An Open Letter to the Liberty Movement

The following is a user-submitted letter. If you have something you would like to share with the iroots.org community, simply click here to register and click “+New post” on the top of your screen.

Friends, Patriots, Libertarians, Constitutionalists, Disillusioned Republicans and Democrats, or anyone of like mind who refuses to label themselves,

Greetings, my name is Matthew Showers, I am a recently appointed adjunct instructor in the subject of History at the Community College level in the great state of New Mexico, a state which I have adopted but who’s Republican party I will not be joining anytime soon after this year’s convention. I have passionately supported the message of Dr. Ron Paul since 2007 when I first became aware of him. I suppose it was easier for me than most to associate with Dr. Paul as I am quite used to being as an outsider or, as I tend to prefer, “fringe personality.” I have donated my scant earnings to his efforts even before achieving gainful employment and I have educated myself and others whenever I felt it would be appropriate and effective. I have done my best to be an ambassador of the doctor’s message and apologized to those I offended only when I felt I had lost myself in the passion of the moment and absolutely no other time. I felt the onslaught of emotions that doubtlessly many of you felt in the past weeks and I speak now to any of you who will hear me out.

I am both disappointed and outraged, yet also encouraged and determined having seen the Republican National Convention. I watched the convention with full knowledge that the corrupted politics and shady tactics the establishment practice would likely carry the day. I have long heard the folly and arguments of establishment Republicans and other adherents to this utterly broken two-party system we endure in the United States. I have born the harsher taunts of establishment Democrats who also adhere to the two-party system and write us off as the ultimate crazies. I have been emotionally battered and bruised, and all the while attempting to remind myself that I must maintain greater integrity than they as I am still in the minority. But I say to you that even today when the Republican establishment celebrates its dubious victory, I am less fatigued than before. I heard the harmonious responses of Paul delegates chanting in unison after each state’s total of Romney’s delegates–making sure that Dr. Paul got his delegate-count heard by those on the floor and by any TV-viewer caring enough to listen. And I then knew that we were stronger, more united, more steadfast and more determined than ever. We remain defiant and strong as a cohesive movement, a state of being that created our nation in the face of staggering odds against the well-established British monarchy of the Hanoverian dynasty.

We have grown together, and separately I imagine, in great leaps and bounds over the last four years–far more than anyone for or against us dared dream–and we have made headlines nd turned heads. We have shown the country and the world (if we consider Poland!) that we are no longer content to toss the hot potato of the two-party system back and forth between right and left (red and blue) hands because we have realized that we get burned no matter what and will never get to feed our hungry bellies with said potato. We have outgrown this Two-party façade and refuse to be defined as a collective by the party-lines established by a few privileged elites. No, my compatriots, we have been made aware and we now know better than ‘red and blue.’ That doesn’t even make any sense to me anymore.

The party-lines mix and match agendas. One side promotes “religious freedom” and “individual liberty” yet limits the choice of women, never respecting their personal relationship with God. The other side promotes “healthcare for all” while denying a person’s right to opt-out during healthier years, penalizing them instead for not doing what is ‘best for themselves.’ BOTH sides would drive up our debt and water down our currency. BOTH sides pound the drums of war and pursue a foolishly interventionist foreign policy. BOTH sides speak to the American working class yet promote Wall Street first and foremost. The side that should have welcomed or at least considered us, slapped us and all grass-roots activists in the face in a stunning move of authoritarianism when we showed appropriate strength and resolve. I have had enough and so have you.

The fallacy they have gotten so good at driving into our psyche is this. Whichever candidate, either-or, Republican-or-Democrat, seems less repugnant to our individual selves is portrayed as our only hope against the enemy. Both sides preach that the ‘Other’ is worse. The establishment of both ‘Choices’ has in fact limited our choices and shamed us when we don’t prescribe to either ‘absolute,’ (if either one can so be called a real ‘absolute’). Name-calling, belligerencies, and rivalry trample productive dialogue and real solutions while the establishment holds a death-grip on each current status-quo.

This, my compatriots, is ‘The State’ and sadly, for now, the reality is that it is also ‘the state of things.’ In this particular environment, if we are to effectively combat this destructive mentality, our principles should generally match up but never be defined–or confined–by a ‘collective identity’ such as party-lines so often do. Why? Because WE, above all else, are individuals. This is where we differ from the party-line mentality. We deny the fallacious “defeat the evil ‘Other’ at all cost” mentality that perpetuates a broken system that is supported by fictions and fabrications.

