{"id":4338,"date":"2011-12-20T15:22:16","date_gmt":"2011-12-20T20:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/?p=4338"},"modified":"2011-12-27T20:42:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T01:42:26","slug":"will_democracy_kill_iowa_caucuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/2011\/12\/20\/will_democracy_kill_iowa_caucuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Democracy Kill the Iowa Caucuses?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Do words and principles matter?<\/p><\/div>\n

I saw a headline on Drudge this morning entitled “Iowa Gov: Ignore Paul Win.” which links to a Politico article entitled “Will Ron Paul kill Caucuses?”<\/a>
\nSo, does the Iowa governor decide who the nominee is? Or is this a democracy?\u00a0The caption of the photo says, “GOP elites in Iowa are worried about the ramifications of a Ron Paul victory there. | AP Photo”
\nWhat are they worried about? That democracy may prevail?\u00a0The jist of the article is that a Ron Paul victory there would discredit Iowa as a whole, and especially as the “lead off” state in the Primaries.
\nSo let me get this straight: They’re worried about their status as being a lead off state, but what is the point of being a lead off state if you’re not allowed to have a choice of whom to vote?<\/p>\n

Would you rather be the lead off state in a totalitarian regime or the last state in a true democracy?<\/p>\n

Would you rather be the lead off state in a Propaganda machine, or the last state in a country that values real principles over sound bites?<\/p>\n

Is Ron Paul an ‘Isolationist’?<\/h3>\n

Towards the end of the article, Politico makes the statement “Paul\u2019s isolationist foreign policy views came to the fore at the Sioux City forum.”
\nThat really caught my ire. Because rather Democrat or Republican, the Establishment seems to label anyone who doesn’t want to use force or “bully” the rest of the World an “Isolationist.”
\nIs that their definition of Isolationism: Not using force to coerce the rest of the World? Respecting other countries’ sovereignty, treating them as equals? Wanting to be friends and have free trade?
\nThat’s the opposite of isolationism. That’s having the rest of the World really respect you and your principles.<\/p>\n

In short, if Ron Paul, or anyone else, doesn’t win in a fair and free election, that’s fine with me. But if people don’t vote for who they want, and instead only vote for their leaders, whether in the media or political establishment, “ordain” or “nominate” then how is that a democracy? If someone says to themselves, “I’m not voting for him because they say he can’t win” how is that a democracy?<\/p>\n

Update: 12\/27\/11:<\/strong> \u00a0I saw this article today come through my Facebook feed:<\/p>\n

Ron Paul building a solid Michigan base<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Encouraging title and article, but also what caught my eye as it relates to this post is the first replier to the article said this to the author: “Ms. Schultz, please learn the difference between non-interventionist and isolationist; Ron Paul is the former. He’s the opposite of isolationist.”<\/p>\n

I was glad to see someone shared and understood my same view that I wrote above, i.e., not only is he not an ‘isolationist’ he’s the opposite! More likely to earn us goodwill around the World. Amazing what some principles can do.<\/p>\n

I replied to him: \u00a0“Exactly. The press seem to think not wanting to attack another country or otherwise manipulate them with money or threats to do our bidding is “isolationist.” Being friendly with other nations, which is what Paul wants, treating them respectfully, respecting their sovereignty, and otherwise ‘engaging’ them as equals and partners, instead of places that are somehow ‘beneath’ us is the opposite of ‘Isolationist’ and might actually garner some real respect. As well as being the moral thing to do.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw a headline on Drudge this morning entitled “Iowa Gov: Ignore Paul Win.” which links to a Politico article entitled “Will Ron Paul kill Caucuses?” So, does the Iowa governor decide who the nominee is? Or is this a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[443,359],"class_list":["post-4338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-politics","tag-ron-paul"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenpickering.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}