Ron Paul's decision to forego a third party presidential bid this fall, along with any chance of being on the ballot, has left a lot of Libertarians and Constitutionalists, along with a lot of disgruntled Republicans, Democrats and Independents, with somewhat of an empty feeling. It's been a couple of hundred years since a candidate with Paul's passion for a Constitutionaly limited government has captured as much national attention. (Dr.Paul received more votes from Republican primaries on just Super Tuesday than any Libertarian Party candidate has in any general election since I've been affiliated with the party.) His decision not to run dashed a lot of hopes. It would be easy to become discouraged that the vision for limited government didn't catch on this year. It would be easy to simply give in and give up. But I remember about 40 years ago when I was taking a karate class, and the instructor (I can't remember his correct title), would put us through some horrific exercises that required more endurance than most of us felt we had. When the last student gave up and dropped his arms, the instructor explained that someday we might be in a situation when the desire and ability to persevere would be the only thing that would keep us alive. There might come a time when can't count on someone else to save you.
I think that is where we are today. If you were one of those people that supported Ron Paul's push for limited government, personal freedom and personal responsibility, it didn't take too many primaries to figure out that the bulk of the Republican Party is no longer interested in promoting those concepts. Neither are they considered options by the Democrats.
So then what? We could give up, but I'm pretty sure we wouldn't like the results of that. Or, we could continue to fight. The Libertarian Party will nominate it's Presidential candidate this May. Although I don't know who that candidate will be, they will be the only candidate on most ballots that endorse limited government. I'm fairly certain it will be someone that holds most of the same libertarian values of Dr. Paul. I'm also fairly certain that the candidate won't have the name recognition of Dr. Paul, or the fundraising capabilities of the Paul campaign. I pretty sure the candidate won't garner as many votes as Ron Paul would if he was on the ballot.
But the Libertarian candidate will give limited government supporters a chance to vote for limited government. And a chance to hang on and keep fighting.
There are a lot of ways to give up. I'm afraid all of them end badly.