That’s all it takes to describe him. Two words. Ron. Paul. Unless you want to throw Doctor in front of it for good measure.

Every time I hear those words I think of a man who is principled, thoughtful, galvanized and consistent. Every time I hear them, I remember that a return to Constitutional principle would be a return to a nation where each individual had the opportunity for greatness based on their own willingness to work toward it. When I hear them, I think of a country where capitalism and free markets decide what the value of my dollar is, and not whichever bank or conglomerate the current batch of political appointees  is most loyal too.

Sadly, when I hear the words, Ron Paul, I also have to think about the people that have, over time, coalesced around and behind him. It takes a few more words to describe them. Granted, I have seen many people who were thoughtful, thorough, and clearheadedly came to the conclusion that Ron Paul was the candidate that they supported for President. They have considered all of the candidates, considered our country’s worsening financial situation, considered the state of international affairs, and considered the threats to our personal liberty that Americans face today, and they made the sound decision that Ron Paul would be the candidate of their choice to take up the helm of the Presidency and lead our nation out of crisis.

Millions of people across the country have gone through the same process and many of those have chosen to support Ron Paul. Many more have chosen to support other candidates though, and despite his positive qualities, Ron Paul has only managed to continually get about 10% of the popular vote among registered Republicans in local elections. Within that 10%, lies the problem.

Along with the thoughtful and careful supporters that Ron Paul deserves, his base seems to have been overwhelmed with delusional fanatics, disrespectful radicals, misguided hate mongers, and even blatant outright liars. What’s worse is that this element of his base seems to have taken over at least the most visible aspects of his grassroots presidential campaign, and they have done their absolute best to repel any chance of acceptance of Ron Paul into the main stream of the Republican Party. They’ve marginalized a good candidate, and relegated him to a permanent third string status, regardless of the qualities that he brings to the table.

A look around the tables that held my own county’s delegation at the Wyoming Republican State Convention gave me a hint as to the type of people that consider themselves Ron Paul supporters. When our junior United States Senator was introduced to the Convention, many of them couldn’t be bothered to rise out of their seats to welcome him. Same for when our senior United States Senator was introduced. Same for when our Congresswoman was introduced. It was especially true when our former Congressman, and former Vice President, Dick Cheney was introduced. The Secretary of State? The State Auditor? The Superintendent of Public Instruction? All were invited. All addressed the convention. All were ignored by these folks who couldn’t be bothered to show even a modicum of respect for their elected representatives and officials, all of which are Republicans, all of which have represented the State of Wyoming with dignity and resolve.  As far as I’m concerned, these “patriotic” Ron Paul supporters were an embarrassment to themselves and to the county that elected them to represent it at the Convention.

A brief look at the forums populated by Ron Paul supporters will give you a look at how many of them feel about their fellow Republicans, the volunteers — who dedicate countless hours and personal resources to make sure that Republicans are successful in the general elections and work to make sure the money necessary to operate the Republican Party is raised — and the elected officials that have dedicated themselves to representing the people who elect them. The forums are a constant barrage of charges of fraud, corruption, sleaziness, dishonesty. Every time Ron Paul loses a vote, the forums light up with stories about how their votes were disenfranchised, how their enemies played dirty, and how the “establishment” tried to shut them out.

I understand the heat of political battle. It is all-consuming, and you are entitled to your own opinions. Sometimes, though, those opinions just make you delusional. This is a perfect example:

It is pretty obvious we are winning. We have the true support. The media in this country is being used to carry out a big lie. Don’t get angry with the supporters of Romney, for they don’t know any better, they are basing their beliefs upon the information they have. Most get that from mainstream sources or Romney Sources.

As far as delegates. It is again obvious with very little research that the GOP is part of the machine, and literally make their own straw vote results. The cuacuses are not so easy, they are having to resort to the most dirty of tricks to win those.

Wyoming is a perfect example…the GOP hero Dick Cheney was at the Wyoming convention and turned it around for Romney. On the initial vote, Paul won, so the GOP leadership allowed Paul supporters to leave then declared the vote unacceptable and held it again. Treachery…by none other the mr. weapons of mass destruction himself, yes, the man without a heart, he who profited many many millions from war, former Halliburto employee….mr. cheney.

Cheney is NOT a hero, he is a criminal. He should be in a prison, not speaking at a political event. But for all of our supporters, we CAN win this. It is lies, deciet and injustice that are preventing it. Hold strong and do not let them railroad us again, so far in all three states to have finished their caucuses, the GOP has managed to railroad the democratic process. Put a stop to it immediately.

-DuaneK36, Daily Paul

First of all, there was no initial vote that Ron Paul won. That is an outright lie. No one “declared the vote unacceptable and held it again.” It simply never happened. It really is not “pretty obvious (they) are winning.” If it were “pretty obvious” that Ron Paul was winning, he would be ahead in the delegate count. I won’t even rehash the comments about Vice President Cheney. They’re idiotic and they are a common thread throughout the Ron Paul forums. The above post is pretty representative of the hate that exists in the Ron Paul support groups for both the Republican Party itself, and the elected officials that are endorsed by it.

