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| Ron Paul |
By Daniel McAdams
TBT.
I wonder whether people ever wonder what it was like to be in the Ron Paul universe in Northern Virginia at that time. 2010. We had already labored in relative obscurity (in my case for nine years by that time). In 2007 Ron Paul took off and he was the talk of the nation. The dark horse shocking the establishment with his "radical" calls to stop counterfeiting money and stop bombing people overseas.
Northern Virginia would have been the last place - the high water mark - of Ron Paul's influence, because he was always anti-DC.
That was the one unforgivable sin. He did not drag his wife Carol up to live in NoVa among the wine and cheese crowd.
His actual home was in Lake Jackson (on Blossom Street with green shag rugs) and he (reluctantly) traveled to DC each week to do what he could to make a difference. He hated it. The only time I saw him irritated was when our office manager/scheduler Jennifer did not get him on the absolute soonest flight after votes. I am sure she did her best, but he wanted to be out. Immediately.
DC for him was kryptonite. He left his crappy (non-tony) Alexandria townhouse he purchased in the 1970s as soon as he could to get out. I had never been in the place, but I've been told it was a museum of 1970s shag rugs and avocado-colored appliances. Ron Paul had no interest in building a personal empire in the heart of the evil empire.
But it was funny how once he exploded in 2007 some factions of even Northern Virginia life started paying attention. Our crowd was pretty radical: pro-raw milk. Pro-whole foods Anti-FDA. Pro-homeschooling. Anti-mental gulag. Antiwar. Our homeschool community was very radically anti-state. Our allies like Liz Reitzig actually put on events in the US Capitol supporting Ron Paul's view that you should be able to drink raw milk (and even take marijuana) without the government putting you in a cage.
It was magical.
And, as you see in the photograph, I attended my ten year old son's soccer practice with Ron Paul t-shirts on. I advertised Ron Paul no matter where I was. I always wore Ron Paul t-shirts. It was a way of punching back against the zeitgeist. The oppressors.
So here is a photo of me with my then-littlest girl watching my son in soccer practice in Falls Church, VA. Yeah, Ron Paul taxpayers' best friend. All of you must look at it. Big letters. Ron Paul. I was proud to advertise my Ron Paul in a hostile neighborhood.
We met (on our own time) every Monday night with the late - and great - Kent Snyder to plot out how we could better expose the world to the Ron Paul legislative agenda. (And afterward Kent bought us dodgy salad bar dinner at one of those chains - he had a coupon always. I got diarrhea in the bargain - haha! - but that also taught me that the money given by supporters was sacred and must not be squandered...even on decent food! ha ha.)
There was a great level of camaraderie in those days among us rebels. Our Ron Paul labels were worn with a kind of punk rock pride in Washington DC in those days. "Oh gawd you're one of THEM!" Ha ha! I loved slinking into an International Relations Committee staff meeting with my hair on my shoulders and a badass attitude.
It was definitely a feeling of contra mundum as Norman Singleton and Jeff Deist and a few who are no longer with us in any way felt ourselves the beachhead of the Ron Paul world in the most hostile of territories. We associated with each other as much as possible because we understood where we were and where we were going. There was great comfort getting together with Ron Paul colleagues. We went to birthday parties for Jeff's kids and swimming with Adam's family, trick or treating in Norman Singleton's neighborhood and so many other things.
We loved Ron Paul and we were Ron Paul. And we continue - no matter where we are currently - to be Ron Paul. I am an older version of this fellow sitting among Arlington/Falls Church elites advertising my Ron Paul. Ron Paul is eternal. The idea of freedom and decency. Thank God for Ron Paul!
I do, and will continue to do so. Whenever I meet someone new and the subject turns to the ruinous condition of our nation, I will say, "Well, I vote for Ron Paul. That should tell you what you need to know about me."
ReplyDeleteI am grateful to have such an available example. Being a true ruler has nothing to do with coercion. A ruler is a measuring tool by which we may judge rightly. Ron Paul has been a consistently accurate measure of political righteousness ever since I can remember.
He does not boast. He is meek, and therefore, always learning. He speaks truth to power regardless the cost. He is affable but not gregarious. Pretentious glad-handing is not his style.
Ron Paul is a warrior against the powers of evil that beset us on every side. He is the perfect example of a fearless charge into the valley of Death. There will be no wounds in his back. Ron Paul does not run from a fight.
Yes, by all means, thank God for Ron Paul!
Fantastic! I agree wholeheartedly!
DeleteMy sons' baseball teams always have to put together a basket of stuff to sell at carnival day. This year one did a "patriotic" theme. My donation was RPs Liberty Defined. I don't think that's what they had in mind but that was the 1st thing of which I thought.
ReplyDeleteRon's book The Revolution: A Manifesto changed my outlook on everything in the most profound of ways, and opened my eyes in ways that "education" never would. Before him, I only new of the officially approved, artificial/plastic horse squeeze the USG pushed as "the truth". I owe him (and the great men whose shoulders he stood on and drew from) the deepest debt of gratitude. He started me on the long, continuous journey towards understanding the state and its true intentions.
ReplyDeleteAfter my father, Ron is the most influential person in my life. He never wavered.
ReplyDeleteI was somehow elected to the Platform Committee of the Libertarian Party of Michigan. Then I discovered that the "Chair" of the committees was James Weeks II, the fat stripper dancing guy from the LP convention on C-Span. I think those people control the party. Good luck with that.
ReplyDeletehttps://tinyurl.com/y5n5jxue
Wow, a couple of knuckleheads in that link. I am assuming "the boys in Auburn" is a reference to the Mises Institute.
DeleteThat's why the Libertarian Party as a political party is DOA.
They are beyond dead. They are the enemies of our cause. They hunt for non-woke libertarians and then try to cancel and destroy them.
DeleteAlso, they are maskholes who insist that masks and lockdowns work but could produce no supporting evidence despite my many inquiries. They opening mock Lew Rockwell because of his active posting of information and links regarding immune boosting for those vulnerable to Covid-19. Which, by the way, I believe saved my life and allowed me to overcome the clogged lung ARDS stage of Covid-19 in three days while losing 15 pounds. I do enjoy being mocked by such people.
https://tinyurl.com/2p3yf22j
There are a lot of good people making a push to change the direction of the party. The party has long been an embarrassment but in the right hands things could be quite different and actually used as a vehicle to advance true liberty.
DeleteThere really are enough superlatives to describe Ron Paul's righteousness in a sea of clinging ink black corruption that is the swamp.
ReplyDeleteHe was one of the rare few outsiders that commanded respect from even the worst animals on the hill. A personal hero to me.
Ron Paul changed my thinking for the better for good. To think of him in the political wilderness for so many years and never compromising, never succumbing to negativity, is to envision a biblical will. God bless that man.
ReplyDeleteThe only politician running for an office I ever gave money to. I would guess many Ron Paul voters went Trump the last couple elections.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the libertardian party needs to lose the open borders stupidity and kick out all the damn trannies and other weirdos. Even Doug Casey, as libertarian as they come, acknowledges that race, IQ, and culture matters, though he does not say it that way.
Great article!
ReplyDeleteThis is a video i made in December 2008, in tribute to Dr. Paul & brief interviews/snippets w/ his supporters in SoCal. Those were great, & very special, times of hope. Of course the 07 primary was the last rime i ever voted. 🙄😒
The Ron Paul bumper sticker is still on my car https://youtu.be/2hyJg0gTrBY
I have one on my old M3, too:)
Delete