesting it was all good. So off we went. There were a good handful of people I knew from the meeting the other day, and I’d given Frank a ride down there (Candy was supposed to ride down with us too but she got tied up with grandkids) so I wasn’t completely alone in this sea of people. We traveled through Greektown. It was great to be able to be around people speaking frankly about how they feel about politics, which we all appreciated because anywhere else I’m sure it usually leads to argument (well, it does with me anyways).

Anyways, we hit up The Spirit of Detroit, Heart Plaza, Campus Martias, Comerica Park et. cetera, et. cetera, et. cetera.

So it was a blast and I met some really cool people there. A few of them stood out, the first being Eric, this cat (and one of the few other minority race members in the group) was talking to me and Frank about the dangers of FEMA, Martial Law, and Directive 51, some serious shit. Another was Carrie (you can see her somewhat hiding behind a sign to the left of me in the pic), who in addition to a Ron Paul fanatic is a fellow Objectivist and musician. She teaches High School science out in Hillsdale, but still she’s way cool, definitely someone I want to get to know better.

So all in all, it was a really good meetup/march/rally(or if you’re a cop /protest).

Tomorrow I leave for the East Coast for the Primaries. Wish me luck.

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Entering the Arena

Well with all my time off I figured I might as well do something productive with my time. So I’ve decided to get more actively involved in the Ron Paul presidential campaign. So this Sunday I’m volunteering at Gibraltar Trade Center for the gun and knife show, the Macomb County meetup group is getting a table and needs people to staff it. So I’ll be doing that for a few hours.

There’s also something substantially more interesting around the corner for me. Operation Live Free or Die is paying for a bunch of people to come out to New Hampshire for the primaries to get the word out and do some grassroots campaigning in the final push. So I threw my hat into the ring and will be riding out there with 3 other local supporters on Jan 1st. They’ll be reimbursing the drivers for transportation and will be taking care of lodging (however that’s supposed to work I’m not quite sure yet. I guess this will be explained tomorrow)

In addition to all the campaign stuff there will be parties as well as the Liberty Forum and lots of other fun stuff. And hell, I need to get away for a while after being cooped in my house since earlier this month. So I can’t rightly pass up a free few days away as well as a chance to help spread liberty. Don’t know how much I’ll be able to blog while i’m there but I’ll definitely be twittering all of the happenings from out east. I haven’t been anywhere outside of Michigan aside from Ohio and Windsor since before 9/11. It’s time to go see the world while I can.