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Ron Paul supporters 'are not sheep', vow not to vote for Mitt Romney.
RELATED TOPICSRon Paul supporters cheer as they listen to speakers while waiting for Republican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) to arrive to speak to them during a rally in the Sun Dome at the University of South Florida on August 26, 2012 in Tampa, Florida.
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The GOP national convention is looming this week where Republicans will vote for their presidential nominee to face Barack Obamaand Gary Johnson in the November 6, 2012 general election. The contest is between Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, whereas Mitt Romneyis widely expected to win the nomination after much manipulation of voting delegates to the convention.
Yesterday, Ron Paul made a speech which lasted over one hour to approximately 11,0000 of his supporters at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. Several in the crowd were surprised Paul didn't offer any direction in whether to support Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson, vote for Mitt Romney or write-in Ron Paul's name on their ballots in November. The only direction Paul offered was to continue to support small government initiatives, individual freedoms and to hold elected officials accountable for their votes. The underlying message however seemed to be to remain in the Republican Party as per his new logo. His logo since the 2008 campaign has been a stenciled "REVOLUTION" with the 'evol' changed to 'love' in red. At the rally, the logo was "REPUBLICAN" with 'can' in red and the 'love' was gone.
Ron Paul's sole advice to supporters in the crowd was to education themselves and use "soft answers" rather than what has been the course of many overzealous supporters by "grabbing them by the collar". Soft persuasion was Paul's suggestion to the crowd and remain idealistic. If nothing else works "tell them freedom is popular."
Ron Paul said, "People now are waking up and they are realizing the failure of what we have and that these ideas are coming about." He also made a strong emphasize on ending the Federal Reserve, one of his key messages and at several times during the rally, supporters shouted "End the Fed".
Paul could have spoken at the Republican Party convention however refused to abide by one of the parameters by having his speech reviewed and edited by Mitt Romney's campaign. So the convention scheduled a video tribute to Ron Paul instead, however it is unclear if it will air since the convention has been shortened by one day due to Tropical Storm Isaac.
Ron Paul ran afoul of Republican Party support during his campaign mostly due to his foreign policy which is that of free trade and not forcing American principles on other countries. He said he was advised many times from various people that if he had just changed his foreign policy position, he could have progressed further with his campaign. Paul made the point during the Rally, had his foreign policy been in place there would not have been a 9/11 terror attack saving 3,000 innocent lives plus the 225,000 lives (civilian and military) lost in fighting the "War on Terror" imposed by former President Bush. He also mentioned America would not have accumulated another $4 trillion in debt financing the wars that would not have been necessary under his foreign policy. Paul also made a point he raised more money from the troops than any other candidate as an endorsement of his foreign policy. He noted concern we will likely go into Syria and then Iran and voiced the need for no wars rather than more wars.
Ron Paul called for the government to stop intervening into other countries while staying out of American businesses and restore the freedoms lost to individual Americans. He made the case that each time the federal government comes in to bailout another big business or tries to 'correct' the economy, it is another hit to the U.S. Dollar and erodes the free market. He said the U.S. government doesn't and hasn't for decades allowed the free market to be free to correct itself and blamed politicians more interested in their career in Congress than helping the economy by getting out of the way.
There was no clear consensus from attendees as to what they planned to do should Paul not receive the Republican Party presidential nomination outside of it being clear most if not all vowed never to vote for Mitt Romney. Some are still of the opinion there is going to be an 'upset of the century' at the convention where Ron Paul will become the presidential nominee over Mitt Romney. Most however have realized Paul will not be the nominee and it is mixed whether they are going to support Gary Johnson, Virgil Goode or write-in Ron Paul's name in the general election. The Libertarian Party is expecting a wave of Ron Paul supporters to join their effort to elect their presidential nominee Gary Johnson who is closest of the candidates to Paul on the issues. During an event Saturday called the P.A.U.L. Festival which was held close by in Tampa, Florida, Johnson said, “Ron Paul asked me for my endorsement in 2008 and I readily gave him that endorsement. When I dropped out of the Republican primary, I asked everyone who was going to vote for me to vote for Ron Paul.”
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