Sometimes a few crazy people can make an entire group look
bad. Maybe that is what has happened with Ron Paul supporters. We see some
crazy Ron Paul people on the news and we paint the entire group as being crazy.
It is like these bad cops who think they are above the law and they break the
law and do things like and beat people up on video. That is why some people
hate cops when, in fact, most cops are doing a great job and risking their
lives for us. The problem is that the few bad cops you see on TV unfairly make
all cops look bad.
At the 2012 Texas State Republican
Convention this past weekend in Fort Worth, TX, I got a chance to meet a group
of Ron Paul supporters
I am friends with many Ron Paul supports but I am not part
of any Ron Paul groups so I did not know what to expect. I had seen internet
articles telling people to watch out for Ron Paul people trying to take over
conventions so I was interested to see what would happen.
The group that I got
to meet did not have signs to stage a protest and they did not walk around
asking people to legalize marijuana. In fact, you probably would have never
known that they were even Ron Paul supporters. They came off as just very passionate
conservatives. You might have known them for years and you might have thought
they were probably just members of the tea party. There are many young people
in the Ron Paul groups but there are also a surprising number of older people
and minorities too. They are a very diverse group.
I had great conversations with a Ron Paul group about the
Federal Reserve and how printing more money with nothing to back it is destroying
our economy by devaluating the dollar and not allowing the market to fix
itself. Being in the military myself, I don’t entirely agree with some of Ron
Paul’s war policy, but I had a great conversation about war policies and there
are actually many things that I do agree with Ron Paul on. The President must
not be allowed to start a war without getting congress to approve it. There are
checks and balances that must be followed. We are sending money to help terrorist
countries. It is especially frustrating now that President Obama is using the
military as pawns and taking out bad governments, like Egypt, just to hand the
government over to the Muslim Brotherhood.
One gentleman that I talked to has run Christian charities
and one of the reasons he stands with Ron Paul is because the government is slowly
taking away our religious liberty. As the head of a Christian charity, he saw
firsthand how the rights of Christians to freely practice and express their
religious beliefs were being taken away. As a Christian, I know that he is
right and this must be stopped.
These people were not crazy. In fact, I agreed with most of
what these Ron Paul supporters believe, as most conservatives probably do. No, I
don’t agree with everything and I have no problem expressing where I do not
agree. No one agrees with each other 100% of the time, but the many issues that
I do agree with Ron Paul on, Ron Paul is 100% dead on right.
I even got a chance to explain to these Ron Paul supporters
why I was not in favor of Texas being proportional. Earlier this year, the RNC
forced Texas to be proportional. Texas had always been winner take all by
congressional district. This is what the Republican in Texas voted to have
because it gives Texas more of a say in the Presidential race and makes us more
relevant (we have been completely irrelevant in recent Republican Presidential
races unfortunately because the race is over before we even vote!) Well, the
RNC comes along and tells us we have to be proportional. I stood up the RNC and
told them that they should not bully us and advocated that we stay winner take
all by congressional district, which is what we already were before the
Republican National Committee forced us to change. I was standing for Texas and
what the grassroots in Texas wanted. I was standing for Texas to have a bigger
voice instead of being pushed around. Well, I had some Ron Paul supporters
upset with me because they thought that the reason I did not want to be proportional
was so that I could keep Ron Paul from getting delegates under a proportional
system. That is NOT the reason I did not want to be proportional. Hurting or
helping Ron Paul was not even a factor in why I was saying NO to the RNC’s
proportional system. In fact, I was able to explain that if Texas had gone back
to winner take all by congressional district back when there were still four
candidates in the race, it was very likely that Romney would not have won Texas
and would not have received many of our delegates. This would possibly have
forced a brokered convention which would have actually benefited the Ron Paul
supporters. So we had a good conversation about that little misunderstanding
and cleared some things up.
Ron Paul Supporters were elected to
be National Delegates at Texas GOP Convention
Did these Ron Paul supporters try to get fellow Ron Paul
supporters elected as national delegates? Sure they did. But who didn’t? The establishment
passed out papers telling their people to vote for their establishment
candidates. Just about every county Republican group nominated a candidate from
their county who they know and are friends with. You had entire counties voting
for the candidate from their county vs. candidates from other counties. Every
group at the convention tried to put up a candidate to try to be elected to
something, so why can’t the Ron Paul supporters do that to? They have every
right to put up someone from their group to run.
The Ron Paul supporters I got a chance to meet this past
weekend were respectful of the process and did not try to take over anything.
They nominated fellow Ron Paul supporters and these nominees then got to stand
in front of the entire group of Republicans and explain what they believe and
explain why people should vote for them. Some of the Ron Paul supporters got
elected by the group and some didn’t.
These Ron Paul supporters are not stupid either. From what I
got to hear from them, they understand that Romney probably already has the
nomination. They understand that the chance of a brokered convention is slim to
none unless there is a change of the current rules of how presidential delegates can vote. They
understand all that and they are not unrealistic. They were more focused on
getting people involved in the process who will go to the national convention
and stand for less government and stand for the constitution. They know that,
even though they might not prevail, you cannot give up and you still have to
speak up and let your beliefs be heard. There is no chance of America ever
going back to follow the Constitution if everyone just accepts that the
Constitution is gone and stops speaking up about it. They are simply not giving
up.
To Defeat Obama, the Republican Party
MUST Embrace Ron Paul Supporters
Also, If Romney is
Smart, he will Appoint Ron Paul to his Cabinet, Maybe as Head of the Treasury
Whether you agree with Ron Paul supporters or not, the
Republican Party is going to need all hands on deck if we are going to defeat
Obama. We will especially need Ron Paul supporters. Obama has the upper hand
when it comes to young votes. Ron Paul groups are filled with young voters. Ron
Paul groups are also filled with a ton of passion and dedication. By casting
out these groups, not only are we losing those young voters, but we are also
losing out on the passion and dedication they bring to the table.
The Republican Party must embrace Ron Paul Supporters. It
was said to me this weekend that, maybe the reason some of the Ron Paul supporters
act a little bit crazy is due to the fact that acting crazy is the only way
they can be heard. They don’t act crazy because they are crazy. They act crazy
as a way to be heard because they have been rejected from the Republican Party
and are having to fend for themselves and have to create their own
unconventional platforms to speak from to get their message out.
Maybe if Ron Paul supporters were embraced by the Republican
Party, we could all sit down together and have a conversation about how we can
work together to promote the things that we agree on, like more states rights,
less federal government, following the constitution, etc. We can work together
to defeat Obama. The establishment in Republican Party might not agree on
everything that Ron Paul supporters believe, but there is probably agreement on
at least 80% of the issues. The Republican Party could greatly benefit from Ron
Paul supports in order to accomplish the many things that both sides agree on.
WE especially need Ron Paul supports is we are going to defeat Obama.
After this weekend, I have a new respect for and
understanding of Ron Paul supporters and I fully believe that the Republican
Party should embrace them and work with them instead of trying to ignore them.
We need them. We might not all agree
100% on everything, but overall, Ron Paul
is GOOD for the conservative cause and his supporters can help the
Republican Party and help defeat Obama.
I am sure my little brother in high school will love me for
writing this article. He is a big Ron Paul fan. I am not sure how he became one
or how he even got to know anything about Ron Paul, but it happened. It is
happening with youth all across America. It is something that we cannot ignore
and we could greatly benefit from if we embrace the youth, passion and of these
Ron Paul supporters.
Sincerely,
David Bellow
Sincerely,
David Bellow
