A few more thoughts on the Reince Priebus and GOP Liberty situation

mmccart — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:04:06 -0600

Yesterday, United Liberty Editor Jason Pye did a write-up on Reince Priebus and his recent attempts to reach out to the Ron Paul Republicans/Liberty wing of the GOP. This action has naturally been met with much skepticism from the Freedom forces of the GOP. As a member of that group, I just wanted to expound on a few things:

First off, with all due respect, for those thinking that Priebus did this solely because he was concerned about keeping his position, that just isn’t the case. No one, and I really mean no one (including potential challenger Mark Willis), had any real hope that Priebus would be unseated. Of the 168 members of the RNC, there might have been upwards of two dozen or so that could be counted on to vote against Priebus. However, Mark Willis, the Liberty GOPer from Maine, wasn’t able to get the majority vote of the 3 different state RNC memberships to even be placed on the ballot.

Secondly, Priebus has been reaching out to the Ron Paul/Liberty people before, during, and after this most recent RNC meeting. The writing is on the wall - the Liberty forces have the momentum. And even though they’ve been the ones most involved in the degradation of the GOP for the last decade, the establishment GOP is now exhibiting what might be the strongest and most intense of human instincts - self-preservation. It’s also just common sense, as evidenced by this recent quote from long-serving, social conservative RNC Iowa Committeeman, Steve Scheffler:

“If you don’t start including new people, you’re going to die on the vine…the old guard needs to be inclusive.”

Also of note, and Jason mentioned this as well, is the fact that Priebus has specifically addressed those awful rule changes from Tampa last year, and discussion and potential changes on those will be taken up at the next RNC meeting in April.

Am I saying that the Liberty forces have won and that ole Reincey is now our new BFF? Definitely not. But what I’m saying is that this is exactly what the Liberty movement has been fighting for and is precisely what Dr. Paul has been talking about for some time - remaking the party in the Liberty image, returning it to its roots, and bringing back the tradition of the GOP being the original big tent party. A patchwork coalition of the Liberty wing, Tea Party/9-12 folks, GOP regulars/establishment, and centrist independents would do very well regionally and in a national election.

Where do we go from here?

mmccart — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:17:28 -0600

So today is inauguaration day. For many in this country it is a grand and glorious day, but for many it is a stark reminder of the failures of the GOP establishment and the Romney campaign. If ever there was a presidential election that should have been won by the non-incumbent party, this was it. So what happened?

For starters, a weak candidate who ran a very weak campaign is usually a recipe for disaster. But more than that, I think the biggest failure was the refusal of the GOP establishment to to even tolerate, much less embrace, the liberty wing of the party. You can call this wing the “crazy Ron Paul people” or, as a lady in my county said, “these libertarians trying to take over our party.” This behavior was found at all levels - precinct, county, district, state, and national. A real shame considering that this was the one wing of the party that could have actually GOTV and created some excitement. But the GOP antics in Tampa made sure that wouldn’t happen.

What were they thinking? In such an electric and polarized environment, you’ve got to be inclusive as possible, not completely exclusive. It’s as if many GOPers had a death wish - making all of the wrong decisions at every, single turn. But…that’s all in the past - water under the bridge.

So where do we go from here? That depends on what you believe and what you think is truly helpful to the liberty movement. We all have our opinions on that. A method that I learned from my real estate days is the wall method. Throw it all against the wall and see what sticks, also known as the kitchen sink method.

Here in Georgia, where I reside, a large number of us are continuing the grassroots groups we started last year to try to secure the GOP nomination for Ron Paul. This year, instead of Georgia for Ron Paul, we are Georgia for Liberty - a totally organic, grassroots organization; we are not affiliated with any national group. However, many of us, individually or in groups, are associated either with Campaign for Liberty or the RLC, both of which are great organizations. We continue to try to make inroads in the GOP and help reshape the party in the liberty image. This is occurring all over the country as well.

Also, more and more people are looking at organizations that work to win the battle of ideas to shape policy. Obviously, the Cato Institute is great example of this. Also, advocacy or activism groups are a great outlet for many people. FreedomWorks is prime example of this. And as important as any other group, the Institute for Justice is fighting the good fight of liberty on the judicial front. All of these organizations are doing their part and are all worthy causes.

