Daniel Harmon

In another post, I already essentially endorsed BJ Lawson, North Carolina’s 4th District republican candidate for congress. Now I’d like to call out a grassroots effort to get him into office. There will be a Money Bomb for him this Sunday, June 29th. Already over 137 people have pledged to donate! And with the help he’s getting from Lew Rockwell and Campaign for Liberty (among others), that number could easily quadruple by the deadline.  They’re not asking for any specific amount—although I’m sure they wouldn’t object to you plunking down $2,300 (the legal limit) if you had it.

I can’t do much, but I’m going to make a small contribution just out of principle. Call it the widow’s mite—except that I’m married…and I’m male…and it’s not going to my church…and it won’t be the last money to my name. So on second thought, just call it a small sacrifice in the name of liberty and constitutional federal government.

Will you join me on Sunday and donate to BJ Lawson’s Campaign? This isn’t a rhetorical question. You can actually answer by leaving a comment below. Thanks.

Congrats to BJ Lawson for defeating his mudslinging primary opponent, Augustus Cho! The final tally? A landslide: 71 percent to 29 percent.

And while I’m basking in the splendor of this victory, I’d like to mention a creative (and brilliant) marketing move that Lawson employed during his primary contest. He and his supporters gave away 10,000 copies of the U.S. Constitution. Think about that for a moment. Rather than his supporters just spitting out the obligatory “vote for Lawson” and offering some tired, seen-it-a-thousand-times-before flyer, imagine them asking you, “would you like a free copy of the Constitution?” What a fresh, emotionally-gripping proposition! No matter what party you belong to, such a unique gesture would at least make you think twice before giving your normal, preprogrammed rejection—unless you’re a red-blooded communist, of course.

Another benefit: He’s creating a great brand for himself. Now, when people hear Lawson, they think Constitution. Not a bad association.

And on top of that, this focuses his efforts on educating the people, not pandering to the beauty-contest politics that we’re all so used to. I’m guessing that out of the 10,000 people who accepted a copy, at least 90% of them had never read our nation’s founding document front to back in their lives. And even if they still haven’t, I think it’s campaign money well spent.

So as the Republican Party’s nominee, Lawson is now poised to take on Rep. David Price—the stale, spend-o-matic, 22-years-in-office-too-many embodiment of federal government gone wrong.

For the general election in November, he’s shooting to give out 100,000 Constitutions! It’s time that we the people learn exactly what it is that comes after…“We the people…”

Here’s a nice video his supporters put together for him.

Hillary Clinton gave us a nice little one-liner the other day. “It is time for a president who is ready on day one to be commander in chief of our economy,” she proclaimed. Good one, Hill. Sounds like she snatched the term from one of Ron Paul’s responses in the final debate (go about 5:00 into the YouTube) and tried to twist it into a “positive” thing.

As Paul points out in the video, Article II. Section 2 of the Constitution clearly states that “the President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.” However, it doesn’t say anything about the President commanding the economy. That’s what dictators try—and eventually fail—to do.

As any good economist will tell you, in a truly free society, only the market commands the economy, with the principles of competition, supply and demand, self reliance and innovation and as the chief underpinnings.

Hillary went on to say that “sometimes the phone rings at 3 a.m. at the White House and it’s an economic crisis and we need a president who is ready, willing and able to answer that call.”

Hate to break it to you, Hill, but I’m afraid that phone’s been ringing off the hook for years. The “crisis” is the ongoing abandonment of sound money (a Constitutional gold standard) and free markets. Yet almost no one in Washington has been willing to heed the call (except for Ron Paul, of course).

Since Hillary already wants to extend her “commander in chief” power to the economy, if elected, where would she stop? Commander in chief of health care? (Actually, we already know she’s going for that one.) Commander in chief of education? (How I cringe at the thought.) How about commander in chief of energy? Or of agriculture? Or maybe even the environment? And while we’re at it, let’s just top it off with transportation, recreation, communication and the arts—then throw in a scepter and a tiara and call it a day.

My techie friend, Duane and I have started a grassroots fundraising campaign for BJ Lawson’s North Carolina congressional race: BucksForBJ.blogspot.com. If you’re a Ron Paul fan, or if you want our government to return to Constitutional principles, please check out BJ Lawson’s website. I blogged about him here, too. If you like what you see, go to BucksForBJ.blogspot.com and pledge. We’re asking for small donations and for you to spread the word to some buddies. We call it a Money Ball—not to be confused with a money bomb.

I wasn’t always like this. Previously, I was about as politically active as a fence post. I never donated a dime to any politician (I thought they were already doing a good enough job of taking away my money). And I certainly never dreamed of campaigning for anybody.

But then along came Ron Paul. After my brother introduced him to me, I wanted to learn everything I could about him—and more importantly, the principles he stands for. As my closest friends and family can attest, I turned into a walking, interactive, encyclopedic, Ron Paul billboard.

I even donated to him. We didn’t have any extra money at the time, so I asked my wife to give my Christmas money to Ron Paul’s campaign fund. Ever since then, I’ve made a personal commitment to get more involved in the fight for freedom.

By the way, I’d love your ideas for improving BucksForBJ.blogspot.com. So leave a comment here if you have any thoughts. Thanks.

Thanks to the Ron Paul’s presidential campaign, I’ve taken a keen interest in the preservation of our freedoms. I believe that the key to establishing the limited government that closely resembles our founding is to establish representatives that are committed to upholding the ideals of the Founders.

That said, I’m increasingly interested in learning about anyone that’s willing to stand up to the status quo and fight for a foreign policy of peaceful friendship, a monetary policy backed by a gold standard and a stance of unrelenting protection of our civil liberties.

On Lew Rockwell’s blog, I found one: his name is BJ Lawson. Haven’t heard of him? He’s running for congress in North Carolina’s 4th District. And he’s the spitting image of Ron Paul…minus about 40 years, the receding white hair, the Texas drawl and about $35 million in raised campaign funds.

OK. So they obviously have their physical and financial differences. But when it comes to political ideology, they’re almost identical twins. In fact, on his site, BJ says, “I was drawn back to politics by Ron Paul’s tireless and principled work to restore a Constitutional federal government.” It looks like he’s even adopted a fund-raising strategy from Ron Paul’s play book: posting his numbers in real-time on his homepage. Nice move.

I don’t know everything about him. But from what I’ve read on his site, he seems sharp, passionate, personable, logical and principled. I can’t cast a ballot for him, but (hopefully) I can cast a few supporters his direction with this blog—and maybe even some donors to boot.

It’s encouraging to see the fruits of Ron Paul’s labors already starting to take root. I’ve often wondered who would emerge as the key figures to lead the fight for freedom when Ron Paul is no longer in the picture (he’s 72 after all). Whether or not he wins his 4th District race, BJ Lawson may very well surface as an influential national figure in the cause of liberty. Regardless, he’s a patriot; and to that I tip my hat and raise my voice of encouragement.

First Bernanke cut the interest rate today (the second time in eight days) and now the Senate is passing an economic stimulus bill for $157 billion in tax rebates. Both these efforts are just inflation enhancing band-aids for an economy suffering from a cannonball wound of poor monetary policy.

But not all is lost. You can take your fat rebate check and give it all to Ron Paul who supports sound money. That’s your best bet to turn this bill into some real economic stimulus.