Where is Ron Paul?

RonPaul.com is the largest Ron Paul fansite on the Internet. We receive hundreds of emails each week from all over the world. These messages give us a good sense of the currents of opinion and sentiment prevailing among fellow Ron Paul supporters.

In recent weeks we increasingly gained the impression that many supporters were feeling a bit out of the loop. They want to know… “What is Ron Paul up to?” – “Is he still running for President?” – “Has he endorsed anyone?”

We don’t claim to have any specific inside information, but we do feel that Ron Paul supporters deserve to know what’s going on. That’s why we decided to analyze some of Ron Paul‘s recent speeches and interviews. Our findings are presented below.

First, a few quick facts:

Ron Paul is no longer actively running or campaigning for President.

He ended his campaign on August 28 with a one hour speech at the University of Florida Sun Dome.

Ron Paul: During the campaign, I got a lot of advice. Can you believe that, a lot of advice? Sometimes from strangers, sometimes from our enemies, sometimes from my family as well.

(“During the campaign” refers to the past and obviously implied that the campaign was now over.)

Ron Paul is an official write in candidate in several states, but that’s entirely due to his supporters’ efforts. Ron Paul did not discourage these efforts but he stated very clearly that he is not actively participating.

Ron Paul: I get a lot of questions on that, a lot of phone calls and emails, and people sometimes want me to sign something, to fully endorse it as a legal matter. But I haven’t signed anything, so I neither encourage it nor discourage it, because of the frustration, because in some places they won’t count the votes. But if people feel totally exasperated and still want the satisfaction of doing something, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it. But I don’t ever want to lead people to deception like, “Oh yea, if we have this write in campaign and all of a sudden major things will happen”. And that’s not true. If there is a write in campaign, those individuals that are doing it, the most important thing is to hold their feet to the fire and make them count them. But they don’t [count them]. Politics is not always a very clean business. That’s why it’s a lot easier to deal with philosophy than it is with politics. Politics is a tool but it’s not necessarily an end. The end is changing the philosophy. So if these campaigns one way or the other can get attention to serve the issues then I think it’s worthwhile.

Ron Paul has not endorsed anyone and he did not reveal who he will be voting for, or if he is going to be voting at all.

Ron Paul: I haven’t decided yet, at least I have decided not to announce it, so I’m going to sort of sit tight for a little bit longer. [...] I haven’t announced support for Romney, that means it’s very unlikely, and I don’t think anybody thinks I’m going to vote for Obama. It’s back to that frustration level of not seeing a dramatic choice in the way the system works.

Ron Paul said a few nice words about Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, but they do not amount to an endorsement.

Ron Paul: I think [Gary Johnson] is wonderful and I think he’s doing a good job, and people should look at him, and every individual should make up their own mind.

Ron Paul recently stated that Romney might be better on taxes and Obama might be better on foreign policy. But none of that can be construed as an endorsement.

Ron Paul: Would Romney be better for America than Obama? I think not necessarily, no. (Applause) Is that a gentle no? (Laughter) And the reason I say a little bit is, maybe in some areas he might be a little better, and maybe in other areas Obama might be a little bit better. The odds of us expanding war and getting in more trouble is worse with Romney. When it comes to maybe hitting you with a higher tax, you’re a little bit better off with Romney.

What Should Ron Paul Supporters Do Now?

With Ron Paul out of the race, what is the best course of action? Write in Ron Paul to express our principles? Support Gary Johnson to build the Libertarian party? Vote for Romney to get rid of Obama?

Why Romney Doesn’t Need the Liberty Movement

Mitt Romney’s political career is a testament to the fact that he would say and do anything to get elected. If he believed that gaining some of the votes of the 5+ million Ron Paul supporters in this country would have been worth the effort of reaching out to Ron Paul and the liberty movement, Romney would not have hesitated to have done so.

But hesitate he did. And not just that… he went on to viciously and repeatedly spit in the collective faces of Ron Paul and his supporters.

Does Romney believe that the morally bankrupt rallying cry “But we have to defeat Obama!” will be sufficient for the liberty movement to hold its nose and vote for Mitt?

Romney is an intelligent and calculating man, so he must know that this will work only with a small percentage of the movement.

This leaves only one possible conclusion:

Romney already knows that he is going to win, and that he can do so without the liberty movement’s support.

Rand Paul basically said the same thing just a couple of days ago:

Rand Paul: My prediction, and of course I could be wrong, but my prediction is that this is going to be 1980. This is going to be an election that was projected to be very close, we have all these battleground states, but in the end Romney is going to pull away and he’s going to win by a bigger percentage than anyone predicts, because I think the polling is modeling on 2008 and not really factoring in an enormous wave of Election 2010, and I think that we’re still headed in that same direction.

If Rand’s assessment is correct and if Romney has victory in the bag, then there is no reason for Ron Paul supporters to vote for Romney just to get Obama out of office.

2012 Is Lost – But the Future Belongs to Us

More than 20,000 Ron Paul supporters have already pledged to cast a principled vote for Ron Paul even in the face of electoral defeat. That’s commendable and wonderful. Others are supporting Gary Johnson to help strengthen the largest third party. A few will still be voting for Romney because they hate Obama or believe that Romney is the lesser of two evils. And some Ron Paul supporters are even strategically rooting for Obama, saying that the inevitable backlash against a second term would lay the groundwork for a Ron Paul comeback in 2016.

For those of us who have been hoping for a Ron Paul Independent run this year, or at least for clear directions on who we should vote for… well, none of that is forthcoming. Ron Paul simply says, “You can do what you want… but just do it.” And that’s what liberty is all about.

America Isn’t Ready for President Ron Paul… Yet.

It’s up to us to prepare America for Ron Paul‘s ideas so that we can prevail in 2016 and beyond. We have to wake up our friends, families, neighbors, and even random strangers, by educating them about liberty. We can still use the open and uncensored Internet to spread the message, but who knows for how long? This is a race against time, and every day counts. Will you too do your part?

Ron Paul: Although I see so much good progress, I see also danger on the horizon and it makes it even more crucial that we’re successful in what we’re trying to do. Fortunately, we still have a little bit time, but that time may run out quickly. It may run out in a month, it may run out in a year, it may run out in five years. So the more time we have to persuade more people to our side. I do not work on the assumption that all of a sudden we’re going to have a new Congress and we’re going to start repealing. I’ve never believed that for a minute. But, that doesn’t mean that things can’t change. Things are going to break down, and then there’s going to be opportunities, and the best thing that can probably happen is when government totally loses its credibility and their money doesn’t work and everybody goes on their own and people become independent and there will be de-facto nullification and we’ll just flat out ignore the Feds. And that is a possibility, but the real danger is they will cling to power, because that is all that they know, is clinging to the power and using that power to suppress the people.

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