{"id":79,"date":"2008-01-10T00:50:18","date_gmt":"2008-01-10T04:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/2008\/01\/10\/ron-paul-nothing-to-be-afraid-of\/"},"modified":"2008-01-10T00:56:38","modified_gmt":"2008-01-10T04:56:38","slug":"ron-paul-nothing-to-be-afraid-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/ron-paul-nothing-to-be-afraid-of\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Paul – Nothing to Be Afraid Of"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thoughts on the New Hampshire Primary <\/span><\/p>\n

That’s it. We’re fucked.<\/p>\n

No one had more money than Ron. No one had more grass roots support. The day before the primary Jay Leno gave him a half hour on the countries most popular late night talk show. The primary was held in the Live Free Or Die state. The Free State Project state.<\/p>\n

And he got 8%. Eight miserable fucking percent. A third less than some evangelical asshole who thinks the earth is 6,000 years old and wants to add not one, but two <\/span>amendments to the constitution to make his superstitions the law of the land.<\/p>\n

I figured America was over when the Supremes outlawed private property<\/a> and ruled that the feds could use the interstate commerce clause to regulate everything, including things that didn’t involve commerce or anything interstate. But the Free State Project<\/a> looked encouraging, and full of possibilities. Slim possibilities, but still, possibilities. And although I knew Ron was a long shot, the groundswell of support made me think there just might be hope for the country. We could get it back from the fascists and the socialists and start living like Americans again, instead of as slaves. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really expect him to win, but figured capturing a large portion of the vote would start pushing American politics in the right direction.<\/p>\n

I’ve been interested in politics since the Nixon administration. I’ve never seen anything like the huge populist support Paul has had. I’ve never seen anything close <\/span>to it. It filled me with hope and joy and a belief that there was still a chance there were enough Americans in this country to eventually defeat the United Statsits. And with all that enormous support, the fantastic publicity and with the incredible enthusiasm of millions of people, he gets 8%.<\/p>\n

All that hope, all that enthusiasm, all for nothing. Now our only choice is being crushed under the thumb of socialism or the heal of fascism.<\/p>\n

“But,” says the True Believer, “We’re getting our message out there! People are hearing the message of liberty and liking it!” Yes, what an impressive showing. Libertarians have been preaching the message for thirty years. And in the most popular, well known, liberty oriented candidate ever, in the most liberty oriented state of the union, you got 8% of the vote. Whoop De Fucking Doo. Maybe in another thirty years you can double that number. Won’t that <\/span>be impressive.<\/p>\n

The US is finished, my friends. It’s over. It’s done. The Ron Paul Campaign is finished. The Free State Project is a joke. We are a nation of cheerful retards lining up for Special Olympics. We say retarded things like “I have a right to health care” or “the rich don’t pay enough taxes” or “this is a Christian nation” or “we’ll stay in the Middle East for a hundred years if that’s what it takes to fight terrorism,” and the politicians pat us on the head and say “there there, you really are <\/span>smart.” We race our spastic race while they clap and cheer us on. They’ll be at the finish line giving big hugs to everyone with no regard as to who actually won, because all that really matters is that you try<\/span>. And while they’re passing out their hugs they’ll be winking at each other, amused at how well they’ve fooled us again and eager to get back to faithfully serving their corporate masters.<\/p>\n

“Change!” they all shout. “We stand for Change. Real Change this time. Not like the last time and the time before and the time before that and the time before that when we lied to you and you believed us and we lied to you again and you believed us again and again and again. This time we really mean it!”<\/p>\n

You want to feel change, my friends? Then put your hand in your pocket and finger your coins.<\/p>\n

The war on Some Drugs will continue. Our standing as the country with the highest percentage of our population in prison will remain unchallenged. We’ll keep jailing people for non-violent victumless “crimes” and prisons will remain a growth industry. Our dollar will remain fiat currency and drop in value every time they print up more. The Patriot Act will remain in place. Habeas Corpus will not be returning. Nor will private property. We will all get our Real ID cards and, like good little Germans pre WWII, obediently present them to uniformed thugs every time they demand to see our papers. The pussification of the country will continue to accelerate. More and more personal decisions will be taken from us as the government continues to pass laws telling us how we must raise our children, what we can eat, where we can have a smoke (not in your homes, comrades!), what we can drive, what we can say and where we can say it. And 92% of the population will smile and say “It’s a free country!”<\/p>\n

I’m done with political activism. It’s useless. It’s pointless. The game is so deeply and thoroughly rigged that there’s no possibility of real change for the better. Part of that rigging is a system that makes it impossible for anyone who isn’t one of the “two” parties to have even the slightest chance of winning. But most of the rigging is simply pandering to the gullibility and stupidity of the majority of “Americans.” Real Americans, those who truly understand liberty, who have studied the constitution and the writings of the founding fathers and really know what it is, are such a rare breed that we have absolutely no chance of overcoming the multitude of assholes who mouth the word with one sentence and cheer on the expansion of the government with the next.<\/p>\n

Screw it. I’ll still bitch and moan, because it’s fun, but getting involved is for suckers, and I’m tired of being one. I’m getting too old to keep tilting and windmills, and it’s time to concentrate on having as much fun as I can for the rest of my years. It’s time to kick back with old friends and make a new ones and stop wasting time trying to change things. I haven’t played video games much, because I haven’t had the time. But maybe I’ll go get an Xbox and waste every evening in pointless battles against teenagers I don’t know or care about. Or put a bigger hard drive on the Tivo and renew my Netflix subscription. Or devote my time to perfecting some new vice or nasty habit. Because trying to improve this country is a pathetic waste of time and effort. The best we can hope for is to have a few laughs watching it circle the drain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thoughts on the New Hampshire Primary That’s it. We’re fucked. No one had more money than Ron. No one had more grass roots support. The day before the primary Jay Leno gave him a half hour on the countries most popular late night talk show. The primary was held in the Live Free Or Die […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.davehitt.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}