Sunday, July 8, 2012

They're Over It: Ron Paulers Abandon Kurt Bills

Don't look now but that invasion of fake republicans, also known as Ron Paul supporters, have largely abandoned the hapless school teacher they corralled into the MN GOP endorsement for US Senate, Kurt Bills. MC happens to love people who say they told us so, especially because in this instance MC fairly led the charge against these politically unserious people who temporarily seized control of the endorsement mechanisms to hijack the party. But many others also saw the danger and sounded the alarm.

We told you so. Oh, and the endorsing convention wasn't even two months ago but who's counting.

How can one tell if the Paulers really have abandoned their hand picked candidate? Possibly by noting that the person who did the hand picking--Marianne Stebbins--has effectively withdrawn from politics due to what might more or less be called a civil war within the Paul zombie community. Yes, that's right, Stebbins isn't "doing" politics because her consignment shop business has suffered while she toiled in the vineyard of liberty. She has deleted her Facebook account and created a private one. She's going all Greta Garbo.

Thanks for the damage & abdication of responsibility, Marianne. You're leaving another campaign in the hands of David Fitzsimmons? What happened to that army of boots on the ground? What happened to Minnesota being electrified by headlines of "GOP nominates school teacher for senate race?" Where *is* that Ron Paul money bomb for Bills that we were told would raise a million dollars in one day?

Well? All of this is nowhere because Ron Paul supporters were interlopers, unconcerned with Minnesota politics generally and republican interests specifically.

One can see pictures of the Bills campaign as they are tweeted: the forlorn locations, dearth of supporters and those ridiculous buses that first premiered as props at the state convention in May. His campaign is without focus or purpose. Parades and attendance at insular fund raisers indicate a campaign that has failed to transition to a general election. Kurt, you've won the endorsement. Stop running for it.

Anyone in the party, the House or the Senate, want to take responsibility for the current state of affairs? No, of course not. They'll all pretend they didn't enable this train wreck to get the endorsement. They "had" to go along, you know. They worked behind the scenes to make things as good as possible. The rest of us were just "missiles" that needed to be "guided."

More than a few elected officials have deliberately sidled up to the remaining Paul supporters thinking they will be important in the next cycle for governor, senator, state-wide races and such. Perhaps they will but the obvious lack of principle shown this cycle hardly endears them to those of us who will be there in the coming two years. The real base will return but filled with disgust at those who occupy office with an "R" after their name. If they are counting on what they failed to do this year being forgotten, they are in for an unpleasant surprise. For some reason, the word quislings comes to mind.

RNC committeeman Jeff Johnson infamously scolded the state convention by demanding that people "get over it." He's going to have to make some sort of Checkers speech to rehabilitate himself among the non-Paul party base. Yet who knew that so soon after the debacle that was the endorsing convention, the very faction of the party he and others thought ascendant would forfeit the field, leave the game, make fools of them?

Well MC & many others did, to no avail obviously. The coming months will be excruciating to watch given the lack of money and volunteers that plague the Bills campaign. The Ron Paul supporters, leaving even sooner than could have been expected, will move on to Tampa, or raw milk, or hemp, or redecorating Mom's basement. They won't be an effective political force to help Bills win.

As for the regular, currently displaced, republican activist base?

Silence, cunning & exile.



Update: Stebbins apparently has her Facebook page back up after making the statements indicated in the above post. A reader also indicated she recently marched in a parade with the hapless Bills. Well good for her; one would think it's the least she could do for the risible revolution she spearheaded.

The point remains that neither in numbers of volunteers or in the surge of dollars have the Paulers come through for Bills. The window-dressing of a volunteer here or Facebook page there to one side, the Paulers have, effectively, abandoned Kurt Bills.





17 comments:

Daniel Surman said...

I am pretty darn sure Stebbins just walked for Bills in the Lakeville parade, where Bills had dozens of walkers. And a quick search shows her Facebook pretty darn public. Care to revise your claims?

Anonymous said...

Your evidence is that someone changing their facebook status?

As for parades, quite a number have stringent walker limits.

Anonymous said...

