Anybody with a lick of sense realizes there's no difference anymore between the Democrats and Republicans. Both preach big dictatorial government to the people, and they do so relentlessly. Thus many Americans now realize that we need to open up the process and offer a small government vision as a third choice.
The question is how do we bring about such a goal. Many hurdles to a third-party exist, and many objections among conservatives to even begin such an attempt exist. What follows will provide some answers to those objections and outline a dramatic plan that will not only defeat Obama's socialist agenda in 2012, but also save America in the coming decades from Republican socialism.
Restoring the Republic
It is assumed that Ron Paul will run again for the Republican nomination in 2012. But could this maverick freedom advocate actually take the GOP nomination away from one of the establishment luminaries such as Romney, Gingrich, Huckabee, or Palin? Common sense tells us, no. But that doesn't mean he shouldn't try, for in the effort to do so the message of freedom at least gets a hearing.
But once Paul sees that he is going to be denied the nomination (along about February or March of 2012), he then needs to set his sights higher than just being a hard-money spokesman that runs Don Quixote-style campaigns for the GOP nomination. He needs to think "Independent Crusade" in the manner of Ross Perot in 1992, which would get him into the National TV Presidential Debates.
The importance of this is that it puts Congressman Paul in front of 70 million voters on the major networks. Getting into the Republican nomination debates in primary season only puts him in front of 10 million voters on the cable stations. Running as a Republican nominee is small potatoes. The big prize is the fall Presidential Debates. But only an Independent run can bring this about because Paul is not going to get into those debates as the GOP nominee.
There's also another reason why the "Presidential Debates" are so important. In the Republican nomination debates, the moderators can ostracize a candidate by asking him only a few superficial questions and then ignoring him in favor of statist favorites such as Romney or Gingrich. This is what they did to Paul in 2008. But in the fall Presidential Debates there has to be equal time given to all candidates. Thus the moderator cannot ignore the freedom candidate in favor of the establishment favorites.
For Ron Paul to create a successful Independent run, he will need to find a promising conservative (let's call him Jefferson Thomas) to team with as his VP candidate and do what Ross Perot and James Stockdale did in 1992. It goes without saying that Jefferson Thomas must be a man with gravitas and big league political experience, which unfortunately Stockdale was not. Perot managed to get on the ballot in almost all the states in less than six months at a cost of about $25-$30 million. A ticket of Ron Paul and Jefferson Thomas could do the same thing. Paul has already demonstrated that he has that kind of money-raising capability.
Thus our goal must now be to find Jefferson Thomas, or to have him find us. He will have to possess a genuine respect for the Founders' vision. And he will have to be a strong social conservative, but one who wishes to promote traditional values in society through the churches and schools rather than legislative mandates.
With some prudent moderation of some of Paul's 2008 libertarian positions (for example his stand on abolishing the income tax with no replacement, which hurt him badly in the polls), a formidable ticket could be formed. In today's atmosphere of severe recession, ruinous foreign wars, Washington socialism run amok, and Tea Party revolts, such a ticket could garner the necessary 15% in the polls to gain entrance into the National TV Presidential Debates and give the freedom movement a podium in front of 70 million American voters.
A Ron Paul / Jefferson Thomas Independent run would electrify the country. It would sweep into the TV Presidential Debates in the same fashion that Ross Perot did in 1992. Today's crisis times would guarantee it. And what's most important is that this time, the Paul / Thomas ticket would be talking true free-enterprise and foreign policy sanity. Not to take anything away from Perot; he was a great American hero and a wonderful tribute to the country. But he did not advocate "limited government." He basically accepted the monstrous welfare-statism of the two major parties. Ron Paul and Jefferson Thomas would not do this; thus their message would be truly salvational. Imagine them running on the following four Pillars of Reform:
Pillar # 1: A 10% equal-rate income tax across the board as replacement for our progressive tax rate structure, which would restore equal rights under the law to the system. With elimination of all special privileges, it would be revenue neutral. It would light up the sky of economic productivity in America. And it would bring back millions of jobs from overseas.
Pillar #2: Mandating by law that the Federal Reserve increase the money supply annually at the same rate as the growth of goods and services — approximately 4%. This would reduce price inflation to zero every year and end the horrible destruction of our currency and savings until we can convince Americans to end the Fed and restore gold.
Pillar #3: Radical immigration reform that encompasses a genuine crackdown on illegals and the total abandonment of any kind of amnesty.
Pillar #4: Ending the Mideast wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and returning to a mind-our-own-business foreign policy.
Imagine Ron Paul and Jefferson Thomas giving 30 minute lectures in prime time TV the night before each of their debates as Perot did so effectively in 1992. Such an ideological challenge would shake up the corrupt Demopublican establishment in a very big way. In my opinion it would launch a profound paradigm shift in American politics.
