April 9, 2012
National politics is a loser's game today, unless he is building a mailing list for post-election uses.
Ron Paul is building such a list.
Third party politics in a non-parliamentary system is the leprechaun's lure of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Teddy Roosevelt in 1912 was the last serious candidate to run on a third party. That led to the election of Woodrow Wilson. Taft lost. The Republican faithful never forgave Roosevelt.
That century-old legacy is crucial for a successful political revolution inside the Republican Party over the next 8 years.
When I was on Ron Paul's Congressional staff in 1976, we had no idea of what he would accomplish. What's another 8 years?
We need 8 years to quietly infiltrate the Republican Party's county organizations, especially in rural counties where Democrats are dominant. Nobody wants to be a Republicans in in those counties. Ron Paul Republicans should take advantage of this.
No one wanted to be a Republican in the South, 1877-1960. In 1964, Southern conservative Republicans' patience paid off. Lyndon Johnson lost the South. The Republicans took it and kept it.
This can happen again in counties that are not inner-city counties. Most aren't.
Ron Paul, as a good Republican, needs to put aside some of his campaign money to put together a post-election team of specialists in winning local elections. They need to set up an online training program for Republican activists who will become the next generation of leaders at the county level.
He must do what no Republican national leader has done: teach Republicans the basics of local politics. He needs to take a long view of the battle that he is in and we are in. He did that in 1976. He needs to do it in 2013 and beyond.
He needs to recruit and train a cadre. They in turn must target the crucial battlefield: the public schools.
Local Ron Paul fanatics need to do the groundwork for the next 8 years: mastering the basics of winning elections, dealing with entrenched bureaucrats, cutting budgets, and running local school boards. They must gain experience in preparation for their takeover of the national Republican party when the federal government is forced to default. When Washington becomes Athens -- and it will -- this new leadership will emerge at the national level. It will have this message: Ron Paul was right.
For my recommended strategy for public school reform, click here: //www.garynorth.com/public/9339.cfm
A KAMIKAZE STRATEGY
The cost of getting Ron Paul's onto the ballot in every state is prohibitive. The political system is rigged for a two-party system. There will also be little time after the Republican National Convention.
Then there is Rand Paul. If his father openly bolts, Rand's chances will be zero in 2016, assuming that Romney loses in 2012. There will be pent-up rage against the name "Paul," in the same way that there was Republican rage against the name Roosevelt after 1912. But in 1920, Franklin Roosevelt got the nomination for Vice President . . . as a Democrat.
Ron Paul sat out the 2008 debacle. He did not get blamed. If Romney loses without his endorsement, he will not be blamed. If Romney loses in the face of a third party move, Ron Paul will be blamed.
If Romney wins, he will get to preside over a train wreck. That still opens the door in 2020.
A third party run is a kamikaze run.
I recommend Proverbs 17:28: "Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding." Ron Paul can simply say "If Governor Romney loses, there's another Paul available in 2016."
Ron Paul has single-handedly created a significant voting bloc that understands that the Federal Reserve is a disaster. He has preached non-intervention and peace in foreign affairs. This has outraged the perpetual Pentagon deficit budget segment of the Republican Party, but that had to be done. He was the best man to do it. He voted against the fools' errands in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Ron Paul was able to say, "I told you so . . . and why" about the 2008 meltdown. He is able to say the same about Iraq. Soon, he will be able to say it about Afghanistan. No other national politician can say this.
What he has accomplished since 2007 is nothing short of a political miracle. He gave voice to ideas that millions of Republicans hold, but which no national Republican had articulated since Robert Taft died in 1953.
The non-interventionist genie is out of the bottle. The anti-FED toothpaste is out of the tube. Millions of Republicans from now on will be able to lay blame where it belongs: to the Federal Reserve and the foreign policy Establishment. "We told you so . . . and why."
CONCLUSION
It will take at least one more Presidential electoral cycle for the FED's policies play out into a national disaster. It may take two. With each mini-disaster, the cry will be heard across the land: "Ron Paul told you so . . and why." That will do more to undermine the Establishment than any kamikaze third party run will accomplish.
Patience. Time is on our side.
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