Ron Paul; The Six Million Dollar Man
In my previous post, as some of you have learned, I am a supporter of Ron Paul for President in 2008.
On Sunday, the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, Ron Paul supporters launched a Tea Party of their own, raising just over $6 million dollars in a 24 hour period, and another half a million the day afterwards. Yes, that is not a typo, SIX MILLION DOLLARS in ONE DAY! While that is HUGE what is even more huge about it is that this was raised by every day folks like you and I who are restricted by federal law from donating any more than $2300 per person. This was an all out record for ANY presidential candidate in one day earnings. This was a spontaneous event not run or orchestrated by the official Ron Paul campaign in any way.
You have to step back for a moment and really realize what this means. Over 50 THOUSAND regular every day people, half of which were first time donors, gave that money for a message that rang true to them. People like myself, who are sick and tired of politics as usual in this country. They are sick of just about everything government these days, and they want big change, and they want it now. People like me, who either have never voted, or had stopped voting because they were disgusted with having to choose between the lessor of two evils. Sick of being told one thing, and then something else happens when the one they supported gets in office.
Ron Paul is a 10 term congressman from Texas who has CONSISTENTLY shown with his speeches and voting record to be unwaivering. Something that is indeed a very rare commodity in a politician these days. He is the only candidate with the consistent voting record showing that he respects the Constitution of the United States. Something everyone that takes office vows to uphold against all enemies, foreign AND domestic. Who else on the Presidential Candidates stage can show a past record of consistently doing that? They can’t!
It’s this genuineness and message of peace, prosperity and non-intervention in foreign affairs (as recommended by our forefathers) that rings so good with us every day folks. I first learned about Ron Paul when I saw an interview of him on YouTube, in which the media person doing the interview asked him what was his goal in this campaign (which I thought was a dumb question anyway, what else would the goal be?), and of course Congressman Paul said, “To win.” and the interviewer had the audacity to say “That’s not going to happen.”
Being someone that works in and with media myself, I was floored that he said that. It was also the catalyst to get me to go and learn about Ron Paul. It didn’t take me too many YouTube videos watching him, and visiting his website to see what he was about for me to become one of those people that finally had my apathy cured. I wanted to know more about this Ron Paul Revolution.
The biggest problem with Ron Paul, as Steve Miller mentioned in the comments in the previous post, is the unfair shake he is getting by the mainstream media. Despite not one but TWO single day “money bomb”, record breaking fund raising efforts, the media still wants to depict him and his followers as a fridge candidate with kooks following him. But then you see video after video on youtube of these meetup groups (which are getting larger and larger) and events like the Tea Party on Sunday in Boston and Austin and Santa Monica. These are large groups of everyday people. Many of which have NEVER cared about politics or voted before in their life. They are getting bigger and bigger every day. The media would have you believe their are just a few people who know how to manipulate the internet that are supporting Ron Paul. Watch those videos and tell me what you think?
I digress though. As I was saying, the biggest problem has been the media’s treatment of him as a fringe candidate with no support, and give him very little air time. There are still MANY, MANY people who don’t know the first thing about Ron Paul. Many people, when they really learn what he stand for can’t help but get behind him. Just to summarize:
He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket.
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.
He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.
He does not participate in the lucrative congressional pension program.
He returns a portion of his annual congressional office budget to the U.S. treasury every year.
Congressman Paul introduces numerous pieces of substantive legislation each year, probably more than any single member of Congress.
While this is primarily my storm chasing blog, and a place to get to know me a little better, I wanted to take an opportunity to introduce to my readers to someone running for President that actually is HONEST and has INTEGRITY, and represents something we can all get behind, FREEDOM.
I simply ask that you do a little research on the man before making your mind up about him. You can start at http://ronpaul2008.com. There is also a good video that is about an hour long from a Google interview that gives you a good introduction here. Then seach YouTube for videos on Ron Paul and watch some more of those. This was how I came to know about him, and I am now firmly a supporter of the Ron Paul REVOLUTION!
Written by David Drummond on December 18th, 2007 with
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