Beware the Establishment's Third Party Trap

Ron Holland

Part I -

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 – by Ron Holland

 

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." – Albert Einstein
Recently, Justin Raimondo wrote a thoughtful editorial, "Ron, Don't Let Your Heroic Effort End In Tampa."

I agree with Justin about how the GOP is actually a greater threat to our remaining liberties, wealth and the continuance of perpetual war than even the socialist Democrats.



I also think he is right about Paul's young supporter demographics; the fact this is the least likely group to vote in the conservative Republican primaries indicates his overall political support is substantially greater than the smaller vote totals might indicate in the closed primary process. He also asks Ron Paul where the movement he inspired and created should go following the GOP Tampa convention, ending on August 30th.

Justin and many of my libertarian and freedom movement friends sincerely believe that Ron Paul should go the third-party route following the convention but I have come to a totally different conclusion, although I highly respect their opinions, views and intellect.

Any Movement Future Discussion is for After the GOP Convention

While "Where do we go from here?" is certainly a legitimate question, the Ron Paul campaign cannot answer this question or even publically explore the possibilities until after the convention. The political power of the Ron Paul delegates and campaign through the convention are totally dependent upon keeping the GOP establishment and Romney forces guessing on the future of the Ron Paul movement. Otherwise, we will make ourselves irrelevant to the GOP sooner rather than later. Now they have to consider:

Will Paul endorse Romney or sit out the fall campaign and general election?

Will Ron Paul supporters vote for Romney even with an official Paul Campaign endorsement? Although the answer is certainly doubtful for millions of supporters, we still need to keep them guessing.

What would the Romney campaign need to offer the Ron Paul Revolution forces to get a majority of our support? Speaking only for myself, naming Rand Paul as his VP running mate and a promise of a Ron Paul cabinet appointment would get my attention. This would need to be followed by campaign pledges for real action on the Fed audit and requirement of a declaration of war for future neocon inspired foreign military actions.

Will Ron Paul leave the convention and run on a third-party ticket thus insuring the defeat of Romney and the GOP but alienating much of the GOP against future action by our freedom forces within the Republican Party? I'm sure the GOP neocon elites prefer this option, as they are willing to lose an election in order to guarantee we are run out of the party but I don't think this is in the best interest of our movement or the future of the United States.

Third Party Political Action Is An Establishment Trap

I believe third party action, whether with the Libertarian Party or another third or fourth party is political insanity and would constitute an establishment-promoted death trap for millions of Ron Paul supporters and liberty advocates. It's a trap, folks, for the Liberty movement, advocated and crafted primarily by the enemies of freedom and the same GOP establishment that has already treated Ron Paul and we, his supporters, so badly.

Libertarian Party Results in U.S. presidential elections

Year	Pres. Candidate / VP	Popular Votes	Percentage
1972	John Hospers / Toni Nathan	3,674	<0.1%
1976	Roger MacBride / David Bergland	172,553	0.21%
1980	Ed Clark / David Koch	921,128	1.1%
1984	David Bergland / Jim Lewis	228,111	0.3%
1988	Ron Paul / Andre Marrou	431,750	0.5%
1992	Andre Marrou / Nancy Lord	290,087	0.3%
1996	Harry Browne / Jo Jorgensen	485,759	0.5%
2000	Harry Browne / Art Olivier	384,431	0.4%
2004	Michael Badnarik / Richard Campagna	397,265	0.32%
2008	Bob Barr / Wayne Allyn Root	523,686	0.4%

The above chart, from Wikipedia, shows the utter and complete political failure the Libertarian Party has been since inception. I was involved in the 1970s with the South Carolina LP but after a few years realized that with our minimal educational success, few converts and limited growth, hampered by an almost complete news blackout and the instilled prejudice against third party voting, it was a poor use of limited time, resources and funding compared to non-political educational efforts.

I am not questioning the integrity or leadership of LP activists and supporters but only the difficult mandated structure and ballot access requirements designed by the two-party monopoly to limit the growth of third parties. In fact, the Republicans and Democrats have worked together since the 1860s to make sure they are the only real political game in town by increasing the difficulty of third-party efforts and this is why none have risen to prominence and electoral victory since that time.

Today, with the mandated ballot access petitioning and costs, a required organizational structure designed to promote continual infighting and the total lack of real election victories, the LP and other third parties are actually little more than a controlled and totally ineffective political opposition. Third parties exist and were tolerated by the two parties to keep libertarians and other small government advocates out of the controlled monopoly system. This worked well until the Ron Paul 2008 campaign.

The best I can tell, so far in the primary season Ron Paul has received over a million votes, not counting caucus states. If he stays in until the convention, the total will exceed two million. Not bad, considering much of his constituency and support is outside the GOP. My guess is his supporter base and or protest vote is probably around 5 to 10 million...Finish reading @DailyBell