So, the broad-spectrum, throw-it-at-the-wall, kitchen sink method - do it all. Why not? Let’s see what sticks…

A follow-up on the 22nd Amendment discussion

mmccart — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:12:53 -0600

Last week, United Liberty Editor-in-Chief, Jason Pye, wrote a column discussing why the 22nd Amendment, the one that limits the president to two terms, would never be repealed; despite the fact that there is been a fair amount of press and attention given to the introduction of a resolution by New York Dem, Jose Serrano, that would do precisely that.

Without getting into specifics, Mr. Pye simply said the reasons why this would never happen were “pretty obvious,” and that it was a non-issue. He is correct. And for many of the regular readers of UL, I’m sure it is pretty obvious, but I thought I would take a moment to specifically talk about why it won’t happen for some of the readers who might not fully understand the process.

As many of us know, there are exactly two ways in which the Constitution of the United States can be amended: either by Constitutional Convention, or by a 2/3 vote by Congress with a 3/4 ratification vote by the various state legislatures.

No amendment has ever been passed by a Constitutional Convention, and it seems very unlikely that it would ever happen. In order for it to happen, 2/3 of the state legislatures would have to vote for and call for it. With our polarized electorate, and since many of the states themselves seem so polarized, it just seems like an all-out impossibility.

With the other way, I don’t know if we would ever see both the U.S. House and Senate pass a joint resolution with 2/3 votes for anything that wasn’t supported by over 70% of Americans, and repealing the 22nd Amendment would not enjoy anywhere near that type of support. Furthermore, if it did somehow make it out of Congress, I would bet every dollar I’ve got that 75% of the States in the Union would never pass it. While a New York or a California might go for it, a Wyoming and a Nebraska would not. And naturally, there are many more red states than blue right now.

I remember having discussions with people back in the 90’s when there seemed to be genuine excitement and enthusiasm about doing this to get Clinton more than two terms. I told multiple people back then, as I have been now, “remember - it’s got to go through the states. We’re fine.”

And this is yet another example of how finely constructed our Constitution is. They made sure to make amending the Constitution a process that wouldn’t fall victim to the existing majority or passing whims, but rather only done when it was truly supported by a majority of the electorate. Of course, there have been bad amendments (16,17,18th), but this is one that will never get legs. As Jason said, worrying or fretting or this is a “colossal waste of time.”

The RNC Power Grab

mmccart — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:13:58 -0500

A lot of the readers of United Liberty probably have a pretty good idea of what transpired at the GOP convention on Tuesday, or at least have heard about it. For those who haven’t, it all started Friday when the Rules Committee, led by one of my least favorite people, John Sununu, decided to radically change the power structure of the party, in essence, neutering the grassroots. Specifically, it would make the RNC very much a top-heavy organization and give the national party establishment, as well as the party’s nominee, ultimate authority over the delegate process.

So fast-forward to Tuesday when the convention convened to start handling party business. The matter concerning the rule changes was brought before the assembled body and while, according to multiple reports, the nays had it, it was passed. Before we go any further, I’d have to recommend a write-up by Dean Clancy of FreedomWorks. This pretty much gives all the info you need about this power grab. The main points being Rules 12 and 15, respectively, which if changed, would create the aforementioned shift of power.

As Clancy notes, there was a lot of misinformation flying around that helped cause this mess. The main one being that this was just a Ron Paul thing:

Some delegates seem to have believed that the rules fight was really just a proxy fight in the larger battle being waged between the Romney and Ron Paul camps over who would represent certain states on the convention floor. This assumption may have discouraged some Rules Committee members from supporting the minority reports.

Certainly it seems intuitive that the power elite of the party probably figured this would happen and that it would help their cause. As Michelle Malkin herself tweeted, this was not about Ron Paul. It was an all-out power grab. During the session, #RNCpowergrab started to trend on Twitter. On the front lines of this battle were groups like FreedomWorks and the Heritage Foundation. For Heaven’s sake, even Rush and Mark Levin started to decry this obvious mistake, but—it didn’t matter. It passed…

After several delegates walked out in protest on Tuesday, several more did so Wednesday night in the middle of John McCain’s speech yelling, “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.” That was in reference to the the RNC stripping 10 duly elected delegates from the Maine delegation and replacing them with Romney loyalists. However, the best line of this article was this:

Hungry journalists, myself included, chased after them, happy that something remotely interesting was happening.