Blah blah blah. I support Ron Paul and give time and money to republican causes, and also still strongly support Kurt Bills. You erroneously assume ALL people who support Ron Paul are not oherwise politically active. You're just plain wrong. I won't waste my time reading any more of your blogs since you just pick premises that serve your conclusion. I bet you are one of those guys who always HAS to be right, and unwilling to ever consider ideas that are not your own or do not support your views. Yuck. Stay away from this guy, it's no wonder people view our party as one of stubborn old men with people like you vomiting your opinion all over the web....

Anonymous said...

Excellent blog post, MC. Once again, you are watching and reporting the truth about politics in Minnesota. Please continue to keep us informed about what's really going on out there. And let us know when it's safe to come out!

Anonymous said...

Ever consider the possibility that individuals like yourself and the rest of the still feeling scorned-over old guard like you are the reason for what appears to be lingering support.

Your guy didn't win the nomination so you took your ball and went home. Schoolyard politics by the old schoolers at their finest.

Anonymous said...

I drove through my entire county, street by street. I saw one Kurt Bills sign. Among those I know who are supportering Kurt Bills, they are doing so because he's the endorsed candidate by the party, not because he's a Ron Paul follower.

By my count, around 30 of my fellow SD convention attendees were ardent enthusiasts two months ago. They don't even have Kurt Bills signs in their own yards now.

I counted one, yes, one sign for Kurt Bills.

I saw four houses that had Ron Paul signs or Ron Paul bumper stickers, yet, even they didn't have Kurt Bills signs.

All of this indicates that Minnesota Conservatives blog is absolutely right in saying "All of this is nowhere because Ron Paul supporters were interlopers, unconcerned with Minnesota politics generally and republican interests specifically".

If you can't put up a sign in your own yard after waging a year long campaign to get Kurt Bills endorsed, what committment have you? Secret committments that you don't want your neighbors to know about don't translate into actual votes for the candidate you endorsed.

Courage, is the virtue I most recently find lacking in Ron Paul supporters.

-Tia

Anonymous said...

Odd. As someone close to the Bills campaign (but not anywhere near "in") it was my impression that the Paulers chose Bills, not the other way around. A candidate is not responsible for his supporters, or one-night-stand-supporters, as the case may be. I don't care how slighted you may have felt by the maddening throng at the convention, if are any better than these sunshine Republicans you will get out and support Kurt Bills. He is vastly better than Amy Klobuchar, and that is the only thing that matters.

J. Ewing

Anonymous said...

The "Ron Paul" ascendancy was necessary to purge the party of the "democrat light" Paulers. Most long-time activists who have, by the way, actually put some Republicans in office in Minnesota, realized that to do away with them once and for all- along with their ultra-liberal social positions on everything from Israel to homosexual marriage- they'd have to be given the whole bag, kit and kaboodle.

The Ron Paulers have left "the bag" unattended at the airport gate, but whatever comes this fall is their fault and their responsibility alone.

It's unfortunate the pot boiled over on this during the most important election year of our lifetime, but once the dust settles they'll be ran out of politics on a rail and the "Ron Paul" DFL Light, kooky libertarian insanity that has divided Republicans for the last 8 years in Minnesota as well as bankrupted the party will finally be done away with (more contracts for researching the legalization of "weed" anybody?).

They thought they were taking over the Republican Party. Little did they know Real Republican strategists were just setting them up to epically fail and disappear from the face of history.

After November 6th, they should be careful not to let the door hit them on their way out.

Anonymous said...

This is another example of you ripping on conservatives. You did it to Emmer and now to Bills. I must ask, when have you ever walked in a parade? Not as long as I've been around. You're a publicity whore who should spend more of your energy focusing on the dems. You refer to "us" when it is no one but you, in your alcohol induced stupor, writing this garbage. Why not change the name of this blog to Minnesota Conservative. We all are well aware that you are alone in writing this crap.

MikeWBL said...

Thanks for another honest situation analysis John. You are spot on but this was highly predictable based on their lake of volunteering & $$$ in 2008 & 2010!

I support a statewide primary & a national primary for President. It is the only way to get rid of a VERY small minority of people selecting terrible candidates.

