If Ron Paul does not get the nomination at Tampa......

(Pardon this ramblefest)

If anyone has the right to complain it's those who do not contribute to the problem by voting for evil people. The voters are the one's lending legitimacy to it...even those who lose. While we may assign our own fate to the decisions of another (i.e. power of attorney), we cannot legitimately do so on behalf of another.

I think Paul was pretty good on a federal level, and I even wondered if I would break with non-voting in the hope that he would end the foreign aggressions, However, in the end, he is a statist. He believes that statism is a good thing, just not so much at a national level. However, he would use the military to attack foreign nations if congress declared war. He supports state governments having the right to do many of the things that he doesn't want the federal government to do. While smaller would be better in so many ways and state governments theoretically cannot run a deficit, state power is still immoral at its foundation.

We are helpless to change it. The winners are chosen in advance so that it matters not if the people vote left or right. Were a Ron Paul or even a full blown anarchist to take office (as an example) they could not accomplish anything as the public unions, corporate and individual welfare recipients would cause everything to come to a grinding halt when they stopped receiving their goodies. Congress and the media would then blame the president rather than point out all the grasping hands of the thieves who shut down...everything. From the beginning of the new administration congress would be passing all kinds of laws that would be vetoed and overturned. In the end people would only blame freedom for their troubles. Better that there isn't a libertarian of any flavor (even bland and statist as Johnson or Barr) to take the blame for the crimes of the Republicrats. Not even rigorous libertarian policies could effect a "salvation" of this system. The only real choice is to choose anarchism before it's forced on us. Since people still foolishly believe in electoral politics, that isn't going to happen.

The best hope is to educate them enough that when the state finally collapses, they don't try to re-create it or choose some other form of government. To constantly point out that government is the immoral monopoly of force. That it uses that monopoly to steal and murder those within and without the country. It's up to those of us who can see it coming to show how they can live without a government and that choosing government is not choosing safety or freedom. Most won't listen until the walls are crumbling around them. Perhaps not even after, but I choose to hope for better.

I don't hold much hope for those who are older, but the young aren't so easily fooled. My son and his friends have no trouble understanding the NAP or the predations of the government. They understand the violation of the NAP that forces them to attend public school (although I homeschool now). My son would talk to his friends all the time and they would actually listen. So I have some reason to hope. The ones that will take over are open to the truth even as they are forced to imbibe the lies of the state.

So what... You have to be kidding if you are seriously trying to claim that Bob " Big Govt" Dole would have made any real difference vs Clinton. You right wing demopublicans make about as little sense as your left wing collectivist cousins sometimes. The GOP is offering nothing but a lighter version of the same crony-cap thing we have and yet all the ABO nuts are running in circles, acting like idiot chicken little Al Gore impersonators, screaming the sky will fall unless their lesser evil shyster gets elected.

Good luck with that too but I would have thought that even the Republicans could do better than a lightweight amateur night equivalent of Obama's 08 "Chains for Dopes" campaign.

Differing the speed of the US AmeriKa and swerving a little left and right may be enough to fool dopes Ken but it doesn't alter the destination that the Demopublicans have set... The people might buy a little time electing one propped up big gov crony versus another but, until the course is truly altered back towards Fundamental Liberties, the top heavy rat infested rust bucket of a ship is ultimately still headed straight towards SERFDOM ROCK.

If folks like you still believe it will somehow, someway, magically, this time, make a real difference and you feel that you are doing the right thing by continuing to sanction the same old "heads the demopublicans wins, tails the people lose" machine then feel free to spin your wheels all day long Ken... But, if you folks don't like coming across as childish whiney Alinsky style libtart brats you might also want to reconsider trying to irresponsibly blame your lame O-lite candidates lack luster showing on everyone but yourselves.