Ha! That’s good stuff. And true. The McCain speech was a snoozer.

But seriously, my thoughts can be summed up by this question: Is the GOP intentionally trying to do everything wrong? And as I’ve been saying for awhile, I think antics like this benefit the LP and Gary Johnson’s presidential run. All the GOP had to do was let things play out in a natural, organic way. Paul would have had a plurality of delegates in enough states to be given an automatic speech (that wouldn’t be vetted by team Romney), Romney would easily win the nomination, and the Paul forces would have felt respected and validated. But as I mentioned earlier, this thing is now way bigger than Dr. Paul. In terms of the grassroots perspective, I think Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks, who was just highlighted Tuesday on United Liberty, summed it up best:

I believe that the Republican party has made a huge mistake by effectively disenfranchising grassroots activists who want to be a part of the party process. If the party sincerely wants the support of citizens, shutting them out of the process is not the way to do it. Sooner rather than later the Republican establishment needs to come to terms with the decentralized nature of grassroots organization circa 2012. The terms of engagement can no longer be dictated from the top-down.

GOP breaks its own rules: Dr. Paul will not be properly nominated.

mmccart — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:12:08 -0500

Well…it’s all but official now. Ron Paul will not be on the ballot in Tampa, nor will he be able to speak. Dr. Ron Paul and the forces of Freedom worked very, very hard to get the good doctor a plurality of delegates in 8 states. Although he easily passed the threshold of 5 states needed to be able to nominate Dr. Paul from the convention floor and give him the automatic speaking time earned, the GOP and the Romney camp has spent the last several months fighting and lawyering its way to silence the Paul forces. Things have really heated up this week in Tampa as various convention committees have broken its own rules multiple times to make sure that the Republican National Convention is a smooth, scripted infomercial for Mitt Romney and the Grand Old Party.

But. At what cost? Will the majority of Paul supporters be content with a Rand Paul prime-time speech on Monday night and several platform planks that, honestly, really don’t matter. I don’t think so. I think the GOP has really mucked this one up. Rather than letting things play in a natural way where the 500 or so Paul delegates and alternates—and the thousands and thousands of supporters across the country—would have felt validated and respected, the Republicans have basically said that it is more important to maintain a facade of loyalty and unity, rules and principles be damned.

My take on all this? I think Gary Johnson will be seeing a surge of support in the next few weeks.

Former Marine Arrested and Detained for Anti-Government Comments

mmccart — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 12:19:41 -0500

Editor’s note: This is one of two takes on the Brandon Raub story that will posted today.

Early Monday morning while making my news rounds, a very interesting item from caught my attention. Brandon Raub, a former Marine, was arrested by local police and the FBI in Virginia and was sent for a mental evaluation for posting anti-government comments. At least, according to that first article I read.

I sure as hell wasn’t going to share or comment on the story until I had more info, but I had to get to work. So, as the day progressed, I read more and more about this story. There was talk about green warrants and possible mental health issues. Then someone posted a link to this guy’s Facebook page. Some of the stuff on there was just downright crazy. But! Was it a threat or a call for violence? No. Not in my opinion.

Still…I didn’t have the necessary information to make an informed decision. Did this guy’s family have him committed? At this point, it’s looking like no. And the strangest thing to me was, as I mentioned, that the FBI was involved with his detainment.

As of last night, Mr. Truth himself, Ben Swann, stated that he was on it. That makes me feel good. Ben will get to the bottom of it. He has said that at this point—it does not seem to be passing the smell test. Also, the Rutherford Institute has now come out in support of Mr. Raub. But until more information presents itself, I just can’t make an informed analysis; however, I will say this—if he wasn’t involuntarily committed in a proper way…if this was just the government deciding that they would detain this man for words he wrote. Then—we might have a problem. This might be a game-changer. This could be one of the biggest stories in America that hardly no one knows about. If this was done improperly, then the United States Government may have just committed an egregious error.

