Phase Five!!!!!

Now that this year's Republican state convention is past, I guess that it's time for us to begin a new (and, in some ways, final) phase of our efforts to support Ron Paul. For whatever they may be worth, here are my recommendations about what we should strive to do next...

Canvassing Other States

Ron Paul is continuing his quest to win as many votes and delegates as possible. Seven more states will hold their Republican primary elections before June 3rd--and we can help Dr. Paul by canvassing voters by telephone in those states. Please sign up to become a "precinct leader" at Ron Paul's official campaign website to help with this project! After logging into this site, you can click a big gray button to be presented with a telephone number to dial, a name to speak with, and script to read.

Idaho is one of these states. It will hold its Republican primary election on Tuesday, May 27th. Idaho's Ron Paul Republicans could use our leftover campaign materials; please contact Lowell Nelson if you have materials that you'd like to forward there. They would also love our help in canvassing precincts there in person. So, if you'd like to help with this, then please feel free to spend one or both of your next two Saturdays (May 17th and/or May 24th) there helping with this project.

Attending Huge Events

On July 12th, Ron Paul Republicans and other liberty-loving folks from across these United States will gather for (hopefully) an enormous pro-liberty rally in Washington, D.C. Your presence is requested. You can learn more about this event here.

Some folks, including me, may also try to descend en masse upon St. Paul for the Republican National Convention as part of some sort of libertarian version of what happened at the Democratic National Convention in 1968--but without all of the needless negative activity (violence, violations of property rights, clashes with police, general craziness, et cetera). Some have suggested that we should offer to serve as convention volunteers.

Converting National Delegates

Our Republican state convention chose only 3 Ron Paul Republicans to serve as part of its 36-member national delegation. This delegation will remain bound to vote for Mitt Romney on their first national convention ballot and will be unbound on any subsequent ballots. At present, it seems unlikely that the Republican National Convention will require more than one ballot to choose its official nominee; but, just in case, between now and September, it would not hurt us to try to convert those 33 Utahn Republican national delegates (and their alternates) who are not already behind Ron Paul.

Thinking Long-Term

Dr. Paul has observed that revolutions, unlike elections, are long-term projects. I hope that some of us have been contemplating how we can continue our revolution long-term here in Utah. As for myself, I'll be putting a lot of effort into my new Republican Liberty Caucus Meetup group for Utah County. I'm hoping that this group will be very busy this summer striving to recruit active members, spread sound principles, and support worthy candidates (perhaps including Jason Chaffetz, who will be facing Chris Cannon in a primary election in June).

Also, one year from now, Utah's Republican Party will hold another state convention, this one more focused upon party officers than public officers. Such odd-year state conventions are typically rather poorly-attended in comparison to even-year ones, I understand. For those of you who are currently serving two-year terms as state delegates, I hope that y'all will faithfully attend to your duties once again next year to help pick good candidates for party offices, as well as to try once again to support positive changes (and defeat negative ones) to the Republican Party's Constitution, by-laws, and/or platform. We need folks to continue this constant battle for the Republican Party's soul.

As always, I welcome feedback about my suggestions above. Please feel free to comment about them on our group's message board. Thanks!