Writes Rod Dreher:
“I didn’t vote for Ron Paul in the Republican primary (I was a Mike Huckabee man), nor did I write him in on Election Day (I penciled in farmer-poet Wendell Berry). But no Texan this year did more good for conservatism and his country than the congressman from the coast.
Lord knows there was no Republican in the 2008 campaign who talked straighter.
Dr. Paul – he’s a physician – never had a chance, of course. He is too peculiar in his opinions and doesn’t know how to spin like a TV slick. What he had was ideas, integrity and authenticity. On the most critical challenges facing America, Dr. Paul was more right than the well-funded GOP regulars who bigfooted the campaign trail.
His best moment came in a May debate aired on Fox News. Dr. Paul asserted that too much U.S. meddling in the Middle East invites terrorist blowback – a conclusion shared by the 9/11 commission and former CIA bin Laden unit chief Michael Scheuer. Rudy Giuliani pounced, accusing Dr. Paul of trying to blame America for the Sept. 11 attacks.
But Dr. Paul’s point – lost on the demagogic New York mayor – was simply that America should rethink its role in Iraq and the region. “We don’t understand the irrationality of Middle Eastern politics,” he said in the debate.
Who can doubt it today, given an Iraq war debacle conceived and executed by a president and an elite team blinded by ideology? The Iraq war did deep damage to our military, our economy and our prestige – and it has destroyed the Republican Party’s credibility on national security issues.
Ron Paul, who has always stood against U.S. imperial overreach, was right about the Iraq war. And that’s not the only thing he saw that most Republicans did not.
It’s not true, really, that nobody listened. Dr. Paul had a relatively small but intensely devoted following and raised astonishing amounts of campaign cash for his outsider presidential bid. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm didn’t amount to much of anything in the primaries. So much for the Ron Paul Revolution, right?
Maybe not. The same GOP establishment that mocked and reviled Dr. Paul now lies shattered. Who believes in this Republican Party anymore? The party destroyed itself with its own unprincipled recklessness, both in foreign and fiscal policy. And it has ruined its reputation among the young – the most ardent of Dr. Paul’s supporters, incidentally – who are far more likely to identify with the Democrats.
Out of this destruction, some creative young conservatives may rise up and decide to take back the Republican Party.
Maybe they’ll fight for an America that lives responsibly, within its natural limits both overseas and at home. And maybe, just maybe, they might make the Republican Party worth following again.
If that day comes, it will be thanks to the lifelong labors of Ron Paul and his 2008 campaign based on ideas.”
10 Comments
Ron Paul’s campaign only appeared small in the media. His rallies had thousands of supporters in attendance vs John McCain’s rallies that were lucky to have a couple of hundred in the audience. The media totally distorts our elections.
You are correct Andrew. More and more people recognize this but, sadly, many more either don’t see this or don’t care.
The media manipulation during this election cycle was the absolutely the worst I’ve ever seen.
Rod, you couldn’t be more wrong when you wrote, “the young…the most ardent of Dr. Paul’s supporters, incidentally – who are far more likely to identify with the Democrats.” Speaking as a “young” Ron Paul supporter, we are polar opposites from the Dems and the neo-Cons in the GOP. We only support those who support and defend the U.S. Constitution
Dr. Paul’s following wasn’t really small. It was just overlooked rather often by the media. Now, they’re taking to public office, supporting others who are like-minded, branching into active groups, forming anti-fed coalitions and keeping up the good fight. So, Dr. Paul didn’t get the White House, but he’s still doing amazing things to bring people to their feet and get them interested in the course of our nation again. He’s more valuable to us where he is but… dang… a Paul Presidency would have been too cool.
I am a long time Wendell Berry admirer, but I find it difficult to put Ron Paul in the same category. Berry has a lot more in common with the Greens. I heard him once say (and I agree) that he is, “Conservative about the things that should be preserved and liberal about the things that should change.”
I am a potter and was able to give him my thanks and one of my bowls at his lecture for the Land Stewardship Project in St. Paul last year.
Here is an article by a Texan that puts Berry in the right light:
Rod Dreher: Wendell Berry’s time is now
http://togeika.multiply.com/journal/item/129/Wendell_Berrys_time_is_now
This part here is so important after the last 8 years of idiotic arrogance in the White House. I quote the end of the above article:
A philosopher for an age of humility.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The root of our collective crisis is as old as humanity itself: We’ve been overcome by a colossal sense of pride, which entails the Luciferian belief that we can be as gods. “The problem with us is not only prodigal extravagance,” Berry writes. “but also an assumed limitlessness. We have obscured the issue by refusing to see that limitlessness is a godly trait.”
In the months and years to come, we all will have to learn the meaning of limits. Wendell Berry is no dour scold who preaches a joyless austerity. To the contrary, he tells us that what we truly seek in life is not comfort, but meaning – and that you don’t have to live a life of rigorous asceticism to find it. Rather, we only need to order our lives around the ancient idea that happiness depends on virtue – virtue lived in community. We can only be fulfilled by living within the bounds prescribed by our nature, and in fidelity not to our selfish desires but to the greater good of our families, friends and communities.
This year’s balloting is supposed to be a “change” election, as well it should be. But if people believe significant change will come from Washington, they’re mistaken.
“Why should anybody wait to do what is right until everybody does it?” Mr. Berry has written. “It is not ’significant’ to love your own children or eat your own dinner, either. But normal humans will not wait to love or eat until it is mandated by an act of Congress.”
Now, with the nation potentially ready to embrace the “new responsibility,” Kentucky’s wizened farmer-patriot should find the audience he has long deserved.
Rod Dreher is a Dallas Morning News editorial columnist. His e-mail address is rdreher@dallasnews.com.
When you’ve got every special interest group known to man trying to stop you its easy to shut someone down but its
really hard to shut ideas up as the truth will always bubble to the top.
The media worked very hard at shutting Ron Paul down but stopping
his idea’s will be hard becasue they appeal to almost anyone who has the opportunity to understand them.
THE NEW YORK JEWISH MEDIA ARE THE REASON THAT RON PAUL WAS CLOAKED. THEY HAVE PRESENTED BOTH MAJOR CANDIDATES, AS USUAL, FOR “YOUR CHOICE”….WHILE COMPLETELY “ICING” RON PAUL. THEY COMPLETELY SNOWED AMERICA AGAIN….GETTING THEIR PUPPET ELECTED. AND SINCE, HE HAS BEEN DELIVERING PAYBACK….FROM DAY ONE. A JEWISH GUY WILL RUN HIS WHITE HOUSE….HILLARY “NEW YORK” CLINTON WILL BE SECRETARY OF STATE, (A NEW MADELEINE ALBRIGHT – HENRY KISSINGER, IF YOU WILL). THE JEWISH HEADS OF THE TREASURY AND FEDERAL RESERVE WILL NOT “ROLL” AS THEY SHOULD HAVE. ALL IS WELL IN THE UNITED STATES OF ISRAEL.
AND RON PAUL….TRADITIONAL AMERICAN HERO….HAS BEEN CRUCIFIED. WHAT NEXT?
The real issue facing this country is the complete breakdown of the rule of law and obeyance to the constitution. Average Americans are poorly educated and have not idea what it means to be a citizen of our nation. Sadly, I believe that we are at the beginning of the end of our once great country and unless our people miraculously become educated and patriotic towards America first we are going to witness our own demise. The forefathers must be rolling in their graves as we mock the constitution.
Jeff,
The worst because they were the most desperate.
They know there are some of us out here who don’t want any of their candidates.