Time will tell. I’ll follow up soon.

The Ron Paul Report: June 7, 2012

mmccart — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 11:15:11 -0500

It’s been a busy and interesting couple of weeks for the forces of freedom and liberty since my last edition of the Ron Paul Report came out. Sorry about the layoff, but I needed some time to recover from the Georgia GOP convention that occurred a couple of Saturdays ago. As most of you probably already know, things didn’t really work out for us there. But…if you don’t have the numbers—you don’t have the numbers. We were pretty damned close, though. And while it seemed that we definitely had enough to prevent a super-majority, the convention chair, Randy Evans, didn’t see it that way. What they didn’t have to do, though, was rub our noses in it. But that’s cool. Actions have consequences…

With that said, several Ron Paul supporters did make it through as national delegates at the Congressional district conventions back in April. Some have estimated that as many as 10 of the delegates heading to Tampa are Ron Paul supporters, although they will be bound for another candidate for the first two ballots.

There was, however, some very good news from that same weekend. The Paul forces rocked it in Minnesota taking 12 of the 13 available delegate slots and pushed their total number of delegates to 32 out of the allocation of 40 that will be heading to Tampa. Without a doubt, this was the biggest victory for the Paul forces so far in the 2012 delegate process.

Utah also held its state convention a couple of weeks ago. Not surprisingly, the Romney forces swept it. Romney also swept the state of Arkansas.

Over the past week, Dr. Paul has added several more delegates from North Carolina, Missouri, and Louisiana. Missouri, where the Paul forces secured 4 delegate slots, was a bit of a disappointment as it was thought by many that it could be a state on par with the successes that have been seen in Maine, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Iowa. Iowa has not yet held their state convention, but once they do, Paul will undoubtedly add to his already impressive total from the district conventions in April and is assured at least half of the total delegates.

The big newsmaker from this past weekend was Louisiana. Things got a little crazy down in the bayou. A good and accurate write-up of that can be found here as well as the response from the Ron Paul campaign, here. There’s been a lot of misinformation flying around regarding the LA GOP convention, including some on this very webpage; however, no one will really know 100% for sure how many delegates Paul or Romney picked up until those delegates are seated in Tampa. It is my opinion that the legally elected Paul slate will be the one that gets seated. If that is indeed the case, then Louisiana will go down as one of campaign’s best showings.

To switch out of delegate mode and into primary mode, I found something quite interesting in Tuesday night’s results from California. For starters, I thought it was great that Dr. Paul picked up over 10% of the vote. Upwards of 150,000 people cast a principled vote for freedom even though Dr. Paul was no longer actively campaigning. Even more interesting was the fact that Mitt Romney was unable to break 80% of the votes cast. That really speaks volumes in my opinion.

Another state that had its primary that night was Montana. Ron Paul hit just shy of 15%. Romney? 68%. Barely 2/3 of Montana’s GOP primary voters were willing to vote for the presumptive nominee. Mitt hit 74% in New Mexico and 81% in New Jersey. In South Dakota, Romney was only able to achieve 66% with Dr. Paul hitting 13%. Another interesting item is the fact that Santorum is usually coming in a pretty strong 3rd and still flirting with or breaking double-digits in many of these late primaries. It seems that Ron Paul Republicans and libertarians aren’t the only ones balking at the concept of uniting behind an anti-2nd amendment, pro-choice (or is he pro-life?), flip-flopping, bank-owned, absolute sell-out-of-a-shill, Massachusetts liberal who can be best described as the godfather of Obamacare.

Interesting times. We’ll see how things shake out from here. The Iowa GOP state convention is June 16th. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on that one. Until next time…

The Ron Paul Report: May 15, 2012

mmccart — Tue, 15 May 2012 13:07:55 -0500

As I have previously mentioned, I am a Ron Paul supporter and have served as a grassroots coordinator and served in the delegate process. These write-ups are not so much “news” as they are “views of the revolution” from an activist’s point of view. I had originally done a recap of this past weekend’s state conventions. That can still be found below after I discuss the big developments from yesterday.

