Where should I go to caucus on Feb. 5?
Caucus Republican!

BY ED FELIEN

Ron Paul

Charley Underwood makes an eloquent case in the adjoining column that the
Democrats have been a disaster this past year. As he says, they’ ve only made things worse— the Iraq war, civil liberties, etc. However, Charley believes Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer is reason enough to caucus with the Democrats. Jack is certainly the most progressive candidate running for U.S. Senate, but it seems he’s started too late and doesn t have much of a chance.
Al Franken already has the support of major labor unions and support from many DFL elected officials, and it’s beginning to look like he’ll roll to a first ballot victory for the DFL endorsement at the State Convention in June.

Jack’s campaign has the look and feel of the Dennis Kucinich campaign for President. The reason that campaign hasn’t taken off this year is because people in the peace movement and progressives know where it’ s going to end. It’s going to end where it ended four years ago: Kucinich is going to support the Democratic candidate for President, and his supporters will have no option but to go along with him.

The Democratic Party tolerates token dissension, but it assumes the left will have no place to go, so it takes them for granted:“Let ‘em whine, but get ‘em in line!” There is no genuine political debate in this country because the left and liberals have been neutered by the Democratic Party in the same way genuine conservatives have been neutered by the Republican Party. There is really only one party in this country and that’s the Incumbent Party, and that party wants things to stay the way they are. They may raise a lot of noise and dust around election time, but when the noise dies down and the dust settles,
it turns out things are pretty much the way they were before, even if a
few of the faces change.

But there is something happening on the political horizon that may change all of that. Ron Paul, a tenterm congressman from Texas, is running for President as a
Republican. He is an authentic conservative. He has the radical notion that our government should respect the Constitution.

When the Constitution says only Congress shall declare war, he believes any pre-emptive war or military adventure by the President is illegal and unconstitutional. When George Washington said, “Beware foreign entanglements,” Ron Paul believes that means the U. S. should not have foreign bases or make other countries dependent on our foreign aid. He wants an end to our involvement in other countries. He wants an end to the empire. He also believes in the Bill of Rights which means he believes in an end to torture and domestic spying and a restoration of due process and our civil liberties.He warns us of the soft fascism of our present government.

He is polling between 7 and 8 percent in most states. He is reaching people the peace movement and progressives have never touched—ordinary people, people fed up and disgusted with the war and the mess in Washington and hungry for someone to tell them the truth. Ron Paul
represents the progressive wing of the Republican Party in the tradition of
Teddy Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie. The dichotomy in the Republican Party used to be described as between small shop keepers and industrial capitalists.
Both sides agreed on the need to limit government interference and regulation of business, but the small business people tended to be more isolationist and socially progressive and the industrial capitalists tended to be more imperialistic and socially reactionary. Since World War II, the industrial capitalists have dominated the Party, and the Bush family for four generations has dominated
the industrial capitalist wing (ever since Sam Bush started making guns and founded the National Association of Manufacturers).The Ron Paul campaign breathes new life back into the progressive wing.

So, if you want to support a major candidate who opposes the war, wants an end to the empire and a restoration of our civil rights, a candidate who will speak up to fascism and reinvigorate the Republican Party and our national debate, and if you want to make George W. Bush really, really mad, then you should be supporting Ron Paul for President. You can do this by caucusing with the Republican Party. Go to mngop.com and find your precinct. Once you find your precinct, the website will tell you where to go to caucus on February 5. To contact the local Southside Ron Paul Revolutionaries, go to:
http://ronpaul.meetup.com/1345