The Silver Bear Cafe

The (m)asses of Republican voters have reached a consensus and, while the fat lady hasn't sung just yet, she has already slipped on something comfortable to obscure her gross fleshiness when she takes the stage for both April's Nevada GOP convention in Reno and September's national convention in Minneapolis. Big-government conservatives in the Silver State and the rest of the country are pushing for a liberal-in-conservative's clothing to be their presidential candidate: Arizona's U.S. Sen. John McCain, who helped craft an "immigration reform bill"... in actuality, a proposed amnesty-granting measure, with the help of the even more liberal Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. While it seems the average Republican can't think for himself, he does have one demonstrative quality that trumps everything else: loyalty to the GOP, even if the party is now virtually indistinguishable from the Democrats in perpetuating war, income tax and increased government control of health care and education.

In any case, the (still-growing) Ron Paul faction within the Republican Party sleeps well at night knowing it supported a true conservative candidate. Upon further investigation, however, they don't doze too soundly; after all, they've got things to do, picking up where the grassroots, Internet-fueled Ron Paul Revolution left off. But where exactly, and in what direction, is the Revolution headed? Southern Nevada begins our quest.

To see where you're going, it often helps to consider where you've been. For those who have been living under the media-conditioned equivalent of a rock (in other words, Fox and CNN), it may help to know that Ron Paul, a Texas congressman, officially launched his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on March 12, 2007. In a year, he has drawn hundreds of thousands of supporters, broke Internet fundraising records (on Dec. 16, a supporter-generated "money bomb"raked in $6 million), and received more contributions from active military personnel than any other candidate.

The whole time, the media and other candidates laughed at him to his face, told him he couldn't win, that his adherence to the Constitution was quaint, outmoded. And that winning the war in Iraq was more important than border security, scaling back the IRS, eradicating the Department of Education, and bringing the Federal Reserve under control. Having accomplished none of these things, including losing in Iraq, the government now finds the country mired in a deepening recession, an economic crisis that will intensify as the Fed continues to print money to its heart's content, thereby causing inflation (the hidden tax), and as the government bails out failed bank after failed bank on the taxpayer's dime ... with no such bailouts for small businessmen.

Given this litany of failure, big-government conservatives aren't laughing at Ron Paul so much anymore. Unlike them, he has inspired a movement.

The thousands of Ron Paul supporters who gathered together in Southern Nevada during the last year have had their eyes on this moment for many months now, and they're ready to unveil their promising ideas. Lately, the most promising rumblings are emanating from the newly formed Nevada Liberty Alliance, spearheaded by a few of the folks in the Las Vegas Ron Paul Meetup Group (which Liberty Watch covered in our August 2007 issue).

Among them is Arden Osborne, who serves as the group's chairman, and whose story is familiar to many who joined the Ron Paul movement last year. Tired of watching our freedoms stripped in the name of safety (whether in the form of America's anti-drug laws that fill up our prisons with non-violent offenders or in the shape of anti-terrorism hysteria that results in big-government solutions like the TSA), Osborne searched for a candidate who still believed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He found that candidate in Paul, and after examining Dr. No's principled and consistent record, Osborne never looked back. It's a story true for many, if not most, of the new blood in the Republican party.

"Everyone from, I imagine, Ron Paul down to his on-the-ground supporters thought we were alone in our beliefs,"says Osborne over a cup of java at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf across from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. "Once we had a rallying point in the form of Paul, a valve opened and people just started pouring into the movement."

For Osborne, the excitement came from the realization that strict constitutionalists in this country are no longer isolated and alone. There's a new generation of young people who understand that government isn't the answer to our problems.

"We don't have to reinvent the wheel,"admits Osborne. "After all, we have the Constitution, which provides the lessons our Founding Fathers learned in shrugging off tyrants. The Founding Fathers knew the hazards and showed us the way."
Throughout this campaign year, as Paul received increased media attention through the televised Republican debates, countless YouTube videos and mobilizing Internet social organizations (like Meetup), Ron Paul supporters only grew in number. They never leveled off. The idea now is to keep that valve open.