So yesterday afternoon I started seeing twitter postings that caught my eye, I then proceeded to open up my email inbox and read the following message from Dr. Paul.

Almost instantly, I saw a few retweets from Drudge Report on my feed. “Paul’s Out,” screamed the headline…it was yet another example of why I’m so glad I started boycotting that hack’s site almost a month ago over his complete silence of anything relating to CISPA (can’t make Republicans look bad). But I digress…

What proceeded over the next couple of hours was nothing short of information overload: Media outlets basically running with the MSM fallacy of Paul leaving the race or suspending his campaign mixed with Paul-friendly sites trying to squelch that misinformation with their own media surge. It finally got to the point where the campaign had to send out another communication. There were also fellow activists either talking like it was the end of the world or theorizing about how it was this Machiavellian stroke of sheer genius. And naturally, there have been surly comments of Paul “selling out” or trying to set up his son’s political future.

I think the truth, as it almost always does, lies somewhere in the middle. The big thing, in my opinion, is that this was unavoidable. Paul simply did not have the resources to continue actively trying to win primaries. Simple as that. By doing this, he doesn’t have to worry about results, particularly from his home state of Texas. And as the campaign mentioned, they can place emphasis on the delegate strategy, which has always been the foundation of his 2012 campaign.

Also, and I think that Jesse Benton confirmed this, things did seem to be disintegrating. Things were getting uglier and more contentious with every state convention. I really think things were starting to get out of hand, and I believe that Dr. Paul felt the same way.

Now this is where we start getting into the “stroke of genius” stuff. Let’s say a nice, clean-cut Mormon boy who is the son of a certain presidential candidate gets booed off the stage at a state convention, well…it’s those crazy Paultards! Dr. Paul is not actively campaigning anymore, right? And let’s talk about a state like Minnesota, where the delegates are unbound and the Paul forces have a very good shot at cleaning house at that party’s state convention this weekend, just like they previously did in Maine and Nevada. Well…now Paul’s “out,” and most of the rank and filers who have no doubt been inundated by their state leadership about the threat of the Paul forces and how their presence is of the utmost importance, may not feel as compelled to attend. It’s definitely quite possible.

I think the biggest thing to take away from this is what Dr. Paul has said all along—it’s not about him. It’s not about one man. It’s the message that matters. The decades-long cause that he has been fighting for is the main thing here.

Personally, I think we are witnessing a renaissance of freedom and liberty that can not be defeated. We have reached critical mass. We have the momentum. I posted this on a write-up I did here last year, but I always think of a Hunter S. Thompson quote when I reflect on what we’ve seen over the last 5 years,

There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning…And that, I think, was the handle — that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply PREVAIL. There was no point in fighting — on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave…

The delegate stragegy is still in play. The Revolution continues…

My original follow up regarding the Arizona and Oklahoma conventions follows:

Another weekend…another round of fighting for the heart and soul of the Grand Old Party. For those of you keeping score at home, the Paul forces are basically taking over many state parties and the GOP “is being remade in the image of Ron Paul.” The results of the past weekend’s battles in Arizona and Oklahoma seem to be, at this time, a mixed bag; although it is quite possible this could go down as a great weekend for the Paulians.

In Arizona, where, once again, dirty tricks and tactics may have been used by the GOP Establishment, the Paul forces have seemingly secured a historic victory and have officially made Paul eligible for the ballot in Tampa. Interestingly enough, the Paul forces had supposedly offered the Romney/Establishment folks a deal—we’ll give you 50% plus one, and we’ll take the rest.

Apparently, the Romney folks balked at this and decided to go to war even though they had the minority. Even one of Mitt’s sons who was in attendance tried to get involved and was quickly booed off the stage by Paul and Romney supporters alike. Arizona’s 29 delegates are bound for the first ballot in August. The votes haven’t been counted yet, but it seems almost a given that Paul will have the majority of delegates that Arizona sends to the convention in August. So, if it goes past the first round of voting in Tampa, Paul would have a majority of those delegates. As of this time, though, it is hard to say exactly what the final outcome will be.

