AAA In The News - Strib On Paulbotz - Update
Posted by Andy on April 8th, 2008
The Strib has a piece on the Paulbotz which happens to include a line from me, but this part is much much more important.
But Marianne Stebbins, who has headed the Texas congressman’s Minnesota campaign for several months, called the victories a tactical triumph designed to bring Paul’s libertarian message to the broadest possible audience.
Got that? Libertarian! But this is the Republican party.
“If we get enough delegates,” she said, “we’ll be able to get [Paul] speaking time at the convention.”
These people are basically hijacking the Republican party so they don’t have to go through the trouble of making the Libertarian Party something that can garner national media. It is shameful and dishonest.
Update:
KoolAidReport catches an interesting side of the story and how my name seems to be the hardest thing for the media to get right.
Sphere: Related ContentWe give “teh Former Mayer” a lot of guff for his spelling, and we take stabs at misspelling Andy’s name. This weekend, AAA made it into some local and national articles, where you’d think the reporter would verify the name before clicking “upload.”
Andy Barnett and World Net Daily first had it as Aplikowsky - but fixed it up after AAA mentioned it at his blog. It’s all good now.
Then today, the Strib took a stab at it:
“We knew they were coming and they were willing to lie, cheat and steal — maybe not steal, but they were willing to say anything,” Andy Aplinkowski, the district’s vice chairman, said of the Paul supporters.
I mean come on. Do you ever see them misspell Armadinejad? Areme… Armedin.. Okay okay, you get my drift. But I’m not a paid journalist. The Strib does it again further into the article.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Did I miss it or did you fail to mention in your candidacy brochure for national delegate ( http://www.residualforces.com/2008/04/04/aaa-for-national-delegate/ ) that you would support McCain?
People who have voted Republican (like me) supported Ron Paul because we are tired of republican party politics - of people campaigning one way and then governing another way. While I may not support all the tactics that allegedly occurred - you may as well face the fact that you are part of the problem.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
So you’re “tired of republican politics”? You mean Republican politics like honesty, respect, and gratitude for hard work?
April 8th, 2008 at 10:05 am
No - tactics like I said “campaigning one way and then governing another way.”
Look I assume I would probably be able to agree with 90+% of what you and Andy agree on - the problem is that the party keeps drifting to the left and people like you tell me that people like me need to keep pull the lever for the party line. Why? So we can keep drifting leftward?
And while I didn’t mention it earlier Andy showed some dishonesty by misrepresenting the term ‘libertarian.’ One can espouse democratic principles without being a Democrat, and one can be for a republic, without being a Republican.
Keep working on pushing *R*epublicans who support(ed) Paul away. Then enjoy the Obama-nation that *you will bring about.
April 8th, 2008 at 10:09 am
But I answered the very same question that the Paul supporters did and that was presented to the Delegation.
What is “the problem”, cause I would love to see it laid out by Ron Paul supporters. Why I oppose Ron Paul is because he is worse than a Democrat on defending America. Does it make me a bad Republican to want to win the war on terror?
Well it is good that you agree with party leadership. Oh yeah, you hold the very same opinion as Ron Carey, Norm Coleman, and Tim Pawlenty….. they too think I am part of the problem with the party because I believe in conservative values and accountability.
I guess I’ll go ahead and do what I was going to do whether I won or not, and that is get Michele Bachmann reelected and do everything I can to take back the Minnesota House. There’s more involved for most people involved in the party politics you hate so much than going and making a fool of myself for a few days in September, or voting in November.
I truly hope that these new people who showed up care about more than just getting Ron Paul to present his libertarian party message at the RNC in September, because changing the status quo requires lots and lots of work. Stopping the Big Government socialist nanny state policies requires getting lots of good limited government conservatives elected. One person, no matter what office they happen to be running for, is not enough to save the state or country.
I challenge all the Ron paul people, like yourself, to do more than vote this year. I challenge you to do more than just ramrod a few Delegates through at conventions. Take the organization skills and turn out ability and use it to help change the state by helping the Republican Party and getting good people elected up and down the ballot.
Or is this not really about the Republican Party, but more about how there is never a Libertarian to vote for in November?
April 8th, 2008 at 11:39 am
“Does it make me a bad Republican to want to win the war on terror?”
If you are willing to sacrifice liberty to do so yes -
“they too think I am part of the problem with the party because I believe in conservative values and accountability”
Did you vote for Norm? Did you vote for Tim?
” There’s more involved…”
No doubt - but you are talking tactics and neglecting strategy - and it looks like you managed to get beat by tactics.
” One person, no matter what office they happen to be running for, is not enough to save the state or country.”
Then you shouldn’t have a problem with him wanting to press his conservative libertarian message against Mr. Anti 1st Amendment
“…there is never a Libertarian to vote for in November”
I wouldn’t know - I’ve never voted for one in my life. And I doubt that I ever will.
I’m convinced that if Hillary ran as a Republican against someone like Ron Paul - people like you would be encouraging me to get out the vote for her and ‘the party.’ To that sort of narrow label based sectarianism I say no thanks - and people like you continue to reinforce the stereotype.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I’m convinced that if Hillary ran as a Republican against someone like Ron Paul
I sure would vote for her if my alternative was Ron Paul.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I’m convinced that if Hillary ran as a Republican against someone like Ron Paul……
Who cares who you’d vote for? If it was Hillary against Paul, I’m sorry to say that Hillary would win easily! Ron Paul’s message doesn’t play well on Main Street! Tell me, how’d he do in the ‘88 election? It seems 0.5% rings a bell. That’s not just somebody’s theory, those are REAL, INDISPUTABLE NUMBERS! Gee, maybe he can bring his supporters, lie and cheat their way into leadership, and do the same for the Republican Party as he did for the Libertarians! I’m sure Hillary hopes so!
