Quinnell to Simpson: Have you lost your mind?!?
December 9th, 2007 by Wayne Garcia in Politics
Two years ago, Samm Simpson was a Dunedin grandmother who was so moved by our nation’s mistake in Iraq that she was fighting an insurmountable battle to unseat powerful Republican Congressman C.W. Bill Young, enough so that I thought it was worth telling CL’s readers more about her. After her lopsided loss, she almost immediately began running again for the Democratic nomination.
In July of this year, she was working to bring Democratic longshot Mike Gravel to Pinellas County. But now, she’s backing Republican candidate Ron Paul. In a post she says she removed from her blog, Simpson wrote (as progressive blogger Kenneth Quinnell details):
This is a man who tells the truth. Yes, I’m a Democrat and I’m supporting Ron Paul. This means I change my registration to an Republican by December 31 so I can vote in the Republican Primary on January 29th. I hope you will join me.
This is a time in our nation’s history to focus only on the big pictures: national sovereignty, a return to the rule of law, our liberties, ending the Iraqi occupation and the Constitution of the United States.
Join the Ron Paul Revolution, and let’s take back the country.
To which Quinnell responded with an exhaustive condemnation of Paul’s right-wing beliefs, in contrast to Paul’s appeal to technophiles and anti-war activists because of his isolationist stance. Quinnell wrote:
From comparing Ron Paul to JFK to saying Paul tells the truth to suggesting that Paul’s extreme viewpoints have any connection to the Constitution. Add to that, Simpson is changing her registration? There is nothing progressive about anything in this post and nothing progressive about Ron Paul. Paul doesn’t want to take the country back, he wants to take it back to the 1850s.
It is progressive to oppose the war. It is progressive to support civil liberties and oppose things like the FISA bill and the PATRIOT Act. It is progressive to oppose corporate takeover of our government and our lives. But these things alone don’t make one progressive, particularly if you oppose these things for all the wrong reasons, like Paul does, then these things are most definitely not progressive. To quote phenry at Daily Kos (linked in several places below): “‘But he’s against the war!’ Yes, he is. So is Pat Buchanan. So is David Duke.†Clearly, Paul is a lot closer to Buchanan and Duke than to JFK.
You can still find Samm in the wiki and in the archives and I wish her well on a personal level, but she is no longer on the blogroll and I can’t support her run for Congress in any way.
Simpson writes that she has tried to respond repeatedly on Quinnell’s blog without success, so she posted her response on her campaign blog and removed her pro-Paul post:
Since that original post, which has been removed, I have been advised by everyone, including my dear 80 year-old mother, that it is not “politically correct” to change parties. Indeed, I am learning the strategies of utilitarian compromise. My votes as a Democratic Congressperson will be more significant than one vote in a Primary. Having said that, it does not negate Dr. Paul’s simple message of liberty, sovereignty and solvency.
… There is something happening in the Ron Paul Camp. We would be fools to ignore it, regardless of party, age, race or creed. When he spoke, I saw all ages, all races, all parties joined together. It’s bigger than party. It’s bigger than one person. It’s about “we the people.”
History is replete with wise men and women that are rejected or not fully understood. Whether or not you agree, Dr. Paul has lit a match.
I’m no longer in the political consulting business, but I’m guessing this is not going to help Simpson at the polls in November of next year.
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December 9th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Very amusing when PC lilliputians argue. The squeaky noises, the tiny little fluttery robes of righteousness, the miniature heroic postures. I can see Quinnell’s brow burrowing in a spasm of indignation that another progressive would dare register Republican and vote for the odious Ron Paul. Thanks, PW, for reporting on this squabble.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
As I mentioned to Samm, the reason she didn’t see her comment was that she posted it to my personal website and looked at the FPC website (where my post was cross-posted), where she didn’t post her comment. She was simply looking at the wrong site, her comment appears, in its entirety at my personal site, http://quinnell.us
December 10th, 2007 at 10:08 am
“My votes as a Democratic Congressperson will be more significant than one vote in a Primary.”
It’s just my gut feeling but I think Ms. Simpson’s one vote in the primary will be exactly one more than she will ever get in congress!
December 26th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
it does not negate Dr. Paul’s simple message of liberty, sovereignty and solvency.
If this person is too stupid to understand the difference between message and policy, she doesn’t belong in politics. Wake up, people — vote based on what someone will actually do if elected, not how “honest” they are or how popular they are on the internet.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I am a registered Democrat. Most Democrats agree with Ron Paul on the core issues - the illegal war, the loss of our privacy, the dismemberment of our Constitution and share a dislike to spend trillions of dollars on empire. He was outspoken about our nation’s bankruptcy and the alarming potential to lose our soverignty as the North American Union is put in place - without a nod or a wink or a fight - from Congress, regardless of party affiliation.
These systemic issues - the Constitutional issues and our bankruptcy - must be addressed seriously and throughly if we are going to move forward and protect our borders, our disabled, our seniors, our Veterans, transform our energy, protect our air, food and water, restore our moral standing and civil liberties, establish diplomacy, stop Big Pharma from advertising their latest disease on TV, rethink our trade policies and determine what we want to be: an Empire, or a Republic?
I am a Democrat who is an independent thinker. I voted as a Democrat in the primary. I sometimes ponder the concept of the Unitary Executive. Has the past 8 years unprecedented expansion of executive powers forever damaged the Presidency? We need a Congress who is accountable to the people, and the Constitution, more than ever. We need a President that we can believe in and trust.
This race is beyond Democrats or Republicans. It’s about human beings. It’s about transforming the entrenched greed from the political process that has put us into this mess.
My opponent, Congressman Young, is a full on supporter of the Iraq Occupation and the war on terror. He’s been in Washington, D.C. for 38 years. That’s enough.
I hope when you look at the choice in District 10 - a choice between the Military Industrial Corporate Congressional Complex and me - you will see that I am aligned with the “people”, and am open to a frank and full discussion of the serious adjustments facing our nation. We can find solutions through reasoned discourse, scientific inquiry and a return to moral compassion.
Think about the children, and the grandchildren. What world will they inherit?
Please visit the web site. We the people can take back our government. Let’s concentrate on the bigger issues at hand. Let’s find our place in history.
Samm Simpson
A Voice for the People.
http://www.sammsimpsonforcongress.com