<\/p>\n
Going into Super Tuesday, Ron Paul hadn’t won a state yet, and his big hope was that he might win North Dakota. That’s right. North Dakota was his best shot<\/a>.<\/p>\n Super Tuesday has come and gone<\/a>. The other three GOP candidates all won at least a state. Even Newt Gingrich took a state, with a win in his home state of Georgia. But Paul is still waiting for a win, because Santorum took North Dakota. Is there anybody sane left who honestly thinks Paul has any<\/em> chance?<\/p>\n For months, I’ve been hearing from my Ron Paul-supporting friends that he was “our last hope” and that if he didn’t win this year, we were doomed as a nation. Although that naive belief that Paul can win has died gradually among many of the people I know, they’re still left to face the reality of their own dire predictions. If you meant what you said — that Ron Paul was really your last hope for change through the electoral system — are you ready to join me in giving up on that system? Are you ready to start lookin at alternatives?<\/p>\n As some people have realized that Paul can’t win, their story has started changing a bit. Now they tell me the objective isn’t necessarily to win, but to win enough delegates to influence the Republican platform for the fall. Really? You’re telling me that you’ve poured all this money, time and work into an effort to influence a document that will promptly be forgotten — by the nominee and everyone else? Really?<\/p>\n The reality is that the Republican nominee is probably going to be Mitt Romney. Take a look at the current delegate counts<\/a>. There’s a slight possibility that Rick Santorum could pull off a miracle, but I highly doubt it. (Even Sarah Palin is now teasing that she might jump into the race<\/a>, but I think she just likes to hear herself talk.) Do you see any<\/em> of those candidates who’s going to be the least bit influenced by Paul and his libertarian ideas? I don’t. So what do you expect to get out of this campaign? There’s been a bit of speculation about Paul as Romney’s vice presidential candidate, but it’s almost certainly not going to happen — and we wouldn’t want it even if it could<\/em> happen.<\/p>\n Most people don’t want individual freedom<\/a>. They don’t want the ideas that mean so much to many of us. They want the Nanny State to take care of them and promise to keep them safe. They’re going to vote for candidates who make those promises, even though a rational person can demonstrate that those promises can’t be kept.<\/p>\n If you’ve been telling everyone — including yourself — that Ron Paul was “America’s last hope” — isn’t it time to give up on your pipe dream of convincing the majority to agree with you? Isn’t it time to start asking difficult questions about how you’re going to take care of yourself and your family — and have some hope of free lives — in some other way?<\/p>\n I can’t give you the right answers yet, but I’m looking for them and a growing number of smart people are looking for alternatives. I believe we’re going to find a range of options, but you’re not going to be able to open your mind to the options until you give up the fantasy that you’re going to elect some hero to run the machinery of the state “the right way.”<\/p>\n There isn’t any right way.<\/em><\/p>\n Hasn’t the time come to walk away from that con man promising you everything you always wanted and and a pony, too? Whoever makes you that promise is lying, whether he realizes it or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Going into Super Tuesday, Ron Paul hadn’t won a state yet, and his big hope was that he might win North Dakota. That’s right. North Dakota was his best shot. Super Tuesday has come and gone. The other three GOP candidates all won at least a state. Even Newt Gingrich took a state, with a Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11260","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-2VC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11260"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11278,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11260\/revisions\/11278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}