April 8th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Let me ask you this: If “nobody but Paul” is good enough to garner your “Republican” vote, didn’t you just cast a vote for Hillary yourself? How long will this delusion continue, that somehow the race in November will be a choice between McCain, Obama and some magical, mystical “perfect conservative” candidate? The choice will be between McCain and Obama, period. You vote for McCain or you let Obama win. Just that simple. Hold your nose if you must, or plan to move to …. oh, dang.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
The Paulbotz are not so unsophisticated as to think their candidate has a chance of being the nominee. They are only out for publicity and convention time, Republican Party be damned. They just don’t care.
April 8th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
We cared enough to caucus for Ron Paul and send “our” delegates to the BPOU convention.
We cared enough to go to the BPOU convention and send “our” delegates to the CD and State conventions.
We cared enough to go to the CD convention and send “our” delegates to the National convention.
We’ll care enough to do the same at State.
And you can be sure we’ll care enough to go to the National convention and send “our” message!
People keep saying we don’t care…and yet, we keep showing up! Sooner or later, you’d think that you’d have to believe that we DO care.
How about extending a hand instead of calling names? Closing the tent is never an advisable tactic.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
“If “nobody but Paul” is good enough to garner your “Republican” vote”
I never said that - are you trying to say that McCain is the ideal Republican?
April 8th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
“Republican Party be damned. They just don’t care”
No - the people who IMO ‘just don’t care’ are those who say that we vote Republican no matter how bad the candidate. The ones who are willing to abandon the core Republican principles just to get the win.
April 8th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
“I sure would vote for her if my alternative was Ron Paul.”
You haven’t changed since Best Buy….
:*p
April 8th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
You haven’t changed since Best Buy….
Bernie, is that you? It’s been a while….
April 8th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
The point is, do you care about anything but Ron Paul?
He’s not going to be on any ballot in Minnesota come November. When that reality finally is realized by you, will you still be anywhere to be found?
That’s why so many are upset. We’ve seen people come and support a candidate, but when that person loses, the people go away. Is there any true commitment to help the party? You’d be surprised how much I’ve tried to move the ball to the right in the party, but it doesn’t happen by simply showing up at conventions or passing a few resolutions to the platform. It takes long term commitment and hard work.
You need to do more than show up and say do it our way or else…. trust me, I know it doesn’t work.
I’m sorry that I just don’t welcome the Paul movement with open arms. Frankly some of the policies are things I oppose or just can’t support. (foreign policy for one) Does that make me a bad Republican? In the eyes of most of the Paul people I have encountered, yes it does.
So where do we go from here? Is the revolution over once the RNC convention is over and Ron Paul is officially no longer running for Prez? Or will his die hard loyal supporters begin the 3rd party movement. It worries many people. Will the RNC convention be the point where the Ron paul people finally become GOP candidate people? Or will they oppose the party’s candidate?
At the end of the day the Ron Paul people will need to convince the people in the party who have been at this for years that they are not one trick ponies and are committed to the party. You can’t have it all your way. It is a give and take world in party politics. Perfection is unobtainable.
Can the revolution do anything to help Republicans get elected up and down the ballot? Or is it all about Ron Paul speaking at the RNC convention?
The only person who can represent you 100% of the time is yourself.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:18 am
As Andy said, it is very hard to find two people who agree on everything. It is impossible to form a coalition of people (political party) based only on the narrowest of issues who can attract enough votes to win elections. Certainly the Libertarian Party should know that by now. I, more than most here, welcome people who share the common basic conservative values, but whose viewpoints differ slightly from my own into our Republican camp. I do not and will not welcome people into camp those who seek to lie, cheat, and deceive to get in, with the motivation to destroy the camp once it’s done serving their purposes.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:38 am
BTW: You can tell your peeps that it is pretty silly trying to accuse me of not being a conservative. That may be the stretch I have ever heard. I’ve been trying to hold Republicans accountable to conservatism for quite some time, and I am considered an enemy or at least unfriendly by most powerbrokers of the party because I do call Coleman, Pawlenty, and others out when they drift left. But I do show their offices the respect it deserves by not trying to shout them down or showing disrespect by trying to embarrass them at conventions or events.
Look, the race for the nomination is over. Paul can’t win. Don’t waste your efforts trying to take to revenge or embarrassing the party for him not winning. It sucks. Trust me I know how it feels when your person loses. (and yes again, it is over). But you’ll only do your movement harm.
We’re stuck with McCain. I don’t like it. My guy (and my second choice) are long gone. In November it will be McCain vs Hillbama on the ballot. I don’t know about you, but I am 1000% against what Hillbama stand for.
I wish we could have a redo on the whole thing, but we can’t. We either need to figure out a way to work together, or we can have what we are diametrically opposed to for 4 years.
Crappy choices? Yes! But it is the reality that we are faced with. Time to figure out what you’ll do. Myself I’m going to put my time and energy into supporting great conservatives like Bachmann and great MN House candidates.
Can we count on your help with the broader Republican party business, or is this all about Ron Paul? Can we work together?