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Super Tuesday, Ron Paul- observations from Boise, Idaho Viewed 42,215 times
By: Bill TewPublished for Boise, Idaho (Area-Info.net Mar. 07, 2012)
Super Tuesday, at noon, I stood inside the Nampa Civic Center in Nampa, Idaho with 1,100 Idaho voters who had taken off work to listen to Congressman Ron Paul talk. I had a duel purpose for attending; first to hear Congressman Paul, and second to meet good people that might be followed up with in the future.
Before the meeting began a young, well-dressed man, Aaron Mayovsky from Meridian, who was offering attendees free Ron Paul campaign buttons, struck up a conversation with me as the seats were filling up around the place where we stood. When he asked me where I am from and what I do for a living, I asked him what he knew of The John Birch Society and told him a brief description of the Society for whom I work. He gave me his e-mail address and phone number and said he’d like to learn more.
Soon I was seated near the podium with our local JBS Coordinator who lives in Nampa. After the crowd was quieted, Jen Patino, a local lawyer who is the State Coordinator for the Ron Paul campaign, was introduced and spoke about how spending and debt are destroying our country and “dropping us off a cliff.” She admonished the crowd to “Vote to restore America now.”
Former Idaho legislator Elizabeth Allen Hodge spoke next. She introduced five Idaho State legislators seated to her right that were supporting Ron Paul as President, and another seated behind the podium.
Next, Idaho State Senator Monty Pearce of New Plymouth, Idaho spoke and pointed to the Constitution as the document that “brought greatness to America.” He introduced Candidate Ron Paul who entered the room to the sound of thunderous applause, a standing ovation, and chants of “President Paul, President Paul, and President Paul.”
Candidate Paul stood before the crowd and thanked them for coming. Sitting perhaps 16-feet from Dr. Paul I could see him from the side as he looked out over the audience with his good natured smile, his common suit and thick soled shoes. He was a picture of humility and service as he launched into his talk without any notes before him.
Dr. Paul began with familiar information about how America had shifted from being a creditor nation to a “deficit nation.” He warned that “we’re the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world. Our debt’s going up about $1.5 trillion a year.”
As Congressman Paul spoke I couldn’t help being reminded of an earlier time, in Salt Lake City when he spoke to a bit smaller crowd.
Nearly nine years earlier in the winter of 2003, three Utah John Birch Society members met together to discuss how they might build support for a resolution that local JBS Chapters had helped convince a Utah Legislator to sponsor. The resolution was a resolution that, if passed, would send a message from Utah’s Legislature to Congress urging Congress to withdraw the United States from membership in the United Nations. The three Birchers seated together were the northern Utah JBS Section Leader, the Salt Lake City JBS Speakers Bureau Committee Chairman, and the then JBS Coordinator for Utah.
After some deliberation, the Speakers Bureau Committee Chairman came up with a perfect brainstorm of an idea. “Let’s bring Congressman Ron Paul,” he said, “After all, Congressman Paul has H.R. 1146, the American Sovereignty Restoration Act, to GET US OUT OF THE UN sponsored again into the U.S. House of Representatives. Who better to speak to Utah’s legislators and electorate on the topic?” There was of course immediate agreement.
And so it was that four years before Congressman Ron Paul’s 2007 campaign for the 2008 Presidential Election that local Utah John Birch Society Chapters asked Congressman Paul to speak in Salt Lake City. He graciously accepted and Ron Paul was flown in to Salt Lake City to speak to the Utah House of Representatives and the Utah State Senate about the United Nations, about the fiscal situation our Federal Government was in, about war, and even about the 17th Amendment.
That same January 2004 night, after speaking to Utah's legislators, somewhere between 700 and 800 people met at the Red Lion Hotel in Salt Lake City to hear Congressman Paul speak to them at the JBS sponsored evening event. Congressman Paul was surprised and pleased to see such a great crowd in Utah since he was a Congressman from Texas. He joked about running for office from Utah.
A professional film company had been hired by local JBS members to film Congressman Paul’s speech so that it could be widely shared, especially with Utah’s contingent of Congressmen, Utah’s Legislators, and eventually with JBS headquarters where the film could be made into a DVD. The DVD, “BRUSHFIRES OF FREEDOM,” was eventually created and is still sold by www.shopjbs.org for $1.00 each, plus shipping.
