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Interviews with Rick Stanley
December 2, 2002: Liberty Underground.com - Rick Stanley
Interviewed by Michael Jarrell
Rick Stanley, Liberty/Activist Organizer and Defender of the Constitution gave the following interview to Liberty Underground.Com with correspondent Michael Jarrell. This interview spanned the course of several days as the questions were answered in late November, 2002.
Michael: Hi Rick, thanks for the time. I'll try to keep everything as brief as possible for you. The concept of your Million Gun March, your recent candidacy and your take on the LP as it is now are the main focus of my questions.
Q: Your recent run for office in Colorado was mired in controversy, from your "arrest" on a weapons charge to comments attributed to you. And then the Colorado State LP censured you while your campaign was in progress. Where do you stand now on the state LP? Did they do a great deal of harm to your campaign?
A: I have resigned from the Libertarian Party effective Nov 6, the day after the election. I am now unaffiliated. I have been contacted by just about every party to join and run again, but I will remain Independent, and have no plans to run for office again. I will be a constitutional activist from this day forward.
Regarding the campaign: Let’s put it this way. A Lib friend of mine called late last night, and he had just been to a Jewish Republican group the same night where Dick Wadhams, the Campaign Manager for my Republican opponent Wayne Allard, was speaking. My name came up often in the discussion. Wadhams said that at one point in the campaign I was running 8 to 10 percent in the polls they were running for internal consumption (not for the public). They were VERY concerned. Than the attacks from Libs kept hitting the papers, the media kept jumping on it and spinning the story, and people were asking themselves, hmmm, maybe this Stanley character is really a wack job if his own party doesn't like his actions. Nothing came of the decertification hearing because I didn't do anything wrong, they tried very hard to use interpretation, their interpretation of my words, to create a new set of words, which I never said. It has been done by the party and the media. However, it was started by the party members. This campaign had tremendous promise. I worked on it for 18 months and personally handed out 300,000 flyers and had just about that many put out by others. I was on over 100 radio shows nationwide. I was in over 250 newspaper and internet news articles nationwide. I was on TV over 35 times in Colorado and a few other states. Now you ask yourself, what happened to this campaign? I was consistent and bold for 18 months. The Libs, did nothing, gave nothing, except grief. Did they destroy my campaign? of course. They are there own worst enemies. I am a winner. I want nothing to do with Losertarians in the future. I have Libertarian philosophies, but I do not need the grief I received from the Colorado LP. There are many good people in the party, but unfortunately there are many plants to do destroy the party, and the bulk of the members, just don't believe that is true. From the reaction I have seen from many Colorado Libs, it appears the Party, while doubling in Registrations in the last 2 years by the efforts of myself and a few other committed individuals, will shrink back in the next year. I can't imagine any real qualified candidates will want to step forward and receive the same treatment that I and other candidates in Colorado received.
Q: In recent races, nationwide we have seen some state LP's come out against their candidates for a variety of reasons, some legitimate and some questionable. Do you see a pattern emerging in the Libertarian Party's stance on what many would consider "patriot" issues?