In Oklahoma, things look a little bit dicey as well. Despite the Paul forces also having the majority there, it seems like a Romney/Santorum/Establishment Unity Slate was able to sneak its way into victory; however, there are multiple reports that the slate was never properly accepted and the convention was illegally closed. The Paul forces, and, allegedly, some of the Romney delegates, proceeded outside where the convention was reconvened and a slate was elected. So…we’ll see. In terms of bounding of delegates, Oklahoma is a little bit different from most states in that delegates are bound for all rounds of balloting until those delegates are released. As it stands, approx. 2/3 of those delegates are not bound to Romney.

Regardless of these outcomes, I don’t think there is any doubt by anybody, Paul supporter or not, that the GOP, and really the entire American electoral process, will ever be the same. And to me—that’s a good thing.

I’ll be posting updates to this post as new information presents itself. Coming up, we have Georgia’s state convention this weekend as well as Minnesota’s. Should be interesting…

The Ron Paul Round-Up: May 9, 2012

mmccart — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:20:27 -0500

Again, right off the bat, I am a proud Paul supporter and have made several donations to several of his campaigns and have served as a grassroots coordinator and delegate for the cause—MM

So it was a pretty exciting weekend if you’re a Ron Paul enthusiast. Let’s start with Maine. The Maine GOP held their state convention and basically the Paul forces took it over. The new state Chair, most of the new executive committee, and 20 of the 24 delegates bound for Tampa are Ron Paul supporters.

These delegates are unbound, meaning that they are free to vote for any candidate they support. The Maine caucus that was held earlier this year where Romney narrowly edged out Dr. Paul (with only 87% of the votes counted and with reports of widespread fraud and incompetence) was nothing more than a straw poll. It meant nothing.

The fact of the matter is that Ron Paul has an “air-tight” majority in Maine moving forward. Not that you’ll read or see this in most MSM outlets. In fact, as of a little while ago, most media delegate counts have not been changed except for Google. As a quick aside, I love the Google election results page.

Nevada is basically the same story, albeit a bit different because Nevada’s delegates are bound for the 1st ballot in Tampa; however, Paul has some of those bound delegates coming to him anyways. The kicker is if it goes past one ballot—then those delegates are released and can then vote for the candidate of their choice. 22 of Nevada’s 28 delegates are Paul supporters.

The biggest thing, though, in my opinion, is the same thing that happened in Maine and that is happening all over America, happened in Nevada as well—the Paul forces have taken over the state GOP apparatus. Exciting times, indeed…

There are other states where the process is playing out, but it seems almost a given that Paul will have the majority of delegates in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Alaska, and several others. In the state of Iowa, those delegates are unbound, so after the state convention wraps, Paul’s numbers will go up while Romney’s will drop. This will happen time after time in the coming the weeks.

Will Dr. Paul have enough delegates to force a contested convention? I honestly don’t know, but probably not. Is this good for our country and for the Republican Party? I think so, for sure. How many more times must the GOP completely sell out before the rank and filers realize that there’s something not right going on? I think we’re starting to see it. I really do. At the very least, if the GOP even wants a small chance of winning they will have to get very serious about the Ron Paul Revolution. Because if they don’t, a lot of us will happily be getting on the Gary Johnson train…better believe it!

Viva la r3VOLution!

Is CISPA the new SOPA?

mmccart — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:15:35 -0500

The short answer to that is probably no, especially with recent amendments that have been added to address some of the privacy and civil liberty concerns.

Here is a write-up that details how things were looking at the first of the week.

And here is a more recent article that mentions the amendments and privacy concerns.

A few things from my perspective: Hats off to Obama who had said that he would definitely veto this bill as it stood without the amendments. And kudos to Ron Paul and several Democrats who really started to raise a stink about this, but most of all, this is another example of the People’s power by voicing their concerns and contacting their representation. This thing hasn’t been as big as the SOPA protests in January, but still—it’s nice to see.

Of course, this thing still sucks even with the amendments…we don’t need it, in my opinion. Let’s keep their feet to the fire. Contact your Representative immediately. It is scheduled to hit the House on Friday.

Recent posts by mmccart