BREAKING NEWS: Ron Paul will not seek re-election in 2012
July 12th, 2011
After close to forty years in government, Texas congressman and libertarian bulwark Ron Paul announced today that he will not seek re-election for his congressional seat should he not make it out of the GOP presidential primary.
According to local news website The Facts, Rep. Paul is stepping aside so he can focus more on the 2012 presidential campaign, which he claims he has a shot at winning this time. Although polls are showing him in the middle of the pack in key states like Iowa and New Hampshire, straw polls conducted by interest groups and PAC’s (most notably CPAC and the RLC) show a large, vocal base of support for his candidacy. His decision to leave will result in an open-seat election in 2012, which is expected to stay in GOP hands next election given the district’s general right-leaning slant. When asked what he plans to do when he leaves the House, Rep. Paul said that he would advocate for the small-government principles he believes in, but “not in the U.S. Congress.”
Mr. Paul will leave behind a long legacy of small-government, non-interventionist principles he spent his career pushing in Congress. Today, his liberty-minded ideology has given rise to movements like the Tea Party, and various youth-oriented action groups that are determined to make the cause of liberty a mainstream political discussion. It was these groups that got his son, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, elected in 2010, as well as a whole slate of principled conservative candidates that are determined to change Washington’s old ways.
The so-called “intellectual godfather of the Tea Party” may be leaving Washington, and the road to freedom and liberty is still very long, but the movement must continue. We owe to him, and to our country, to fight on, even if we lose nine out of ten battles, we must keep pushing forward.