A: Yes I do. The LP is filled with people who are nitpickers, and do nothings. They say they want Liberty but are not willing to do anything for it. They say they defend liberty. Where and when? All talk and no action. Add to this the moles, planted in the party to destroy campaigns as what happened in Colorado with the Stanley campaign. I gave over 100 radio interviews nationwide, 250 newspaper stories and editorials nationwide, 35 TV News program interviews and mentions in double that. No Libertarian Candidate nationwide has gotten this much press. What does the Colorado LP do? A few decide to go after the campaign over stupid nitpicking issues that did not even hold up in their own kangaroo court, which was a witch hunt to decertify the Stanley Campaign. Hell, they couldn't even do that correctly. Then, the Board decides to sanction me after failing to decertify. The sanction was stupid as well. What does the Colorado LP do? They put the sanction proudly on the front page of the Colorado LP website. The party of the brain dead. Can you wonder why I resigned on November 6th, one day after the election? This party is a farce and cannot elect George Bush under a Libertarian banner. Libs don't volunteer to help, attend rallies, or give money to campaigns. I will gladly move on to the unaffiliated, at least I don't have to listen to a bunch of pompous asses pontificating each word I say into the ground. Do I sound upset? I was during the 18 month campaign. Now, I don't care about the Libertarian Party anymore. I wasn't given any reasons to while I was spending $30,000.00 of my own money, and $20,000.00 of individuals’ money who donated to the campaign from all over the country, and spending 18 hour days campaigning for the Libertarian Party. Only $3,000.00 came from local Libertarians, the rest came from outside the party. Some wonderful folks helped but it wasn't enough to fight the orgy of negative words coming from Colorado Libs, and when the media saw it; they spun it right into the atmosphere. It was a total circus, a charade from the beginning, and not from the campaign's efforts, but from the Colorado Libs. The Libertarian Party should be progressing to action oriented patriots who understand all of the issues facing America and the historical background of each issue so that they can frame an answer for the public. With this party it will never happen. Too lazy, too pompous, too disoriented, too broke, too lame. My progression from a Libertarian to a Patriot was a natural progression, based upon action and education of myself on all of the issues and the background thereof. I discovered that only a fraction of the party bothered to care about any of the things I discovered. All they cared about was that they would be painted with a conspiracy brush. This country and what has happened to it is the biggest single conspiracy of all time and includes all branches of government from top to bottom, and encompasses every issue that is hammering Americans. You would think Libertarians would care more, but they don't. They want their perfect Libertarian world to materialize without having to fight for it. I won't be a part of this Losertarian attitude.
Q: Many people in the Libertarian Party have noticed a growing divide between certain factions at that national level. Some have called it a split along conservative vs. liberal lines and some have called it a split along socialist vs. libertarian lines. Do you think there's a division in the party and if so what should we, as a party do to correct it, if it is correctable?
A: This party is doomed. Too many thinkers and not enough doers. There are dozens of factions in this Party, and no one who will bother to take the time – someone who can sort it out. You need someone of strong will to take the bull by the horns, but as soon as some one does, that person will be destroyed by all of the factions in the party. This party plays at politics. The party has one function: ELECT CANDIDATES and they don't get it. You need to dissolve and become a Libertarian think tank, and put your efforts into one of the two major parties or form an unaffiliated group of all small third parties, work together, form a platform of the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Simplify and than go out and destroy the major two parties with hard work, and money, lots of money. The Party and its egos will never do any of this and therefore it is doomed, a waste of time. Not mine anymore.
Q: Your "Million Gun March" on DC is garnering more publicity every day and showing up across the internet in many "conservative" online communities. What brought about the idea for the March?
A: What brought about the idea? Watching the entire gun community act just like the Libertarians, all talk and no action. All of these gun groups are a lie. The Republicans and government itself is destroying the 2nd Amendment daily with local ordinances to federal lawbreaking. It is all a lie. It is time to end this farce and get on with returning America to a constitutional government and taking our country back from the traitors who have overthrown America from within. We have 1,113 signers through Nov 20, and it has grown slowly, and will continue to grow slowly until America is disgusted, and when it happens, watch out, it will grow like a prairie fire and no one will be able to stop it. I remain constant, committed, and wait for Patriots, all the while putting the word out as best I can without a lot of help. Libs help? Get serious, most haven't even got off their butts to sign. They aren't leaders, they are watchers. Should change the name of the Party to Watchers Party. Again, I stress that all it takes, is action. If 25,000 Party Libs and 250,000 Registered Libs got to work on this, did their own acts of civil disobedience against unconstitutional laws across America, we would wake up America in a week and elect candidates, because America would see the issues, the answers and the commitment from a party to really do something about it. Never happen in this party of the WATCHERS. In the meantime I continue to organize the MGM at www.stanley2002.org and do my constitutional activism each and every day. Can one man make changes in America? Sure, with a little help from America. I am a messenger and an instigator.