At that earlier event there were some that had even suggested to Congressman Paul that he ought to run for President. Who knows if that was something he was already thinking about at that early time?
Thus, as I sat near Ron Paul on Super Tuesday 2012, listening to him propose to 1,100 Idahoans gathered before him the cutting of $1-trillion from the federal budget the first year of holding office as the President of the United States I understood there had been a long road for Dr. Paul to arrive at the podium in front of us. His road had included twelve terms in Congress, countless speaking engagements around the country during the 2008 election bid, and similar time crisscrossing the country during this election attempt.
But there was something else that struck me about that long road. I knew that JBS members across America had been traveling a parallel road since 1958, long before Dr. Paul was first elected to Congress. Since 1958, when the Society was formed, 53-years earlier, leaders and members of The John Birch Society had been working to educate the electorate about the dangers of the United Nations as a would-be “new world order.” The John Birch Society’s publications and members had taught America about the dangers of the Federal Reserve System and its growing fiat money supply and about potential hyperinflation that could visit our country if we stayed on the pathway we were following of excessive spending and welfare programs that redistribute the wealth.
As I looked around the room, I wondered what these hundreds of patriotic Americans would do if their candidate did not win the Republican nomination as the presidential candidate.
Another time was brought to mind. In 1964, another candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater, had run on a very conservative platform. He had garnered an enthusiastic body of supporters within the Republican Party as well. When he lost the election to Lyndon B. Johnson, his supporters seemed to give up and melt into the woodwork as the saying goes. Would these 2012 Ron Paul supporters find a place to go to continue the work of supporting the Constitutional compliance by government if Ron Paul didn’t become the Republican Party Nominee for president, I wondered, or would their fate be similar to the Goldwater supporters of 1964?
Many of the Goldwater supporters found their way into a permanent organized effort, The John Birch Society (JBS), that works towards education of the electorate, education of the elected, and education of opinion molders thus preparing the soil and planting the seeds of knowledge from which successful future elections can grow.
The JBS, through its magazine THE NEW AMERICAN, through its websites, through its book publishing, through its national organization of volunteer chapters, through its speakers bureau efforts in cities across America, through its production of DVDs, etc. seeks to restore to Americans the knowledge of their Constitutional system of government, to restore to Americans the knowledge of how to operate as activists to return voters to a respect for their Constitution and limited government, and to warn Americans of the devastating effects of uncontrolled, unlimited, unconstitutional government as it becomes the master instead of the servant.
Later, I sat in the IDAHO CENTER for the inaugural Canyon County Presidential Caucus. It appeared that eventually thousands were seated in the building as the opening prayer was given. Everyone present put aside their differences as they stood unified to pledge allegiance to the flag.
Before me was a microcosm of what was going on across many states on Super Tuesday as well as in 44 counties in Idaho. I struck up a conversation with Javier who was a young man sitting behind me holding a “Ron Paul” sign and wearing a shirt that sported the message: “END THE FED.”
He had never read the book THE CREATURE FROM JEKYL ISLAND-A SECOND LOOK AT THE FEDERAL RESERVE, a book first published in 1994 by The John Birch Society, yet he was involved in the work of ending the Federal Reserve System that had been so inspired by that book. I told him of the book and gave him the website where he could find it, www.shopjbs.org as we discussed the monetary problems America is facing.
The first vote ended at 8:30 and the count was made and reported: Romney was in first place, Santorum took second, Ron Paul came in third place, and New Gingrich was eliminated from the contest on the first round because he had less than 15% of the vote.
Hoping to find people of like mind, I mingled with people in between rounds of voting introducing myself and The JBS to them, handing out my business card and pamphlets, gathering a name and number here and there; looking towards the time after the elections when people might feel directionless and be seeking continued work to preserve freedom.
Where could they look once the campaigns wore down? The place I’m recommending is: www.jbs.org. I shared a few reprinted articles from THE NEW AMERICAN magazine and the website: www.thenewamerican.com with those I met.
The new generation of American patriots need to stay the course of reaching out with sound information to their fellow Americans if they are to find the educational victories America needs in the future to bring about better political outcomes than have been experienced during the 20th and early 21st centuries. There is no quick fix.
Hold a BS degree from USU with a double major and an Associates degree from UVU.
Works in political education field.(TIP: Share your opinion, or news from your point of view: Go to Your View)