Would a Paul-Thomas ticket be able to get 38% of the vote and win in a three-man race? Probably not; but what's important is that freedom would now have a powerful voice in national politics. This would lay the groundwork for Jefferson Thomas running again in 2016 as head of a new party and vision for America — a small government vision of freedom and sanity. That new party is already formed. It is called the Conservative American Party, and it could be officially registered in all states and sufficiently promoted to the American people by 2016 if Ron Paul and Jefferson Thomas endorsed it. Paul would be 80 years old by then, but he would become the elder statesman, the symbolic head of the party.
Unlike today's conventional third-parties that get only 1% of the vote, this would be a REAL third-party that achieves parity with the Democrats and Republicans and then replaces the Republicans as they replaced the Whigs in the 1850s.
Naysayers on the Right
The naysayers on the right will protest that such a campaign would split the Republican Party vote and assure Obama's re-election, which is intolerable. This is a false fear. If a Paul / Thomas Independent ticket loses and Obama wins as a result of the GOP support being split, his socialist agenda can still be stopped because Republican conservatives will pick up a considerable number of seats in the House and Senate in 2012 — adding to their sizeable gains in the recent 2010 elections. This will create gridlock and force Obama to come into the center and govern no differently than a Romney or Gingrich. So what do we lose in 2012 by splitting the Republican vote? Nothing. What we gain, however, is the means to dramatically explain to America what is really happening.
The path would then be open for a Jefferson Thomas win in 2016 on a Conservative American Party ticket, which would be genuinely revolutionary. The restoration of the republic could begin. The Four Pillars of Reform mentioned above could be implemented.
Would Ron Paul be willing to give up his House seat to run an Independent race? Hopefully so. At this time, we need him more in the National TV Presidential Debates than we do in Congress. He is no longer just a Representative from south Texas in the House. He is the leader of freedom's hope in America. This entails different responsibilities and larger ambitions. The freedom movement needs to be sensationalized, which requires a leader who is articulately schooled in its ideological fundamentals. Ron Paul is the one who history has ordained as that political leader. Many prominent pundits and institutions would support a Ron Paul / Jefferson Thomas ticket. Here are four examples:
1) Patrick J. Buchanan, the brilliant conservative author of numerous political and historical books on America such as Where the Right Went Wrong and A Republic, Not an Empire.
2) G. Edward Griffin, author of the provocative book on the Federal Reserve, The Creature from Jekyl Island, and founder of Freedom Force International.
3) Edwin Vieira, the renowned Harvard lawyer and author of Constitutional Homeland Security along with the magisterial Pieces of Eight, a history of money and its Constitutional requisites in America.
4) Stewart Rhodes, founder of Oath Keepers, an association of currently serving military, reserves, National Guard, veterans, Peace Officers, and Fire Fighters who pledge to fulfill the oath they swore to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
There are, of course, many other freedom advocates and groups that would join in support of a Ron Paul / Jefferson Thomas ticket. Talk show hosts, intellectuals, and activists such as: Judge Andrew Napolitano, Alex Jones, Chuck Baldwin, Peter Brimelow, Thomas Sowell, Paul Craig Roberts, John Stossel, Walter Williams, Bill Bonner, Sheriff Richard Mack, Rick Santelli, David Koch, Peter Schiff, John McManus, Peter Lillback, Ted Baehr, and thousands of other prominent men and women in positions of leadership in the business, media, entertainment, religious, and literary arenas.
The latest Gallup Poll indicates that 58% of the American people feel that the Democratic and Republican Parties are doing such a terrible job that a third-party is needed. The time for such a revolution is now. As Shakespeare said, "There is a tide in the affairs of men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries."
America desperately needs a small-government vision in its political arena. And the best way to bring such a vision about is to launch it with an Independent run by Ron Paul and Jefferson Thomas in 2012, to be followed by the official formation of the Conservative American Party for 2016 with Jefferson Thomas as its candidate for President.
To learn more about the Conservative American Party, see The Conservative Revolution: Why We Must Form a Third Political Party to Win It. This book explains in great detail the Four Pillars of Reform.
Also visit James Jaeger and Matrixx Entertainment at http://www.spoilerusa.org. Jaeger is making a 90-minute documentary on the book and the third-party potential in America, which features Pat Buchanan, Edwin Vieira, G. Edward Griffin, John McManus, Peter Lillback, and others. A 3½ minute trailer can be viewed HERE.
Conservatives and libertarians of America need to put their thinking caps on. Just as David O. Selznick conducted a nationwide search in the late 1930s to find his Scarlett O'Hara for Gone With The Wind, we need to find our Jefferson Thomas to team with Ron Paul for an Independent campaign in 2012 and then assume leadership of the freedom movement for 2016. Just as Hollywood needed Vivien Leigh, America now needs Jefferson Thomas to come forth.
