Over the last week or two, my e-mail has been deluged with Ron Paul supporters venting their outrage and indignation over Fox News’ exclusion of Ron Paul from the debates preceding the New Hampshire primary.
While the anger is understandable, we need to keep a few things in perspective.
First of all, the mainstream establishment media is not going to be your friend. Fox News is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Hence, the people who run this supposedly “conservative” network are every bit as contemptuous of the Constitution, as well as you, your freedom and your capacity to think as those evil, wicked, mean and nasty liberals that they say they diametrically oppose. Fox is run by latter-day P.T. Barnum’s who make money hand over fist because they know there are numerous suckers born every minute.
So deal with it. If Ron Paul gets a good interview, like he did from Jay Leno, that is great! However, if Fox or any other media outlet treats Ron Paul like dirt, don’t be surprised. These people have been doing this for years to anyone who goes against the grain of the modern superstate.
If something Fox or ABC or whoever says or does makes you angry for a few minutes, this is understandable. (I feel your pain!) If you boycott Fox’ sponsors, I’m down with that. (It turns out that I don’t patronize any of these folks anyway.) But don’t waste too much time being angry at these people.
On a personal level, always being angry is no way to go through life. It steals your joy and saps your creative energy. It lets evil win.
On a political level, we in the Ron Paul movement have a hugely positive message of liberty and peace to promote. From Maine to Hawaii, millions of people are Jonesing – do you capitalize this or not when it is used as a verb? – to hear what we have to say. Let us not waste our time arguing with idiots and let us invest our time wisely and profitably finding those who want to hear our message. We know already that they are out there in droves. Let’s find them!
In the words of Gil-Scott Heron, the revolution will not be televised. While Ron Paul gets considerable run in the media, this is not where the true revolution will take place. The true revolution will take place at the grassroots level. It will take place on the internet, where anyone of modest financial means can broadcast their message worldwide. It will take place in your neighborhood. It will take place at your job, at the grocery store, at your kids’ games, at the gym, at the neighborhood watering hole, at church and at the gas station. It will take place in the hearts and minds of "we the people."
(I hate to nitpick, but it I am a bit uneasy about the term “Ron Paul Revolution.” It is not just his revolution, but yours and mine. We are the ones who will make it happen.)
True revolutions are never televised. By definition, they consist of an overthrow of the establishment. Establishments are never friendly to revolutionaries.
The Revolution of 1775-1783 only had the participation of a minority of the people. When the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, they meant it. Many of them paid just such a price so that you and I could live in freedom. Not only did they gain independence from the Brits, but they launched the greatest experiment in human liberty that the world has ever seen.
One of the glories of the Ron Paul movement is that it brings together people from an incredibly diverse array of beliefs. I know – and know of – Christians and Jews and Buddhists and Taoists and Muslims and atheists who support Ron Paul. For all I know some of you might believe in Mungabunga.
(It reminds me of the 1960s tune: “I think it’s so groovy now that people are finally getting together.”)
I am a Christian and I write this on a Sunday morning, so let me indulge myself. I believe that the most profound Revolution in human history took place a little over 2000 years ago. Its Leader was born to a peasant girl in a forgotten backwater of the Roman Empire. He would send his first 12 Apostles into the world “like sheep among wolves” and warn them that “all men will hate you because of me”. (Matthew 10:16,22)
This Revolutionary, who had no political agenda, would die an excruciatingly bloody death because He claimed to be God, and hence, a counterforce to the contemporary political establishment. Of His first 12 Apostles, one would commit suicide and the rest would give their lives for what they believed. This Movement would thrive as an outlaw religion for centuries before finally gaining a measure of acceptance. The establishment that so viciously persecuted this movement would eventually fall.
We in the Ron Paul movement run no such risks. At least for now. Ours is a peaceful revolution. We can have either peaceful revolution now or violent revolution later. No matter what happens, we cannot expect that the existing establishment will be nice to us. They have too much to lose.
At the same time, we have too much to gain to let the bastards at Fox News -- or ABC or whatever mainstream media outlet you can name – get us down. When we do this, they win.
Don’t expect our revolution to be televised. If this makes you angry or indignant, get a grip and get past it. Don’t let these emotions run your life. Keep the LOVE in the Ron Paul r3VOLution!
