AN OPEN LETTER TO RON PAUL
TIME TO SHATTER THE HEGEMONY OF THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM

By: Kevin Tuma

“There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.” -Henry David Thoreau

Mr. Paul, you have served the cause of individual liberty superbly, and honorably,  in your role as the last living statesman remaining in the United States Congress.

You have recently gone on to score great rhetorical victories—and achieve much fame in the public eye—in the debates, where you have so adroitly told the world The Emperor Has No Clothes.  

You have earned the respect of virtually every libertarian in America, as well as every true conservative.  

You have served your country well, and, I might add, proudly represented the fine state of Texas. You have taken your oath of office seriously, in an age when other politicians have only chosen to serve the twin gods of Marx and Mammon.  

I have one question for you, Mr. Paul, and it’s a very important question:   

After your GOP presidential candidacy ends, because the neo-conservative elites--and their cronies in the media--push you out, in one manner or another..will you do one more great thing for the cause of Liberty?  

Will you, in turn, announce that you are officially switching your party affiliation to the Libertarian Party?   Thereby helping this small, struggling Third Party land its first high-profile presidential candidate, its first sitting US Congressman---and giving the party a much-needed shot in the arm for future benefits from federal matching funds?  

The reason the GOP bigwigs, and the elite classes who control them, have rushed to embrace Rudy Guiliani is because that particular authoritarian, establishment liberal is the quintessence of a modern-day Republican. Modern-day GOP ‘conservatives' are only distinguishable from Democrats by “virtue” of their lust for aggression, warfare, and bombs. In almost all other respects, the two parties are now fully synonymous, as you well know.  

You have already aroused the anger of the neo-con GOP establishment by challenging its police state and its imperial war mania. They will, in all likelihood, attempt to undermine your seat on Capitol Hill, to take you out of the equation. They did so with sitting Senator Bob Smith, after he caused the party much embarrassment in 1999. They abandoned Alan Schlesinger when he ran against Democrat Neo-con lackey  Joseph Lieberman. They will quite likely make some sort of snide, underhanded move to put you out to pasture in the near future, no matter how loyal your past affiliation to the old school GOP platform. The neo-cons expect more than just an “R” after your name--they demand fealty to their  military-industrialist Bush throne. Instead, you have been speaking inconvenient truth to power---lecturing pro-war candidates about blowback, protesting the status quo, and generally reminding them all of their complete apostasy to the Constitution.    

The elephants will not forget. I can assure you they are currently kicking themselves for not having given you the bum’s rush years ago. And they are almost certainly planning to try it in the near future, when your next bid for re-election begins.  

Why not steal their thunder, and declare yourself, now and always, to be officially a Libertarian?  

The Libertarian movement needs you, Mr. Paul. Badly. Your candidacy has already proven that--while there are still a great many real conservatives extant in the public grassroots---in the circles of power, there are no “real Republicans left”.      

The Libertarian Party is not perfect. It stretches too diffuse a big tent between anarchists and paleoconservatives. (Anarcho-capitalists, while having many intriguing ideas, don’t belong in a political party, any more than pacifists belong in an Army.) The Libertarian Party, historically, has also been too hung up on domestic social issues, like the War on Drugs, and not focused enough on encroachments in more serious areas. Especially since 9-11, the party has been much too softspoken toward the Executive Branch, and too lax toward the state’s grotesquely unconstitutional anti-terror acts.   

However, the Libertarian Party is unique in the sense that (a) It is benign, seeking out no monsters to destroy; (b) It recognizably exists on the radar screen of the body politic; and (c) It is classically liberal (or paleoconservative---whichever terminology one prefers).  These qualities make the Libertarian Party a good home for a strong leader motivated toward the cause of Liberty.  

There is only one true conservative, and one libertarian, left in Washington in the public eye.  That man is Ron Paul. Whenever you leave Washington, Mr. Paul, for whatever reason, there will be no more conservatives left--only a multitude of Neo-con socialists who treat the Constitution as toilet paper. Hence, when you leave our nation’s capital, constitutionalist conservatism will be dead and officially extinct.  

Unless you ignite a powerful political brushfire in your wake. One capable of storming the barricades via the Ballot Box. Become a Libertarian Congressman, and run again in Fall 2008 as the Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate. 

It is time to shatter the hegemony of the Two Party system. Of all the evils facing America today, there is none that supercedes the corruption of the Two Party system. With only a simple duality of political parties, it is simply too easy for ambitious men to overthrow and poison the waters of an open system. Extreme voter apathy--caused by the ludicrousness of two very similar football teams forever playing one another in the Super Bowl of politics--just exacerbates the problem, by increasing the public’s ignorance, and thereby tolerance, of government intrusion.  

If America is to have any hope of surviving its current constitutional crises, Americans who believe in the Bill of Rights and individual responsibility need a party they can support. And the disillusioned youth of America, cynical almost to the point of misery, need a party that they can believe in. 

Mr. Paul, you are the long-needed galvanizing public figure who could bring that party to life. By abandoning the GOP when the spotlight shines the hottest, you could energize a potent political movement, and jam the monkey wrench of an effective Third Party into the greased wheels of America’s corrupted, decadent political system.  

It’s just the sort of move I believe Dr. Franklin would make.  

The cause of freedom does not have to advance only by means of pyrrhic victories, martyrs, or Quixotism. Sometimes, expediency is the best course…especially when it comes at exactly the right time.  

Strike the root, Mr. Paul. Millions of libertarians stand ready to follow you.



"Published originally at EtherZone.com : republication allowed with this notice and hyperlink intact."

Kevin Tuma is a political cartoonist and an Internet columnist.   Kevin Tuma is a regular columnist for Ether Zone.

Kevin Tuma can be reached at kevintuma@sbcglobal.net

Published in the May 29, 2007 issue of  Ether Zone.
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