During the Wyoming Convention, the Romney Campaign realized that the votes for the sheer number of nominated delegates that were declared for Romney would be watered down and result in the election of the more focused group of non Romney declared nominees, so the Romney Campaign did something that was utterly despicable, dishonest, and sleazy.  They *gasp* distributed a Romney endorsed slate of delegate nominees! Oh, the horror! How could they do something so vile?! Oh. Wait. Doesn’t the Paul campaign use preferred delegate slates? They do? Oh yeah, they just don’t put Ron Paul’s name on them. The candidates run as “undeclared” so all of them silly, corrupt, sleazy establishment Republicans won’t know who they are. Yeah. Great strategy. The use of a preferred slate by any campaign is an honest and acceptable and commonly used tactic, especially when the origin of the slate is clearly labeled, as the Romney endorsed slate was. A slate of “undeclared” candidates developed in a private locked door meeting protected by their ”6’7″ 300+lb bouncer?” Just as acceptable, right?

Of all the strategies of the Ron Paul supporters, this is the one I find to be most offensive. Do they really believe that the only way they can win is to trick unknowing state delegates into voting for them? I’ll be completely honest here. I would have voted for at least one of the Ron Paul supporters from my county — he is one of those thorough, thoughtful, and clearheaded Ron Paul supporters, and I would have been proud to know that he was in Tampa not only casting a vote for presidential nomination, but fighting for common sense platforms and resolutions to guide the National Republican Party — except he, along with most of the rest of the Ron Paul crowd, ran as “undeclared.” As far as I’m concerned, if he couldn’t be honest about his intent to vote for Ron Paul at the National Convention, he didn’t deserve my vote. The same goes for the rest of the “undeclared” delegates that were, and are, clearly Ron Paul supporters. The forums are ripe with claims that they won all fourteen alternate delegate seats, but most of those seats went to “undeclared” nominees, not people who declared for Ron Paul. Which begs the question: Were the delegate nominees lying about their declaration of support before the election, or are the Ron Paul supporters lying now about having won the seats? Which is it? You can’t have it both ways. What’s more, the reality is that only reason the Ron Paul supporters were able to claim the fourteen alternate positions is that convention participants could only vote for fourteen delegates, and the overwhelming majority of those votes went to a unified slate of candidates that had declared for Mitt Romney. That allowed the unified minority to claim the leftovers. I’d hardly think of that in terms of “how close we came to taking this state.”

The constant claims on the Ron Paul forums that the Romney Preferred Slate was “treachery”, “underhanded”, and a “dirty trick” makes them sound like four-month olds with full diapers. Same goes for their crying that Wyoming’s national elected representatives were allowed to make speeches, and dared to endorse Romney. Of course, the final betrayal by the Wyoming GOP was to allow Josh Romney to make a speech in support of his father! OH MY GOD! How could they let that happen? Too bad that the Paul campaign didn’t have an official representative at the Wyoming convention. Maybe he or she could have made a supporting speech themselves. Why didn’t this happen? Maybe this comment from a Paul supporter explains it:

The grassroots everywhere have to work so much harder to compensate for the lack of assistance from the national campaign. I understand why the campaign ignores places where they think they cannot win and doesn’t spend money in thoses places. But what does it cost for one of the “professionals” to find each state’s grassroots headquarters, pick up a phone or send someone to advise us novices?

While I find it very frustrating, I am heartened to see grassroots people working to get the job done. This is only giving us more individual and collective strength than perhaps we’d otherwise have.

We are in this for the long haul, with or without them.

Bump for Cheyenne WY State Convention grassroots assistance!

-Nonna, Daily Paul

If there had been an official representative from the Paul campaign at the convention, they would have been allowed to speak. Same for Gingrich. The fact is, as the the person clearly realizes in the above post, they just couldn’t be bothered.

The election had some real problems. In the delegate elections at the Wyoming State Convention, there were three ballots cast (out of an eligible 425) that shouldn’t have been. One each from the State Chairman, the National Committeeman, and the National Committeewoman. The Ron Paul forums are screaming about voter fraud, and they have every right to. Was it voter fraud? I don’t know. I don’t know all the details, but I do believe it was questionable and I intend to make sure it is addressed at the next State Central Committee Meeting. I know each of the people in question personally, and can’t imagine that any of them consciously sought to cast a vote that they weren’t entitled to. I find it more likely that it was done out of confusion in the moment, but I don’t know for sure. I won’t make excuses for them. What I do know is that those three improper ballots did not, in any possible mathematical way, have any effect on the final results of the national delegate election. Of course, the outcome was that the slate of candidates supported by the Romney campaign were overwhelmingly elected by a majority of the eligible voters at the convention to be national delegates.

It doesn’t matter though, because the Ron Paul supporters will hold on to that dark stain on the convention and tell everyone that it was the reason they lost.  That, and the underhanded speeches by elected officials, the sleazy candidate slates put out by the Romney campaign, the monstrous onstage conversation by the evil former Vice President and his daughter, and an underlying fear by the “establishment” of a poorly organized hodgepodge of people who start pretty much every conversation with that very same “establishment” with name calling, accusations, and outright hostility.

