{"id":27172,"date":"2012-03-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=27172"},"modified":"2012-03-30T11:07:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-30T16:07:03","slug":"whizzing-in-other-peoples-wheaties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=27172","title":{"rendered":"Whizzing In Other Peoples’ Wheaties"},"content":{"rendered":"

As some of you know, I’ve been one of the “establishment” (har di har) Republicans who’s been trying to welcome Ron Paul supporters into the MNGOP. \u00a0I tried to make this – along with an opportunity for Paul supporters and the GOP to get together and do something useful – clear in a piece I posted yesterday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, when I mentioned this yesterday, one prominent Paulbot responded “LOLOLOL”. \u00a0There’s a backstory there; he’d pondered out loud why True North<\/em>‘s stable of center-right writers didn’t include any Paul supporters. \u00a0I asked him to put up or shut up – to send me some Paul-aligned bloggers who’d been blogging any <\/em>length of time and who didn’t completely suck as writers, and we’d put ’em on. \u00a0The problem wasn’t a lack of outreach on True North’s <\/em>part; it was that outside of the excellent Katie Kieffer<\/a>, I’m not aware of a single pro-Paul blogger in Minnesota who’s kept a blog going for more than 2-3 posts.<\/p>\n

He never sent me anyone.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the fact is I do <\/em>support the Paul crowd’s activity in the GOP – provided that they’re not there simply to blow it up.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a small flock of little birds tell me their big plan this month is to bum-rush Kurt Zellers’ district and deliver a “no endorsement” vote.<\/p>\n

This – trying to undercut the party if you can’t take control of it – is just about the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. \u00a0Vandalizing the one party in the state that has any actual impact on policy that does<\/em>, however imperfectly, stand for any form of liberty at all, <\/em>however imperfectly, to “teach it a lesson” about…<\/p>\n

…about what? \u00a0Not paying sufficient obeisance to a candidate that, whatever his chances of getting the nomination for President, which, important as it is, has nothing to do with the business of the State, Congressional District or Legislative District\/BPOU operation of the party? \u00a0On behalf of people who will, largely, have little to do with nominating Senate, Congress, Legislative, Mayor, County Commission, City Council and School Board candidates, but less still to do with supporting them once the time for debating resolutions about “Auditing the Fed” is over and the time for raising money, making calls and droppoing lit and trying to get people elected begins?<\/p>\n

And for what? \u00a0To undercut the GOP Speaker of the House?<\/p>\n

Paul supporters – curb your colleagues’ urge to commit political vandalism. \u00a0Given that there is <\/em>only one party in the state whose establishment pays even imperfect service to “liberty”, what are you trying to accomplish? \u00a0“Teach the GOP a lesson?<\/p>\n

Parties don’t learn lessons. \u00a0They reflect the will of those who show up.<\/p>\n

And by “show up”, I mean to meetings in January, and for House District special elections in March.<\/p>\n

I”ve heard from more than a few Paul supporters who’ve complained that the “establishment” of the GOP – meaning the people who were elected two years ago, whatever their beliefs – aren’t welcoming them with open arms.<\/p>\n

How much more\u00a0explaining\u00a0to we need to do, here?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As some of you know, I’ve been one of the “establishment” (har di har) Republicans who’s been trying to welcome Ron Paul supporters into the MNGOP. \u00a0I tried to make this – along with an opportunity for Paul supporters and the GOP to get together and do something useful – clear in a piece I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,30,132],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-12","category-liberty","category-mn-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27177,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27172\/revisions\/27177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}