Q: Are there days when you worry that your marchers might suffer the same fate as the Bonus Marchers of 1932, especially considering the attitudes of the current administration towards civil rights?
A: No not at all. This is not for worriers. We will be armed to the teeth, which is our right. We will not start anything. No one will fire on anyone unless we are attacked. Might we be attacked?
Yes, tells you all about your government doesn't it? With this knowledge, why haven't you signed up to defend your country and your fellow Americans who have the balls to go to DC and stand up for the America, fought and won by our ancestors from 1769 to 1776? Can we do less? We have a much greater tyranny to contend with than they did as the Colonies of England. England was their government and their countrymen, and yet with less provocation than what America puts up with today because America has been brainwashed and become docile sheep, they revolted against the tyranny they faced. There were many cowards then, as there are now. Cowards will not sign up for the Million Gun March Petition. Patriots will. Patriots who know and understand that freedom is worth standing up for, and yes if attacked, to defend. These Patriots who are signing up are not having a gun held to there heads. Each is signing up without fanfare, secure in the knowledge that when we have a million signers, they will come as they have pledged, and they will not be cowards. Just the fact that they are there, will signify each and every one of them understands the seriousness of our stand, and we will be prepared for any attack on the people. We will defend and if that happens, America will not be let down by the few Patriots that stand when it is all over. We will secure our nation's seat of government for "We the People", and we will return America to the Constitutional Republic for which it stands. Worry about it? Who has time to worry about what is not in my hands, or anyone else’s’ for that matter. Will the government slaughter one million people in Washington DC and in the fifty capitol cities of America? Not without a fight.
Q: The National Libertarian Party has spent a large amount of time and money attacking the Drug War and Washington's stance towards the issue and spent very little time and money addressing 2nd Amendment rights. After the elections and the voter rejections of the LP and pro-medical marijuana do you see a need for the LP to redirect its efforts into a different issue? And, if you do what issue is it that you see as the most pressing that we need to address?
A: Drugs is just another offshoot issue of the controllers of our government. America has been overthrown, get it? Do we do something about it or not? The biggest single issue is the Federal Reserve Corporation/Income Tax/IRS fraud that has sapped the will of the people and created all of the other ills in America including the drug war.
It has made the people ignorant, docile, uninformed, and cowardly, instead of standing up to government and demanding all of these intrusions against Americas Liberty be ended now. As I said before, it doesn't matter what the Libs decide to do. They are ineffective as a group, need to disband and get with some action people soon before the country you all espouse that you defend is under the total police state they have been erecting, incrementally over the years, and in big steps the last few years. You asked, I told you my opinion. As we all know, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one. I will catch a lot of heat for saying all of this. That is fine. I can take it. Besides what is some heat from a big group of “do nothing cowards”? Let them be politically correct, and do whatever it is they do to convince each other that they really are activists. Yeah, I am impressed.
Q: Do you see the LP surviving and thriving as it currently stands or does the party need to make changes to insure its survivability in this new century?
A: BIG changes. I think you get the drift of everything I have said throughout this interview. They are not going to make any changes until they understand that they are fighting for the American Dream as envisioned by our forefathers. This dream is now an American NIGHTMARE, and doesn't resemble anything like what this nation was supposed to have for a government. You really think that there will be changes inspired by this group, with the government that has overthrown America. You think these controllers give a rat’s ass what a few Libertarians think? Libs need to wake up and smell the coffee. You want your country back to the way none of you has ever seen it before, because generations from the past have sold you out just like you are selling out future generations by doing nothing, but that takes the commitment to fight for the ideals embodied in the US Constitution. Most of the idiots in this party do not even realize that if the government were to follow the boundaries of the US Constitution, the Libertarian platform would be realized 100 percent. So Libs: Stick that where the sun don't shine, and go back to the armchairs you are all so comfortable in. Or maybe take action, your choice.
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