Mother Jones - Comments for "The Theology of Paul"

The task of the Paul movement is to awaken a large segment of the electorate to the fact the the media is controlled by the same criminal elite that runs both parties. When the people realize
how mind kontrolled they are, they will support a third party.

"why should progressives hold on to an alliance with statists and corporate liberals in the Democratic Party?"

For the money. That is always the excuse.

That might even be accurate to a degree.

As long as there are mountains of money involved things like principle and values are sold out in the name of competition and perseverance.

Josh:
I agree that a certain pragmatism is the key. No society in fact conforms to either a free market or state-run economic model. Both libertarians and progressives would benefit from trying to make their policies operate in the real world rather than hewing to 20th century secular theologies of "planning" v. "rugged individualism." As the GOP coalition dissolves (of which I was briefly part) I think progressives should seek the opportunity to join with disaffected others to form a new political coalition. As libertarians could gain from moving away from so-con and defense hawk "allies" in the GOP why should progressives hold on to an alliance with statists and corporate liberals in the Democratic Party?

You are right Josh. The Jews will sink his ship, then onto Huck.

Daniel,

I agree with you that progressives should not be too quick to ignore libertarians, and that the old divide of free markets vs state-run economies is no longer as relevant as it was. There are cases where markets might prove highly effective (cap and trade) and cases where they don't (health care). You really have to take it on a case by case basis. This is why I hope that Paul's younger supporters, as they continue to involve themselves in the political process, will get beyond rigidly ideological positions and start to consider a more pragmatic approach. I think a lot of people on the left--you point out Obama--want to do the same.

Not all Paul supporters are the ideological robots you seem to think they are. I support Paul among the Republicans (and Obama among the Democrats) because they are both right on the Iraq War and because they represent a chance to break free of out stale post-1960's Red State/Blue State divide.

Instead of dissing libertarians for being corporate shills progressives should take the opportunity to spread their constituency beyond a shrinking "New Left" sensibility. Libertarians oppose an overblown and imperialist foreign policy, the hideous "War on Drugs" and centralized government surveillance under the guise of the Patriot Act. These people are your allies, not your enemies.

Progressives should also be more receptive to listening to critiques of the statism they adopted in the 20th century. The history of socialism, communism and bureaucratic collectivism around the world should give them reasons to be more skeptical that big government and the nanny state will solve the problem of poverty or bring about the sort of egalitarian society that they desire.

8 years from now, at the next Presidential Election Day, the country of 330 millions Americans WILL STAY STILL , watching on their hopeless TV screens how their (people's) "representatives" celebrate another face for another President of the United States of America. It might come even one year from now, even before we ( or Israel) drop another atomic bomb on UNdemocratic societies ( our enemies), who do not appreciate the glory of "free , democratic elections"... That might lead to the "peaceful change".(Others are hard to imagine).
At this very moment, when "presidential hopefuls" debate the future of ours, we in a great need of the PHYSIOGNOMIST to analyze the false pretentiousness of the candidates, beginning with Hillary
(surgically elevated) - to the end of the list ( Democrates alike Republicans). The physionomist, emplyed for the election) will explain to us that there are OINLY TWO FACES we should trust to: one- Ron Paul, another - Dennis Kucinich. The physionomist wil tell you that others ARE NOT ELECTABLE.
So, there is no need to bother to participate in the artifitial hysteria for "change": there will not be any, if Paul or Denniss ( or both) are not "avalable" for the physionomist's anaslysis.

the Paul campaign could be most important for its ability awaken and define a new generation of political citizens.

*shudder*

You raise some points worthy of consideration,Josh. As a formerly apathetic conservative, I'm working to leverage the renewed interest in the GOP. My own circle of friends has registered several thousand new Republicans this year and we aim to keep them involved going forward. It is time to toss the liberal neocon war mongers out of the GOP once and for all.
-Jahfre

One if by land.
Two if by sea.
Light up the fires
of lost liberty.

Paul for president 2008

The cell phone polling disparity exists... but it accounts for, at most, 2-3% of the population.
Not enough to affect Paul's minuscule poll performance.

As I recall, Dean did rather well in the early primaries, until the media played The Scream seven hundred times in a week.

John Kerry was polling very low in 2003. Jimmy Carter polled low in 1979. Huckabee was low in the polls until just recently. The evidence suggests that polls aren't very reliable at this stage of the game.