I was just thinking about the past few years and the "freedom movement" that was started with Ron Paul's campaign for President.
Even though I now have a desire to completely avoid
political violent action, if I had not reached this standard I think if I looked back on everything that has happened I would feel like a fool and then avoid politics completely if only for practical purposes.
Foreign policy was a huge part of Ron Paul's campaign, he was very clear on how our foreign empire abroad leads to loss of freedom at home, and how the two go hand in hand.
Then skip forward to now, the same efforts, the massive amount of money that was raised, the educational campaign - all redirected towards "Liberty Candidates" via C4L. The two top dog liberty candidates being Peter Schiff and Rand Paul, both who are
decidedly weak on foreign policy and lack any real stance on that issue.They have both hinted towards being willing to use preemptive war, they have both hinted towards attacking Iran. Naysayers who are alarmed by this, and reasonably so considering how big of an issue Ron Paul made foreign policy to be during his campaign, are accused of going too far with "purity tests". Foreign policy, a cornerstone of Ron Paul's campaign, is now a side item on an extremist's purity test. That is how far things have fallen, these supporters actually think we will be better off if only we could get Schiff in the Senate and watch him pull the economist tough guy act and grill people like we can see him do now on news shows.
Back then when people would bring up the idea that Ron Paul might be controlled opposition (and it was probably IP
) most of us had a really hard time imagining how someone who seemed to be so nice, honest, and well educated could be one of the "bad guys". I think it is now very clear how this is possible, it is not necessarily who Ron Paul is or what his intentions are, but the path he has lead people down. I believe that Rand's (Paul's son) and Schiff's (Paul's economic adviser) both had their Senate runs planned during or even before Ron Paul's run for president.
It is simply too convenient for the establishment to have two people who were attached to the hip of Ron Paul's campaign turn around and run for senate with a diluted foreign policy message. The real win for the establishment is the act of individuals bending their standards. Schiff and Paul will be irrelevant in the Senate, a couple of votes won't make a difference, they probably will never truly vote against the establishment, and if they ever did they can easily be bribed/threatened/replaced. The real win is taking real people who had a real desire for change and freedom, take that desire and cater to it with Ron Paul's campaign, nurture it for awhile, and then change it into something else. Force the people to change their own standards, or become frustrated and outcast from the group.
To take people who were against the system and control their opposition to it, to take people who had grouped up to fight the system and divide them. It seems very clear now. They get people to bend their standards a little bit this year and a little more next year. This is how genuine conservatives turned into neo-con supporters back during that time, and this is how the same will happen to the current liberty supporters. Schiff and Rand are round one, I think Beck and Palin might be round two.