Anonymous said...

If you think running a Newt Gingrich clone will actually stand a snowball's chance on South Beach against Jim Klobuchar's daughter or Stuart Smalley or Gov. Chicken Shit, then be my guest to nominate them and see how you'll do since (you assume) we Paulers will disappeer from the party.

I am a Paulite and I am still vert involved in Kurt's campaign, additionally I know of many many others who are..

Unlike Norm Coleman, Kurt Bills has a fiscally conservative reccord..

Anonymous said...

We weren't given the OPTION to nominate them, since the Paulers took over the convention with their hard-wired slate mentality. I hate slates. It really is up to the Paulers to now prove, though, that they really can work hard and donate harder for the candidate they picked, in Kurt Bills. They also have to prove that they will support the national nominee Mitt Romney in the same way. I think there are a lot who will not and I wish they would go away; we don't need such flash-in-the-pan patriots.

But the rest of us are behaving shamefully, IMHO. Just because Bills may not have been your preferred candidate, you should be all in behind him now, just as you expect Paulers should be if another candidate (or Romney) became the nominee. It's pretty hypocritical if you aren't out there walking the parades and opening your checkbook, just as you would have for your candidate. Kurt Bills IS your candidate now. I intend to beat A-Klo, and I expect the Paulers and everybody else to help. Second place doesn't count.

J. Ewing

Anonymous said...

J,
I have to disagree.
Unlike the Presidential nominee -
Kurt Bill's was not selected by the Republican party through a legitimate process.
It was a sham and everyone knows it.

No Republican owes Kurt Bill's any time.
He is a joke of a candidate and time spent on his campaign is time wasted.
The only thing Republican's can hope is that he is not too much of a drag on the rest of the candidates.
The Ron Paul supporters do nothing but drag down the reputation of real Republican's.

Look at CD2s Ron Paul National delegate, who is under a restraining order and charged with Assault on his wife (that according to police was only stopped when her 5 year old jumped on his back.)

That is the sort of thing the Bill campaign and Ron Paul organization brings to the party.

No Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Kurt Bills was endorsed fair and square, by getting the votes of more than 60% of the duly elected delegates to the State Convention. That's the way it works. You don't have to like it. But if you want to call yourself a Republican, you are then supposed to unite behind the endorsed candidate because, as I have long believed and can prove, the worst Republican is better than the best Democrat.

Besides, Kurt Bills is a GREAT candidate. Whether he is a great campaigner or not I wouldn't know; I claim no expertise whatever in that area. He is, though, a great conservative with a great story to tell. He deserves every bit of support we can give him AND get for him.

J. Ewing

Angie said...

People who refer to themselves in the third person are always opinionated asshats, aren't they?

Stebbins has been in politics for 25+ years. No reason to think she's going to quit now that the fiscal conservatives are finally making some inroads in taking their party back.

Anonymous said...

Fake republicans? lol. If you want to see a fake republican, you only need to walk to your closest mirror.

Anonymous said...

Whoa the content of this blog and the comments are mind numbing.

Everything was done above board at the state convention and Kurt bills received the party endorsement, end of story. I think it's pretty hypocritical that some here think that it's OK to bash the Paul supporters because they all aren't backing Romney (some are, but hey, why let logic get in the way of your stereotype?) and then in the next breath say they can't support Bills? Ridiculous.

I'm a life long registered Republican, who volunteers for my county party and local candidates, and a strong Ron Paul supporter. I see that some people here refer to Paul's positions as ultra-liberal, which is incorrect. They are constitutional and traditional conservative. I also see that people seem to think that Romney has won outright and completely fairly, but this is not the case. These same people also claim that Minnesota's state convention was ruined by Paul backers (I have seen no evidence of that). Have you seen other state conventions where backers of Romney spread fake slates in order to try to trick people into voting for their delegates instead? Or where they were outnumbered by Paul supporters and resorted to physical violence to try to win?

Please stop with the Paul bashing. The stereotypes are worn-out and wrong. I don't live in my parent's basement (and never have), I have a full time job, and I actually understand the constitution. If you are asking for party unity, please don't be hypocritical, it goes both ways.