On Monday, Congressman Ron Paul sent a message to the GOP establishment announcing that he would not compete in the remaining primaries to allow Mitt Romney to enter this summer's Republican National Convention without distraction or mayhem.
According to POLITICO, Paul said that he will continue to try to add more delegates with the goal of making a positive impact this August in Tampa at the Convention.
“We will continue to take leadership positions, win delegates, and carry a strong message to the Republican National Convention that Liberty is the way of the future,” Paul said in his announcement. “Moving forward, however, we will no longer spend resources campaigning in primaries in states that have not yet voted. Doing so with any hope of success would take many tens of millions of dollars we simply do not have.”
Now with Paul backing down, at least in terms of fighting for the primaries, the die-hard Paul supporters have been firing back at that the GOP candidate Romney, booing his son Josh off stage in Arizona and other Romney affiliates throughout the country.
The 76-year old Congressman doesn't want his supporters to tarnish all that they worked for with disrespect.
“You need to give respect to get respect,” Paul's campaign chairman Jesse Benton told POLITICO. “[Dr. Paul] wants to convey to everybody and out staff want to convey that we'll lose more than we gain if we go and we're disrespectful. Respect and decorum are very important to Dr. Paul.”
Paul will retire from the House at the end of the year and discussion of who he will pass the libertarian torch to next has been swarming.
Many feel his son Rand will run for president in 2016 as a Republican, and with that, Ron fears that his message to his fervent supporters to remain passionate and cause havoc for presumptive nominee Romney could be misconstrued. Paul does not want hostile takeovers at state conventions that win loads of delegates but also generate a backlash, as it could hurt Rand's chances in four years. He feels it could also prevent up-and-coming libertarians from obtaining positions of leadership in local parties.
From CS Monitor,
In an email to supporters, Paul urged his libertarian-leaning backers to remain involved in politics and champion his causes despite the apparent end of his presidential aspirations...
Primaries have not been Paul's strong suit — he hasn't won a single primary or caucus. But Paul's supporters have successfully navigated the convention process in a number of states, adding to Paul's delegate total while gaining influence over state parties.
Romney, however, is on pace to capture the nomination this month. He has 973 of the 1,144 delegates required to formally become the GOP's nominee, according to an Associated Press tally. Vanquished foe Santorum has 264 and Newt Gingrich has 130. Paul badly trails with 104 delegates.
Paul's beliefs have gone in-line with a few of the Republican parties core values like limited government and low taxes, but he breaks away from the party when he voices his angst with American intervention abroad and government efforts to fight terrorism domestically. These libertarian values are the foundations of his campaign and what earned him such loyal supporters who are not backing down.
But it looks as though they may need to nominate their next candidate to carry the word of libertarian values forward into the future.
Paul said in his announcement “It doesn’t seem like the nomination is possible,” but he mentioned that there are other ways left “to make an impact” on the party in 2012. Keep an eye on how the Paul supporters make that impact on the delegates up until the convention. From there the libertarian movement could smoothly transition to these potential leaders (like Rand Paul and others) or it could stumble depending on the way the party handles “causing havoc at the convention.”
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