Ron Paul Supporters Promise To Terrorize The Skies With Scary, Scary Blimp
How to make sense of the Ron Paul revolution? What’s behind the improbably successful (so far) presidential campaign of a 72-year-old 10-term Republican congressman from Texas who pines for the gold standard while drawing praise from another relic from the hyperinflationary 1970s, punk-rocker Johnny Rotten? Now with about 5 percent (and climbing) support in polls of likely Republican voters, Paul set a one-day GOP record by raising $4.3 million on the Internet from 38,000 donors on Nov. 5 — Guy Fawkes Day, the commemoration of a British anarchist who plotted to blow up Parliament and kill King James I in 1605. Paul’s campaign, which is three-quarters of the way to its goal of raising “$12 Million to Win” by Dec. 31, didn’t even organize the fundraiser — an independent-minded supporter did.
Y’all might have noticed that I’ve been getting a few Ron Paul ads lately. Before some of you begin to think I’m actually supporting Paul, rest assured that nothing could be farther from the truth. The truth is that I’d probably take ad money from the Devil his own self if he wanted to pay my ad rates. Some might argue that accepting ad money from a Republican is tantamount to accepting money from the Devil, but I choose to look at it a bit differently. I can use the money…and I figure that the more of it I get, the less can actually be channelled to any Republican, including Ron Paul.
I do find this whole phenomenon endlessly fascinating, though. Ron Paul has as much right as anyone to run for President, regardless what the GOP heirarchy may think of him. Look, if Pat Paulson can run for President, why NOT Ron Paul? They look like they were separated at birth, anyway.
The ascendancy of Ron Paul’s campaign really is an interesting phenomenon, if for no other reason than it speaks to the general disillusionment that so many Americans have with the current state of politics in general and the state of the GOP in general. And then there’s always the reality that this is what can happened when fools are separated from their money. Given that so many seem to neither know nor car about the totality of Paul’s views, I suppose this shows what can happen when the uniformed get organized.
When a fierce Republican foe of the wars on drugs and terrorism is able, without really trying, to pull in a record haul of campaign cash on a day dedicated to an attempted regicide, it’s clear that a new and potentially transformative force is growing in American politics.
That force is less about Paul than about the movement that has erupted around him — and the much larger subset of Americans who are increasingly disillusioned with the two major political parties’ soft consensus on making government ever more intrusive at all levels, whether it’s listening to phone calls without a warrant, imposing fines of half a million dollars for broadcast “obscenities” or jailing grandmothers for buying prescribed marijuana from legal dispensaries.
I admire Ron Paul for his commitment and his willingness to fly into the face of very long odds. Unlike so many politicians, Paul has been a man of principle- however misguided and loony some of them may be. He’s stuck to his guns, and the fact that he’s re-elected regularly means that his constituents think along similar lines (which, if you think about it, is pretty frightening). If the GOP hierarchy possessed even a shred of decency, they’d be enabling and facilitating a discussion between Paul’s wing of the party and the mainstream. That they seem intent on quashing Paul’s candidacy would seem to serve as convincing evidence that they care only for winning, for the aggregation and maintenance of political power. Ron Paul won’t play their game…and so he must be destroyed. This is why the GOP will undoubtedly continue to treat Paul as the crazy uncle they keep locked in the basement.
Ron Paul will become President at about roughly the same time I become Queen of England. What he’s managing to do, though, is to provide a forum and a voice for those thoroughly fed up with the two-party system…and who can blame them? It’s not as either Democrats or Republicans truly represent change and the desire to do what’s best for this country. Then again, I’m not certain Paul’s supporters do, either- but at least it’s a step in the right direction.
Change in democracy often starts when people are pissed off enough with the status quo ante to get off their collective asses and do something. Perhaps this is one of those times. If so, we’ll all owe a debt of gratitude to Ron Paul.