Yet in our uniqueness and individuality I also have a fear, a very real fear. I fear our degeneration at this crucial moment when we are strongest and enjoy our greatest moment of potential. So while I do not seek to steer your minds I hope you will each consider my concerns, which I will put forth here.

We came together out of obscurity, out of the proverbial woods, out of timid silence, out of confusion and out of apathy when a man who had dared to stick to his principles in a world of cowards, told the truth in sea of lies and shining a light into darkness arrived in the national spotlight. The simple country doctor showed us many things we had never before considered and justified elegantly what we always knew in our hearts to be true. We found our captain and we fell in behind him. We braved a biased mainstream-media, a wealth-empowered establishment and the generally disdainful mobs. We surmounted insurmountable odds and surpassed all expectations both from our own ranks and by the numerous naysayers. We pulled together, we made our voices heard and though some would say it was only a pin-prick, it was a pin-prick right into the heart of the establishment. Now more than ever, we have the country’s attention and also the attention of those beyond our borders.

We grew to an astonishing degree in the four years since Dr. Ronald Ernest Paul began this movement and now we stand poised to grow far more. But we have reached a crucial moment in our development.. We have reached what is sometimes referred to as a “flashpoint.” That is to say: ‘a short but crucial moment in which the decisions made hold great weight and great potential for good or ill.’ Yes, we hold great power that the establishment is terrified others will see and more importantly that WE OURSELVES might see. To put it in perspective, such a moment like this is often played up in fictional story lines of film, literature and other story-telling mediums with great tension and audience awareness. To put it more bluntly, we hold a greater weapon than ever but we must yield it correctly. Such a moment is coming, unfortunately, at a time of great emotion for all of us. In highly emotionally charged times like the one we have just been through at the Republican convention, we are more inclined to knee-jerk-reactions and less inclined toward reason and overall demonstrations of class and dignity. We cannot lose our focus when our emotions threaten to overtake us…

Here is what I fear most and what we must make the utmost effort to avoid. We were a movement that generated around one amazing man.  But we must not prove ourselves to be merely a cult of personality. We, as some have already articulated, must not be about the man himself but about ideals he articulated and the spreading of said ideals. Such is the principle difference between our movement and the ‘Cult of Obama’ that whisked a highly charismatic man of insufficient experience into office expecting him to fix all the problems that ailed us.

We are not dependent upon one sole individual to change everything for us, nor should we blame the ‘Other’ (be he/she Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Green, etc.) when we do not see the changes we have striven for and continue to strive for. As much as we must not conform to the ‘fear of the Other,’ which would drive us to vote for one establishment candidate solely to defeat another establishment candidate, we must now learn to form a cohesive unit of many individuals in the absence of a party to define us and also this man who brought us together. How can we unite without becoming a “collective?” A vote to defeat one establishment candidate through the election of another equally ineffective establishment candidate would only perpetuate the sad state of affairs we are rising against. When all we do is ‘react’ every 4-8 years, we accomplish nothing to prevent the larger problems they bring about every 4-8 years, or even 2-8 years. Therefore a vote for Romney or Obama would and will solve nothing.

Voting one’s conscience is not a wasted vote in this current ‘state’ of affairs. Leaving the myth of the two-party system and voting our conscience and abandoning a comfortable but false mentality is our first challenge to face in this paradigm shift. Remember, Dr. Paul’s quest took him 35 years before it paid off. We should not knee-jerk at the idea of four more frustrating years because chances are there will be at least that many more years before our changes take hold. But they are poised to take hold sooner than it seems if we maintain our cool and composure.

The second challenge in the absence of our captain, the challenge that arises from this first one I just described, is how we best thread this political and philosophical needle by maintaining enough “unity” as a movement of individuals without splintering our movement into obscurity. My compatriots, This is a very real possibility. Do we write in Ron Paul to preserve our purity? Do we vote for Gary Johnson with whom we agree 8 out of 10 times versus the full 10? Do we support Rand Paul’s attempt to become a sheep in wolf’s clothing and change the establishment from the inside? Do we simply abstain and not vote at all?Dr. Paul showed us all what a principled individual could do to inspire thousands despite three and a half decades of snubs and ridicule. Whatever we do, let us not become “political hipsters.”

