Here is Kaitlyn at the first Mercer County, New Jersey, Supporters of Ron Paul Meetup.com event. Our next event will be at the Freedom Fest in the Mercer County Park. My brother Matt Bireta took this photo for us.
Mercer County Supporters of Ron Paul
I dusted off the camera and took a few photos. It took all of ten minutes until Ellie was all over me and the camera! I always want to take more photos, but it's so easy to say "next time."
I have decided to support Ron Paul for President. Even though he is a Republican, anybody called Dr. No on capital hill is worthy of my support. He's been against the war from the beginning, understands you can't have a war against an idea (terrorism is an idea/method of warfare), and knows that our active involvement overseas has contributed to the way we are being targeted. If we would drop the role of world nation builder/controller/police, we would not be targeted by anyone. How many planes have flown into buildings in Canada?
I have created a group on meetup.com for Mercer County Supporters of Ron Paul. Our group has over 25 members already. I think we can be successful in making Ron Paul New Jersey's GOP Candidate of choice. This group seems like it consists of people willing to be activists which is what you need to win an election. Maybe the Libertarian Party can learn something from this. I offered ideas to our local libertarian group and all except one were nixed. They were willing to set up a table at Freedom Fest, but the $650 was out of our budget. I emailed about walking around to raise awareness of our candidates and nobody responded willing to do that. Oddly enough, the organizer for Freedom Fest told me that walking around with information will not be permitted in the free public county park during the festival. Yea, Right!!! We'll see. I scheduled a meetup.com event to promote Ron Paul at this event since our libertarians were not interested.
I also sent the paperwork off for the Ron Paul group to march in the Ewing Independence Day Parade which appears like it may be televised. There is a Republican section and a Democrat Section of the parade. I would like to see a Libertarian section in the parade next year, but New Jersey Libertarians don't seem to want to do much to promote the party. Our local group nixed this idea, too. As Jason points out on his blog, Jersey Libre, we need visibility if voters are going to take us seriously. Are we a philosophy club or a political party!!!
I also scheduled a meetup to promote Ron Paul at the first of the Music In The Park series at the Mercer County Park on July 7th which is in the 14th State Assembly District. There will be a music event every Saturday evening through July and August. Our local libertarians did not want to promote our candidates there either. We are running two state assembly candidates that need to get their names out there. Instead, we seem to be too distracted to get our hands on the taxpayers money offered in District 14 if both candidates can get 400+ $10 donations from within the district. I'll leave my comments on the hypocrisy of accepting taxpayer dollars for a libertarian campaign for another day. State Certified Candidates and State Funded Elections are a VERY BAD idea.
Well, the signatures to obtain ballot access were not very forthcoming and I will not be on the Ballot for Mercer County Freeholder. All the hours it takes to collect the signatures, people who cannot think outside of the two party system, and a pledge buried in the petition stacked the odds against obtaining ballot access. It was an interesting experience, but I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone.
I was surprised by the number of hours it would take to gain ballot access and be listed as a candidate for Mercer County Freeholder. It takes so long because of the reluctance of people to talk to others and the dominance of our two party system. When someone leaves the library/store, they want to head home. Many people avoid responding to you at all by walking as far away as possible, not caring what you want. Others are willing to take a moment and say "not now", or "later," like I would ever see them again. Some are willing to stop and talk for a few, but they do not want to support anyone who is not in the same party as them. A few will actually sign the petition after talking with you or, more rarely, without even asking a single question. If we had more of the latter or a change in the laws, we would have more choices on our ballot.
I am also surprised that people, in our educated society, would so willingly plug themselves into a political category like Democrat or Republican. I cannot recall a person I agreed 100% politically, let alone a political party. People who asked what I stood for seemed to like what I had to say, but most people asked for my party affiliation and that kept them from signing my petition to get on the ballot. I plan on ordering a book from Amazon.com, "The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies", written by economist Bryan Caplan, which may shed some light on the issue. I have also wondered if I were an independent candidate, instead of a libertarian, if I would have received a more favorable response.
On the second to last day of petitioning, a voter flipped over the petition to the front page and read the whole page. What she discovered, surprised me, and actually gave me something to think about. Buried in the petition is a pledge to vote for the candidate petitioning. I read the petition a long time ago, but that phrase didn't stand out to me. I quickly thought of a response and told her I didn't agree with placing that requirement on signors. It really is absurd. What if I was hit by a bus, are the signors still pledged to vote for me? What if a candidate flip-flops, does something stupid (like a DUI)? I believe the signors of the petition should have the right to make the best choice based on all the candidates campaigns from June to November. The signors of the Democratic or Republican petitions do not have to pledge to vote for the candidate in the general election. I hope this gets fixed fast. It would be best if the petition read that the signor would like the opportunity to vote for the candidate in November.
I think Congressman Dr. Ron Paul, 2008 Presidential Candidate, summed it up very well last night on the Daily Show, "We’re overseas spreading the message of democracy, but here, if you’re in a third party, you can’t get on ballots…you spend all your time getting on ballots…you have to be a Ross Perot to get on all the ballots…The two parties are very much in control of the system, and they exclude individuals who aren’t in that mold." (Quoted from Ballot Access News)
