how a born and bred democrat becomes a ron paul supporter
There is this great scene in —
The 13th Warrior. The Arab protagonist has against his will and better judgment embarked on a journey with to his way of thinking a bunch of crazy barbaric unclean Norsemen and is stuck on the road with them and every night around the camp fire they tells stories. In a language he does not know, but hey, he is a writer, writers are good at language, and he starts to pick up words and then phrases and one night has enough words and phrases he gets someone is making a rude comment about his mother and he snaps back, “My mother was a pure woman of noble birth and at least I know who my father is.” And there is some stopping people from killing other people and then someone demands, How do you know our language?
He spits back, I listen!
Listening is the most abandoned and underrated gift in America today.
For three years, I posted, I stated, I ranted, Obama has betrayed every candidate promise and every hope voters held when they put him in office, I will never again vote for that man.
Nobody listened.
I’m a born and bred Democrat. We are not supposed to say those things. And I was accepted by fellow liberals and progressives and democrats as a pretty strong voice, before I started saying those things. After I started saying those things, some of them dropped off. But others? They stuck around, I think humoring me. “Oh Max, she is so cute and volatile, she doesn’t mean it, when the time comes, she will vote the right way. The right way being the Obama way.
This insane and really stupid assessment of someone railing against Obama for three years is seriously the result of not listening.
Flash forward, I’m at a film festival sitting across a table from a clearly sane sincere intelligent young man who is saying he is voting for Ron Paul.
To me this is one of those blink moments.
My knee jerk reaction is, But he’s a crank. Because, you know, my whole party, everyone I associate with, that is what they say. What they are trained to say. Indoctrinated to say. “Don’t pay attention to Ron Paul, he’s a crank.”
The thing is, I don’t know anything about Ron Paul. Nothing. All I know is I am supposed to say, He’s a crank. Why do I have a response to this man’s name built in based on absolutely no knowledge?
I drop his name to a couple friends. They don’t know a thing about him either. But they have built in responses too. “He’s a racist.” “He’s anti-choice.” This is getting a little freaky. Why does everyone I know have a programmed response and no actual knowledge about the guy? Cue Twilight Zone music.
It takes a couple weeks to lighten the load, but I get Ron Paul’s book and read it. He’s not a crank. And he says a lot of things I agree with. Like bring our soldiers home. Like stop the insane “war on drugs.” Stop telling people who they can sleep with. Stop telling people who they can marry. Stop spying on people. Stop torturing people. I look up more stuff on the guy: Stop feeling people up at airports. Stop writing laws that say you can assassinate people or incarcerate people without charges cause or a trial. And that is all working for me —
But that isn’t when I become a Ron Paul supporter.
I post on Facebook, I am looking at this Ron Paul thing. I get seriously attacked, like crazy, by fellow Democrats.
That isn’t when I became a Ron Paul supporter.
I post on Twitter, Ron Paul is interesting. I get called everything from a white supremacist to a fascist to a – okay maybe that language is too strong to post.
That isn’t when I became a Ron Paul supporter.
I post on the blog, linking to some stories and comments by people like David Sirota and Glen Greenwald who are saying maybe Ron Paul has something worthwhile to say. They aren’t “supporting him,” but maybe there is something to this. I get attacked. Again.
That isn’t when I became a Ron Paul supporter.
The day I become a Ron Paul supporter is when I have been on the net looking at interviews and treatises and clips and articles all featuring some of the 15 smartest journalists and satirists in the country all Democrats and the one thing I see over and over again is, “I don’t support this guy I just think what he is saying makes sense and you should read it but then dismiss it because he is a crank.”
That is the day I say, Fuck it, I support Ron Paul.
Because that is the day I get, I can’t be another liberal coward sitting back saying this is the only guy in America running for the presidency who says anything reasonable or worthy of election or even progressive, but I have to preface any repeat of what he says with “I don’t support this guy he is a crank” to make sure my liberal brethren don’t go unhinged on my ass.
Who’s A Real Progressive ~ David Sirota
Democratic Party Priorities – Glenn Greenwald
How Did Ron Paul Become the 13th Floor? ~ Jon Stewart
4 Responses to how a born and bred democrat becomes a ron paul supporter
Barack Obama is a horrible president.
Mitt Romney is a horrible candidate.
And Ron Paul is a horrible candidate, too. Now, Ron Paul’s stated views on a number of important issues are vastly superior to Obama’s actions on those issues. But then, Obama’s stated views as a candidate were also a lot better than his subsequent behavior on those issues as president. I have zero confidence that Paul would be much better at following through on the progressive parts of his agenda than Obama has been.
Though I don’t agree with a lot that’s said over at Corrente, I do very much agree with their “12 word platform”:
Does Paul favor #1? No.
Does Paul favor #2? Yes.
Does Paul favor #3? No.
Does Paul favor #4? No.
Does Obama favor #1? No.
Does Obama favor #2? No.
Does Obama favor #3? No … but he’s probably not as ideologically opposed to it as Paul is.
Does Obama favor #4? No … but once again, he’s not as ideologically opposed to things like welfare support and labor protections as Paul is.
And Obama isn’t as opposed to environmental protections in principle as much as Ron Paul is.
All in all, the notion that Paul represents anything more than a slightly different flavor of figurehead for the 1% is ridiculous. He’s just another pied piper, and not worth supporting for any reason other than getting anti-imperialist discussion past the media blockade.
You know, I had something of a bad day today, and I think that affected my prior comment a bit. I stand by what I say about Ron Paul, but I apologize if the way I phrased my comment implied I was attacking you, Max. I don’t always agree with you, but I greatly respect your guts, and I very much share your disgust at the state of affairs in this country.
Obama did not have a track record. Paul does. Paul’s a twelve time congressman and his voting record is consistent. If he says he stands for something and is going to do it, there is no reason to think he won’t. He always has in the past.
I do not agree with Paul on every platform. However, I believe he will do what he says if he is elected and I believe he is the only candidate who might halt the US’s insane dash to self destruction that is on the immediate horizon if we do not stop the wars that are sucking the blood and resources and youth of this country dry. And I believe he’s the only candidate who will take action to restore the Bill of Rights. Those two actions, stopping the wars and restoring civil liberties promised in the Bill of Rights, are the only thing standing between The United States and No United States and we are running out of time, if we are not out of time already, when either will make a difference. The time to act is now, and still it may be too late, but it must happen now because four years from now it will assuredly be too late, our country will no longer exist.
No one should attack you personally for wanting to vote for a particular candidate.