It's Not You, Ron Paul, It's Us.

I have noticed a very disturbing trend in our political discourse as of late.

It did not begin with Ron Paul's candidacy, but it is certainly extremely prevalent now because of it.

When we, as a culture, hold a single person up as the One who can change the system, we are missing the real point of democracy.

It is Us, ATS. We are the only ones who can change our lot. Not Paul, Not Obama. Not anyone with an election coming up.

Even if Jesus himself ran and won, we cannot rely on Him to fix OUR problems. When you don't truly work for something it has very little value.

This same ideology was pervasive in the 60's, 70's 80's 90's 2000, 2004, 2008, and Republican or Democrat, we must admit that where we are heading as Americans has changed very little.

The election itself is a Straw Man. One pull of a lever does not change the avalanche.

Only an informed and organized citizenry can accomplish the change we all seem to know we desperately need.

If there can be anything positive said about our political machine, it's that they know what we want to hear.

Ron Paul is a decent man, in my opinion. But his election, even if such a thing could happen, will be a huge disappointment to all of you die hard Paulites, because one man cannot fix a country.

It's you, getting informed and getting involved that changes things.

So please ATS, show some restraint and some rationality, and try to find a way to see that Ron Paul is not the answer to our collective ills, you are.

Its about recognizing the qualities in a man that can make a difference. Recent voting has shown the majority of the 40 Tea Party candidates caved to peer pressure when they renewed the Patrio act. 20 years of consistent compliance to constitutional government shows that this 1 man has made a difference. This 'disturbing' trend I define as a growing trend of the people of this country realizing the government is pursuing it's own agenda for the benefit of the few. Not us. Ron Paul has shown us the gov is not unstoppable and it fears the united voice of the people.

reply to post by jimnuggits
I'll also add that even if Paul accomplished nothing more than returning sanity to our foreign policy and blocking further spending increases & debt (both fall within the purview of the president's authority), and rescinding prior invalid executive orders, it would likely be enough for me.

I can't disagree with your general point, but the office of the presidency does also come with a fairly impressive bully pulpit and some nice representory power around the world, on top of a bit more authority (but much less than most presidents have seized) than people tend to think about.

I agree with you.

While at the same time I have been called a fan boy for trying to explain what I know of Ron Paul’s record on voting. But Ron Paul too me at least, (keyword me) , is the only candidate out of the puppets on both sides of the isle that can shake the status quo. At least that is what I believe. So by the same token any inaction such as not voting will also accomplish nothing.

That’s why I believe he is the most viable candidate to go against the status quo. No that doesn’t mean he will end the FED, or take us back to a gold standard. I’m sure he will try but we all know that he is not likely to make big strides on those issues.

But at least in my mind out of simply casting my vote in a show of displeasure with the status quo and those that run Washington. And rest assured if anything comes out of Ron Paul winning the republican ticket that message will and would most definitely be heard.

I personally don’t want to argue tit for tat with people on these issues because we would all do ourselves better justice to discuss real and current logical problems we all face.

Side Note: I supported Ross Perot back in 1996 for the same reason I stated above. Some things I agreed with him on and others I did not. But I cast him my vote as a show of displeasure with the system.

Rock and a hard spot. Nice post Op

Aesop

He taught us how one could pander to a racist base for campaign contributions by publishing open racism under his name and retain plausible deniabillity by maintaining a string of businesses with distanced leadership. No better than a corporation CEO who fleeces his shareholders only to retire with bonuses and freedom from responsibillity.

Yes OP, it is up to the people to see what something is before they worship it. Something sorely lacking.

I started this thread to bring some logic and rationality to this fervor over the candidacy of Ron Paul, and I admonish each of you reading these words to go forth with more realistic aims, because this cookie will eventually crumble.

It is on our shoulders to make this mess better, no one else's.