Damn, Pete! Everything you write is just so helpful and, yes, inspiring. Your own journey is what helped spark my journey as well. You're a great asset and people can tell your sincerity by what/how you write and your podcasts. I call you a far better educated and articulate version of myself :D
That's funny. I had the exact same thoughts about the whole thing from the beginning. I wanted the MC to flush the progs and bugmen out of the LP for no reason other than spite and disgust. Never did expect them to achieve what the LP is ostensibly supposed to accomplish (somehow becoming a viable national 3rd party), and I couldn't see any point in wasting resources running Dave as a candidate. I'm glad to hear he's not going to do that, and isn't putting his family through it. Good to know I'm not crazy, or at least not the only crazy one.
Meanwhile if the LP can be a useful ally in the local strategy that's great - but what I'm seeing right now is they still want to waste resources on national politics, and that's exactly why they're not getting my money or time. MC still gets money because the progs never stop and the moment the MC shows weakness they'll come right back. But the LP can wait until they finally accept, as a party, that national politics is not a game they can win.
Nailed it. I put in money and my time to the MC strictly to sweep away Sarwark et al and all the libsocs and homosexual activists. I was done and out long before convention.
Joined the LPMC due to your show. It was the first time I had ever affiliated with a party. 2020 was the realization that my "I just want to be left alone" mantra wasn't going to work in reality. I was impressed by the level of early outreach by my state LPMC group (it was better than my Church and better than a local civics/social club I had joined around that time). It was also good to see my proxy vote at the convention go to cleaning out some trash, but overall, I didn't see it going anywhere. At the end of the day it was, like you said, a bunch of people who didn't want to really do the work. Looking back, this was the reason why I never affiliated with a party up to that point, specifically the LP. It always just smelled like a giant grift. I think real work can be done in local GOP or just running independently if you've got enough funds for local races. Personally, I have focused back on my family, my street, and my career. I'll have to clear some headroom for much beyond that.
Good for Dave. I don't get how the people who were around for Ron Paul's revolution didn't understand what went into making that happen.
Everything was primed for Paul. 9/11, Patriot Acts, wars, Alex Jones breaking damn near mainstream - everyone was ready to hear something new.
Then Ron got on the debate stage.
If you aren't owning the cons, why on earth would the media cover you? Who bothers covering Dave Smith owning the naked fat guy named after a rodent at the LP debates? How does that move the needle? And move the needle where? Is our current issue in america that we aren't libeertarian and individual enough?
It seems to me that we don't need more social libertarianism where degenerates get to be perverts and criminals don't get charged or right libertarianism where everything that can be made in the third world gets made in the third world.
Dave does himself and his message so much more good just doing his podcast and comedy. His latest special was hilarious and i recommend it to anyone, but especially people in the early to mid 40s like me.
The whole MC/LP thing is an utter joke. I got involved with the MC when I was working to protect business owners who defied lockdowns and McArdle was more interested in making a documentary that no one was going to see and planning convention parties. Heise was super excited that they had raised enough funds for him to quit his shitty day job. Pathetic. I saw nothing but mediocre and unaccomplished people looking for status. I will never understand the obsession with the "Ron Paul Revolution." It failed. As nice of a man as Ron Paul is and as admirable as his ideas may have been, his run for President changed nothing and had no lasting impact on the political landscape (contrast with Donald Trump after whom things will never be the same) It's time to let it go. Running Dave Smith was always a stupid idea - exactly the kind of thing that mediocre and unaccomplished people who seek status in a tiny on line bubble live for.
So true. I’m speaking from experience when I say it’s a circle jerk. However, as the State parties are the true barrier to rightwing action, the takeover strategy could be a very useful bottom-up tool in pressuring county GOP affiliates. This is what MAGA, if a large % weren’t a grift, should focus on instead of the silly precinct committeeman strategy. If we’re ever to exert any level of elite power whatsoever or leverage the GOP toward our ends, swamping the local parties with dues-payers is a strong first move.