While satisfied with the 13 percent of the vote and the second-place finish Ron Paul took at the Jan. 19 Nevada state caucus (practically his campaign's high watermark), his Silver State supporters had been struck hard by reality.

"We worked really hard to get that 13 percent,"Osborne admits. "Of course, we learned a lot from the process, too. We learned about canvassing precincts and involving ourselves in local party functions. And what we really came to realize is that the American political system and the central ideas of these Republican and Democratic traditions are still intact. We can get involved, and we can make a difference. Sure, Ron Paul didn't get first place, but we can create inroads through activism and still have an impact."

Early on, it dawned on Osborne and others within the Ron Paul movement that actually securing Paul the nomination would be tough. Paul was the first to say publicly that his campaign isn't about him; it's about a movement. He is merely the recognizable face of the movement. Realizing the odds were against them, Osborne and his accomplices knew it was going to be a long haul and, if new ideas were to become a part of the political system, they needed to gird themselves for a long fight.

"To be effective, we were going to have to fight past November,"says Osborne. "We would have to stick together no matter what. So we started thinking about what to do when and if he didn't get the nomination. The big trick would be to hold the people who came to the Ron Paul movement together under the banner."

Osborne believed that banner should be a political organization outside of the Republican party that takes a nonpartisan approach to furthering the agenda of true conservative Americans. The first thing he did was search for an already-intact political group that he could move the Ron Paul supporters into. There were none, so, learning from mistakes made in keeping the Meetup group from splintering, Osborne decided to install structure if he and his fellow Paulians were going to become players in Southern Nevada's political scene.

Enter the Nevada Liberty Alliance

"That remains the beauty of the Las Vegas Ron Paul Meetup Group,"he says. "It still draws innovative, creative people from all walks of life under the common pursuit of constitutionalism and personal liberty. In any group, when it achieves significant size, internal disputes will arise of course. That's why, if you don't have a structure, disputes will continue to plague you and you won't be able to continue with your primary goal."

First, the Nevada Liberty Alliance takes the general idea governing the local Meetup and gives it structure. While it's very much in its beginning stages, the NLA involves the nucleus of the most active Meetup members, people who have their minds wrapped around the notion that it will take longer than many of us would like to get true and principled conservatives elected into government.

"We're trying to find a home for ourselves in the Republican party. We're not aiming to dominate it like the neoconservatives have done; we just want a voice,"says Osborne.

Osborne's core group has helped create bylaws and a platform to act as the NLA's foundation. Without much recruitment efforts, the group has already been contacted by 100 new and potential members and gone ahead with the creation of an executive board.

Second, the NLA will endorse and assist future Ron Paul-type candidates at every level of government. In this election cycle, Osborne is locating candidates to run for city, county, state and national elections.

For now, though, Osborne is content to grow the NLA and to serve on the Clark County Republican Central Committee Executive Board, which comprises 14 members. He's jazzed about being in a position to influence the party, but has no desire to foment a rebellion. He simply wants to nudge the GOP in the direction of its conservative roots.

"We realize we're not going to win the whole battle this year,"he says. "It's not as tough as you might think to get your voice heard within the party ... the party is generally open to new ideas and fresh blood ... and the political process as a whole. Ron Paul supporters are already in decision-making positions, and we've only been at this for a year".

That said, the NLA will not endorse any big-government conservative candidates.

"Without sounding elitist, I want to make it clear that we're not going to accept someone just because they have an R beside their name. The candidates we back will have to stand for limited government, low taxes and all the things that Republicans are supposed to stand for. The inconsistency in the party is pulling at its fabric and hurting the GOP. We will give our candidates a set of bylaws they have to sign off on, like a test."

The NLA wants to help return the party to its conservative roots instead of drifting toward a globalized role of government. It's time to retract and look at a bulwark system of state and local governments. The more power that slips from local entities, the less power people have to make changes as they see fit.

"What we're doing is also emblematic of the Paul campaign,"he adds. "We don't wait for orders; we go out and do things, and that's the movement in a nutshell."

The national convention will serve as the tip of the iceberg as far as the movement is concerned.

"We want people to know we're here, the valve is open, and it's never going to shut off. Hopefully, the Republican party will welcome the next generation of conservatives."