Your $.02 Worth

Here we are just days away from another GOP primary in Florida and just ten days from the all important Super Tuesday, where half of all the delegates will be chosen for the convention later this year in St Paul. (And I can't forget that other states like Maine and Hawaii are set to pick thier delegates too in the next few days.) We are down to five candidates, four of which have gotten a lot of media attention over the past year as the potential republican nominee. Ironically, the one that has for the most part been ignored is the one most closely aligned with the constitution and the traditional views of the republican party of the 20th century, Ron Paul.
While Dr Paul has gotten some media coverage, essentially he is marginalized by the mainstream media, so called conservative media and political pundits, and the republican party itself and has of late been, in effect, blacked out.
Thus the appeal from the campaign to once again dig deep into our pockets and contribute all we can is all the more relevant considering that the other four candidates get their share of time on the free media outlets. Dr Paul must rely entirely on his grassroots support and whatever advertising he can do; for there are still a majority of people in America that do not know who Ron Paul is.
But this blog is not about where Dr Paul stands on the issues. For that, you can take a look at some of my other blogs or go to his campaign website, http://www.ronpaul2008.com/ , or his house of Representative website, www.house.gov/paul . No, this blog is about a response to that call for further donations.
I am a simple man. I recently celebrated ten years of marriage to my beautiful wife and have two outstanding little girls. I am an elder in my church where we attend on Sundays and Tuesdays. We have exactly one car, a minivan, and through a perfect storm or financial situations, are in a pretty dire finacial predicament. I overextended our financial commitments during the real estate boom and, like not a few people, am in over my head. I have had to try to work out of the home due to some of my wife's emotional and psychological problems. Combine that with the fact that the mortgage business (my trade of late) has really been slowing down and throw in some poor investments and you end up where we are today: living from paycheck to paycheck, knowing that other than the mortgage, the food, gas, and the utilities, there is zero wiggle room for anything else.
In the midst of this comes a real champion of liberty and the constitution. While in this financial turmoil comes Dr Ron Paul. For his campaign and his meesage of true conservatism, liberty, and an honest pledge fo defending the constitution, we have done what we can. We have blogged and written letters to the editor. We have passed out bumper stickers and have them on our car and a sign in our yard. We have talked to friends and family and even gave a whole paragraph of our Christmas letter to promoting Dr Paul! We attend a local meetup group when we can get there and have waved signs at Rudy!
And we have given. We have dug deep like so many others. And now comes yet another call. While we have not really been able to afford it before, we dug deep on Nov 5, Dec 16, and Jan 21. We gave on other days as well, more than what we could afford to do. And yet, because of the dire situation we are in and the threat to life and liberty, property and peace, we must do all we can!
So, as I was readying my debit card for another donation, and idea came to me. A challenge as it were to my fellow Ron Paul supporters. I challenge each one to visit one or more of the sites of my blogs. For each comment left on any of the three sites of the blogs, for each time you leave your "two cents worth," I will donate two cents to the campaign come next Saturday, Feb 2. So, if you comment on one, I will donate $.02. All three, I will donate $.06. (Please don't leave more than one comment per site.) Now that may not seem like a lot but the sky is the limit up to a total of $1,000. Here are the sites:

http://billybernardo.blogspot.com/

http://www.cdapress.com/blogs/?req=read&blogger_id=118&entry_id=578

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=154441227&blogID=351697214

My fellow lovers of liberty and Ron Paul supporters, let's see how much you can get me to give to the campaign. It will take 50,000 comments in a week to get me to give all $1000, but it will only take a little over 13,000 people to do all three to get me to give that total amount.

If I do donate $1000, I must say that it is much more than I can afford at this time. I challenge all to do ALL they can and more for the sake of us and especially our children. Comment and give today!

Ron Paul, 6 Million Dollar Man

Unbelievable. That is sometimes a trite word but it certainly applies to fundraising results of Dr Ron Paul's December 16 Tea Party. Imagine, a second tier candidate who holds what many consider either outlandish, out of bounds, or outdated ideas raking in that kind of manoy with three weeks to go to Iowa. That also puts him at around $18 million for the quarter with $20 million in sight.

What about Ron Paul stirs up this kind of emotion and passion? After all, it is one thing to put a bumper sticker on your car, support one candidate over another, or even donate $20. But to pull in this kind of money from people of all walks of life, from all over the political spectrum is amazing. I mean, if you pull five donors at random, you are likely to get people from the far left left, far right, and everywhere in between supporting his candidacy. You might have a Bible believing pro life evangelical, a pot head, a conspiracy theorist, a gold standard sound money economist, and an antiwar activist. What draws them together in this epitome of "Politics makes strange bedfellows?"

I believe there are three common denominators among most, if not all Ron Paul supporters. These three are related yet distinct and all have to do primarily with the role of government. They are strict constitutionalism, belief in decentralization of govt, and a basic mistrust of govt.

Strict constitutionalism is the view that when our founders signed our constitution, there was a definite intent in following it in the most strict and literal way. Also, when an office holder takes a vow to defend the constitution, he or she is swearing to uphold this in its literal sense and ought to support and vote in such a way that the constitution is not compromised, even when it might go against public opinion or even one's own opinion.

Belief in decentralization of government simply means a philosphical belief that the "higher" in government you go, the less involvement in our personal lives, that government ought to be. For example, it is one thing for a local government to be involved in education through the school board but it is entirely inappropriate for the federal government to have a say in the issue.

Mistrust of Government is not something you hear much of these days but it is very simple. It means that you are wary of the rules, laws, bills of government and that its citizens ought to keep a careful eye on the government to avoid abuses. the old saying has been proven true time and again. "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Now, if you read our founding fathers on these issues, you read of all three of these in all of their writings. We are to have a healthy mistrust of government and therefore establish checks and balances in the levels of government and the branches of govt. We are to basically have a view toward decentralization and put more responsibility in the lower levels of govt rather than the higher levels. Of course, we are to abide by our constitution literally, which puts in place checks, balances, and limitations because of the mistrust of govt and the protection of the powers of the more local governments from the federal governement.

The candidacy of Ron Paul echoes back to these ideas and the founding fathers. Listen to Ron Paul speak and you might hear what our founders believed and were willing to die for. Pay careful attention to these themes and on any issue, the proverbial light will go on in your head. You will see how, on every issue and at all times, this humble little man is speaking the truths of America, the constitution, and freedom. No wonder he is the 6 Million Dollar Man today!