That may sum up a great portion of the real reason Ron Paul isn’t winning delegates. It’s not because there is a vast some-kind-of-wing conspiracy against him. It’s not because Ron Paul isn’t a great and gifted statesman, because he is. It’s because while Dr. Paul has been extremely effective at lighting a fire under people who believe in liberty and getting them involved and interested, and he has done an astounding job of educating a new generation about how they have been robbed of those liberties, he has also failed to organize a national campaign that could expound on his Constitutional principles in the national political arena, and has allowed his grassroots campaign mechanisms to be hijacked by a bunch of kooks that have about as much credibility as the free Mumia activists. It’s because the average Republican believes Dr. Paul’s followers when they declare that they won’t support the Republican nominee if it is anyone but Dr. Paul. It’s because the average member of the Republican Party doesn’t believe that the average Ron Paul supporter could care less about the future of the Republican party. It’s because while the rest of the Republican Party has spent the last year raising money for the Republican Party, volunteering for the Republican Party, and promoting the Republican Party, the Ron Paul supporters have spent the last year throwing rocks at them.

Mostly though, it’s because the majority of registered Republicans are voting for someone else.

But, you know, there is always their fall back strategy at the National Convention to get rid of all those pesky Romney delegates and replace them with all of those “undeclared” Paul alternates.

Offer them free coffee full of ex-lax the day of the convention. They will have to try and vote from the bathroom.

-namealreadyinuse, Daily Paul

Wow, I can’t believe these campaign strategies aren’t working.

Wisdom

One thing I do know from my experience as both a blogger, and a frequent commenter on various political forums, is that by publishing this 2500 word essay on this particular subject, I am begging to be flamed and trolled. I’m tempted to turn off the comments for this one, because frankly, I just don’t want to deal with the emotional outbursts that are likely to follow. But, alas, that isn’t my way. The comments are open (if you can get past the spam filters.) Just don’t expect me to come out and play if you insist on turning on the flamethrower. I’ll be busy, doing the real work of the Republican Party. Raising money. Recruiting candidates. Registering voters. Getting Republicans elected.

Which brings to mind one last issue I have with the typical Ron Paul supporter, but didn’t fit into the scope of the essay above. That I know of, there has been one, count ‘em, one, Ron Paul supporter that has been continuously active at the county party level in the last year. (Thumbs up to you YC!) The rest of the crew? The ones that so proudly “took over” the County Convention? Other than a couple of sporadic appearances, they haven’t done a thing in the last year to help the Republican Party in Sweetwater County. They haven’t come to meetings (Thumbs up to you, too, TB). They haven’t helped with the fundraiser. And they didn’t show up at the fundraiser (Except for you RZ and YC, more thumbs up.) Again, there are a couple of exceptions, but very few. There might have even been one or two “undeclared” Paul supporters helping out, I don’t know. I truly hope they will all change your mind and become active, and engaging, and stop looking at the rest of us as their enemy, but honestly? I’m not holding my breath. 

Private property is a cornerstone of the American way of life. The idea that the community has some extraneous right to derive economic benefit from real estate, beyond the property taxes that are already collected, is an insult to the people who actually own the property. This is especially true in our current harsh economic environment, and the proposed fines amount to a double hit on owners who could already be facing a loss of income from the inability to find paying occupants for their property.

The URA is promoting the belief that you don’t have the right to “not” use your property. James Madison once said, “It is not a just government, nor is property secure under it, where arbitrary restrictions deny to part of its citizens that free use of their faculties.”  I argue that “not” using your own property is a protected “free use” of that property and punishing you for leaving your property vacant is a blatant violation of your private property rights. This is nothing more than a veiled attempt to usurp the right of private owners to determine for themselves the best way to manage their own private property.

Even more disturbing, this ordinance could be used as a weapon to force owners to release property into the market that they would otherwise be unwilling to sell. A property owner, who might able to afford their annual property taxes while they wait for a more favorable real estate market, might not be able to afford the additional tax burden that this ordinance would impose, and be forced to sell the property. A perfect opportunity for a URA that has shown themselves to be more than willing to buy up prime real estate and enter into competition with private business.

This should be a wake up call to property owners in Rock Springs that the URA does not have their interests at heart. Rather than focusing on their original intent, to be a tool and a resource for local businesses and to promote development in downtown Rock Springs, they have become just another bureaucracy exerting themselves over the people who really create economic development. They are permanently tying up valuable real estate, competing with the businesses that they were supposed to be supporting, and looking to expand their power and influence.

If you are a property owner in Rock Springs, I urge you to make it very clear to the URA Board of Directors that you want them to stop interfering with your private property rights. I also urge you to give the members of the Rock Springs City Council a call and let them know that you don’t want to be punished for exercising your right to the free use of your own private property. The government already has no business being in the commercial real estate business. Giving them the ability to levy punitive taxes on their competition in that market is just plain dangerous.

[lg_folder folder="STM Invades Moab - 2011/"]

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"Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness. Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best. Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789." -Proclamation of President George Washington, October 3, 1789.

"The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth." -Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863.

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