Ron Paul was amazing because in fact he was so very rare. He did what so many would not and said what no one else dared to say because of his uniqueness and one-of-a-kind character. That is why he got our attention. There is no other Ron Paul. Many now use him as a standard to measure integrity and rightfully so, but let us not become such political puritans that we dismiss each other in the face of one or two disagreements. Let it not be said that the liberty movement died trying to ‘out-Paul’ one another. We cannot deny those that would help us overtake the establishment because of one or two differences. Rand has chosen to play the game and bring a seat for liberty-republicans at the GOP table. Many see this as a fickle or futile undertaking, but others might hope for his success. Either way, we can respectfully disagree without shunning him as a ‘sellout’. We have seen Rep. Justin Amash whisked into Congress by the movement, yet he attacked former governor and current Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson a few weeks back for bringing the film industry to New Mexico during Johnson’s two-terms as governor with tax incentives. Amash’s adherence to ‘central economic planning’ is as admirable as Johnson’s choice to put New Mexicans back to work, which actually proved a success story for ‘trickle-down economics’. All these men are closer to Dr. Paul’s message than not, yet many of us obsess over the few issues they differ on. Let us not be so petty. Let us not say we are more pure than he/she. Let us not throw out the term ‘sellout.’ Let us not preach that I am more Paulian than you. Or ‘I was into liberty before it was fashionable.’ This is the practice of an urban culture known as “Hipsters” who abandon art/ideas/fashion once it enters into the mainstream public consciousness or is successfully marketed, a culture that revels in obscurity and celebrates its fringe status, a culture impossible to please and in love with its outsider status. Let us not be “Liberty Hipsters.”

Amash, Johnson, Paul-the-younger, all of them use Dr. Paul’s name to get our attention because they know we recognize his value. Many other so- inspired people seek to run because of what the doctor showed them was possible. They know his name gets our attention and they are right to do so, for they also admire the man. But let us not attack one another. Let us not claim ‘he is not Ron-Paul-enough!’ and shun one another. We must coalesce without becoming a collective. Please, respectfully differ, but do not shun and attack potential allies in a time when we are still growing. A candidate whom we agree with 8-out-of 10 times rather than 10-out of 10 times is a valuable ally, for in these days where establishment politicians would tighten their grip on their ‘parties.’ Let us show them that we are committed to movement of ideas, but with room for later debate. As Jet Li said to Jacky Chan in the film ‘Forbidden Kingdom,’ “we can kill each other later.” Respectful disagreement on details does not equate to compromising principles. Let us not eat each other alive. Let us not become ‘Liberty Hipsters!’ Let us work together as the establishment fears we will through their fear and hate-mongering. As the phrase associated with the first liberty movement goes, “E plurbus unum!” (Out of many . . . One!)

One final point before I close, and an even greater reason why we must all unite is the fact that when a powerful entity such as the establishment feels threatened, it lashes out. Frighteningly, it has already begun. Two stories that recently surfaced on the web, of which I for one am often skeptical of, regarding how the establishment is reacting. One concerns the treatment of Dr. Paul himself as well as his wife Carol attempting to get on his private jet to go home. The TSA allegedly stopped them and basically harassed them until video documentation entered into play. This story seemed, while not necessarily hard to believe, a little reliant on circumstantial evidence. But then came the following. www.iroots.org/2012/09/01/bullets-planted-in-luggage-of-ron-paul-rnc-delegate/

Compatriots, we were simply dismissed with a metaphorical door slammed in our faces in 2008, but perhaps the establishment does feel threatened here after four years of consolidated patriots. And it is not far-fetched to think that a party willing to kidnap their own delegates in a bus during a crucial vote would attempt such acts of skullduggery. They have identified the Liberty movement as a threat and will now stop at nothing to frame us, discredit us, demonize us or even likely destroy us in extreme cases. This will only become truer as we grow stronger. As Benjamin Franklin once said “We must all hang together, or we will most certainly all hang separately.”

In Liberty,

Matthew C. Showers Lecturer in European History, Central New Mexico Community College Albuquerque, New Mexico