Damn, Pete! Everything you write is just so helpful and, yes, inspiring. Your own journey is what helped spark my journey as well. You're a great asset and people can tell your sincerity by what/how you write and your podcasts. I call you a far better educated and articulate version of myself :D
🙏🙏😆😆
That's funny. I had the exact same thoughts about the whole thing from the beginning. I wanted the MC to flush the progs and bugmen out of the LP for no reason other than spite and disgust. Never did expect them to achieve what the LP is ostensibly supposed to accomplish (somehow becoming a viable national 3rd party), and I couldn't see any point in wasting resources running Dave as a candidate. I'm glad to hear he's not going to do that, and isn't putting his family through it. Good to know I'm not crazy, or at least not the only crazy one.
Meanwhile if the LP can be a useful ally in the local strategy that's great - but what I'm seeing right now is they still want to waste resources on national politics, and that's exactly why they're not getting my money or time. MC still gets money because the progs never stop and the moment the MC shows weakness they'll come right back. But the LP can wait until they finally accept, as a party, that national politics is not a game they can win.
Nailed it. I put in money and my time to the MC strictly to sweep away Sarwark et al and all the libsocs and homosexual activists. I was done and out long before convention.
Joined the LPMC due to your show. It was the first time I had ever affiliated with a party. 2020 was the realization that my "I just want to be left alone" mantra wasn't going to work in reality. I was impressed by the level of early outreach by my state LPMC group (it was better than my Church and better than a local civics/social club I had joined around that time). It was also good to see my proxy vote at the convention go to cleaning out some trash, but overall, I didn't see it going anywhere. At the end of the day it was, like you said, a bunch of people who didn't want to really do the work. Looking back, this was the reason why I never affiliated with a party up to that point, specifically the LP. It always just smelled like a giant grift. I think real work can be done in local GOP or just running independently if you've got enough funds for local races. Personally, I have focused back on my family, my street, and my career. I'll have to clear some headroom for much beyond that.
Good for Dave. I don't get how the people who were around for Ron Paul's revolution didn't understand what went into making that happen.
Everything was primed for Paul. 9/11, Patriot Acts, wars, Alex Jones breaking damn near mainstream - everyone was ready to hear something new.
Then Ron got on the debate stage.
If you aren't owning the cons, why on earth would the media cover you? Who bothers covering Dave Smith owning the naked fat guy named after a rodent at the LP debates? How does that move the needle? And move the needle where? Is our current issue in america that we aren't libeertarian and individual enough?
It seems to me that we don't need more social libertarianism where degenerates get to be perverts and criminals don't get charged or right libertarianism where everything that can be made in the third world gets made in the third world.
Dave does himself and his message so much more good just doing his podcast and comedy. His latest special was hilarious and i recommend it to anyone, but especially people in the early to mid 40s like me.
The whole MC/LP thing is an utter joke. I got involved with the MC when I was working to protect business owners who defied lockdowns and McArdle was more interested in making a documentary that no one was going to see and planning convention parties. Heise was super excited that they had raised enough funds for him to quit his shitty day job. Pathetic. I saw nothing but mediocre and unaccomplished people looking for status. I will never understand the obsession with the "Ron Paul Revolution." It failed. As nice of a man as Ron Paul is and as admirable as his ideas may have been, his run for President changed nothing and had no lasting impact on the political landscape (contrast with Donald Trump after whom things will never be the same) It's time to let it go. Running Dave Smith was always a stupid idea - exactly the kind of thing that mediocre and unaccomplished people who seek status in a tiny on line bubble live for.
So true. I’m speaking from experience when I say it’s a circle jerk. However, as the State parties are the true barrier to rightwing action, the takeover strategy could be a very useful bottom-up tool in pressuring county GOP affiliates. This is what MAGA, if a large % weren’t a grift, should focus on instead of the silly precinct committeeman strategy. If we’re ever to exert any level of elite power whatsoever or leverage the GOP toward our ends, swamping the local parties with dues-payers is a strong first move.