By Javier Manjarres
At the very least, Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul has been consistent in saying that he “probably” will not support the Republican Presidential candidate were he to lose in the GOP primary. There’s no reason to believe that a path to a primary victory exists for Paul, just as it didn’t in 2008. Here’s what Paul said about supporting the eventual nominee this time around-
“Probably not unless I get to talk to them and find out what they believe in. But if they believe on expanding the wars, if they don’t believe in looking at the Federal Reserve; if they don’t believe in real cuts, if they don’t believe in deregulation and better tax system, it would defy everything I believe in,” Paul said.
“And so, therefore, I would be reluctant to jump on board and tell all of the supporters that have given me trust and money that all of a sudden, I’d say, all we’ve done is for naught. So, let’s support anybody at all … even if they disagree with everything that we do,” Paul added. – Ed Morrissey, Hotair
Do you think the 2nd Amendment will be destroyed by the Biden Administration?(2)
So there you have it- you either accept all of Paul’s neo-liberal, non-interventionist foreign policy nonsense, or you can shove it. Paul won’t want to lose his constitutional street cred with his supporters- the moment he were to support another candidate or “release” his supporters, he’ll likely lose the vast majority of his own support, and Paul will mosey off into retirement.
This Presidential election may very well hinge on a few percentage points, and Paul’s supporters could play a decisive role in the outcome of the election- one way or the other. If Ron Paul’s supporters throw in the towel along with his failed candidacy and either vote third party or stay home, they could very well be cementing President Obama’s re-election over the Republican nominee, whomever it is.
Many of Paul’s supporters unfortunately wouldn’t really care if another Republican candidate were to make genuine political progress towards rolling back government- they’d pout that it either wasn’t enough or their guy wasn’t at the controls- completely lost on them is the speed at which our political system allows reforms to be realized. And of course, they’ll criticize Republican nominee for being too squishy or worse, whomever he or she is- but isn’t sitting on your behind during a close and extremely pivotal election a dereliction of duty to your country?Congressman Paul knows very well the considerable influence he has amongst the 7% of the Republican electorate who support his candidacy. So considering what is at stake- four more years of a President attempting to permanently morph our country into a declining Euro-Socialist state- it’s irresponsible for Paul to say what he did. It proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Paul is using the Republican Party as a necessary platform from which to promote his candidacy, only to jump off of once he’s been eliminated from the race. Paul should have ran as a Libertarian if he determined from the get-go that he was unable to support the eventual nominee.
Is it possible that Paul’s supporters will support the Republican nominee and vote to defeat President Barack Obama? Only time will tell.
