The “us vs. them” mentality has taken hold. This is to be expected, as police become more and more militarized. SWAT was the first step. The War on Drugs aided and abetted them. Now paramilitary style intervention is the norm.

Ron Paul is scaling down his campaign and has ruled out running as an independent. He’s going to concentrate on his reelection to Congress.

Personally, I’m disappointed. There’s no reason not to try a third party bid, other than to remain mired in the slop of Republican Party sewage. He ran as a Libertarian before, he could just as easily push for an independent label.

If this is all to ensure his seat in Congress, I’m even more disappointed. He’s behaving like your typical politician.

Then again, why tilt at windmills? It has been demonstrated quite clearly that unless you are “mainstream” in thinking - giving vague answers to questions, spouting rhetoric and false promises - you will be ignored. Paul’s support was mostly Net generated, and he set records for campaign money raised accordingly. He took no money from special interest groups, either. You would think that would be an indication of the support he’d receive as a third party candidate. Hell, from the behavior of the press and the format of the debates he’s been allowed to speak in, he already was a third party candidate!

At the end, I’m left confused. At least he hasn’t dropped out of the race yet.

Time will tell what becomes of this. For the meantime, I can’t shake the feeling of being disappointed.