The Ron Paul campaign is over. While he may hang in there for a few more weeks, the hope of Dr. Paul having any sway at a brokered convention has been dashed as he failed to pick up a substantial amount of delegates tonight on Super Tuesday. While he did have some double digit showings in North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and Alaska, these winner take all states did not boost his profile in the end. The only strong states he has left are Washington and Texas, but after his poor showing tonight it is unlikely that he will succeed in those states. As much as it hurts me to admit it, Ron Paul is finished.
No doubt there will be some hardcore supporters dreaming up pie-in-the-sky scenarios in which the nation comes to its senses and Ron Paul makes a dramatic comeback. But that won't get the r3VOLution anywhere. So the real question becomes: where do we go from here?
In order to answer that question, I think it's necessary to take a look back at how far we have come and what prevented us from getting even further. Out of a field of eleven candidates, Ron Paul made it to be one of the last four in the running, a remarkable feat for a no-name congressman that was written off by corporate media. He owned the internet for months, and inspired people from all over the world to actively support him and embrace his ideas. He has over 100,000 videos on YouTube, and his most viewed video has 5 million views. What's more, he was in 19 debates and had numerous television interviews on local and national stations, including appearances on Jay Leno, Comedy Central, and Meet the Press, among other notable interviews. The message has gotten out. Many people have heard what he had to say, even if they rejected it or in the end weren't convinced. He has earned a place in the history books, and as things get worse for America, he may be looked at by future generations as a prophet, even if he was a Cassandra in his own time.
A more immediate legacy will probably be the campaign organizational model that sprung up around him: decentralized, unpayed supporters doing most of the work organizing precincts, garnering media attention, and spreading his message; a message of freedom, peace, and prosperity made possible by vastly reduced military spending, a new foreign policy that respects other countries as we would want to be respected, and above all a strict adherence to the rule of law under the constitution. The new media is still flexing its muscles and as a new generation grows up with the internet and more and more people are turned off by the hypocricy and blatant misinformation and propagandizing on TV, new media will only grow stronger.
The way I see it, there are basically three ways of understanding why Ron Paul lost. 1) The corporate media, subservient to the military-industiral compex, created a Ron Paul news vacuum in which notable events in his campaign were ignored or given short shrift, and he was blatantly left out of discussions involving all the other candidates and their chances. Because of this no one heard about him and so no one voted for him. 2) People in general (i.e. 'the masses') are too ignorant or stubborn to recognize a good thing when they see it. America is lost and doesn't deserve the positive changes a Paul presidency would bring. 3) Not enough people are educated about the true state of the union and so although Ron Paul spoke the truth about foreign entanglements, people didn't recognize it and wrote him off as a 'crackpot'.
Personally, I see it as a combination of 1) and 3), although I'm sure that a lot of bitter Ron Paul supporters are going to be blaming 'stupid Americans' for his loss. I for one have great faith in all people, especially the American people. I think that we are basically decent folk, but we are under the influence of the most powerful and stealthy propaganda machine in the history of mankind. Waking up to that kind of evil takes a radical confrontation with previously unknown facts, accompanied by a pretty significant personal transformation, and most people just haven't gone through that yet. So let's not lose hope, and let's not give up on our fellow citizens. The work we have left is to be educators and to be supporters through the emotional stress that accompanies the kind of truth we're sharing.
And so the question remains: where do we go from here? The general answer is to continue on the path we are already on: we need to keep being media activists and call the major networks on innaccurate and unfairly biased stories, as well as diseminating the correct information alongside this critique. We need to keep spreading the word about America's disastrous and immoral foreign policy that includes a well-researched historical and economic perspective, and all this through whatever means are at our disposal: blogs, videos, e-mails, and most-importantly, face-to-face conversations with our friends, family, and those we meet.
Finally, the million dollar question: so who do we vote for in the presidential election in November? I'm sure that a lot of people are so closely wedded to the Paul campaign that they intend to write him in. However, personally I would recommend Cynthia Mckinney of the Green Party. The Green Party is not just for those too liberal for the Democrats--it is a haven for all those who are fed up with the two party system and want to see more choice in our electoral process. They, along with Paul, are crusaders against undeclared, immoral wars of aggression and for restoring the right and liberties in the constitution. They are for reduced military spending and an international military deescalation. They are also vocal supporters of impeachment and a new 9/11 investigation, which many Paul supporters wish he would have stood behind. But wherever you decide to go, and whoever you decide to vote for in November, keep fighting for truth and freedom and it has been an honor working alongside you in that struggle.
