Politics in the U.S. have been decidely strange lately. We have this meak little 72 year old 10 term Representative from Texas running an insurgency campaign for President. And he's doing extremely well. No, he's not going win the Republican nomination for President. As I previously explained, I hope he doesn't - not because I don't support almost all his positions on the issues, but because I'm sure that were he to win, we'd have a massive deflationary depression. Now, don't misunderstand - we should have, we need to have, and we deserve to have, a massive deflationary depression. But his libertarianism would be blamed for the depression, instead of the real causes: an unsustainable economy based on debt-based fiat money, fractional reserve banking, and the consumer economy - none of which can possibly be maintained forever. But when it does collapse, I want the people who are actually responsible, the loyal heirs to the New Deal, both Democrats and Republicans, to be in power and thus take the blame for the disaster they will have created. I don't want any true libertarians (unlike the phoney neocons, who are not "conservatives" at all) to be anywhere near the reins of power when things go sour.
The Paul campaign isn't really the Paul campaign. It has been taken over by the Paul supporters. Ron Paul and his political operatives have almost no influence on it. All they're doing is spending the money raised to publicize his message of freedom, limited government, and the ending of the U.S. attempt at world domination. On December 5, Guy Fawkes Day in the United Kingdom, the anniversary of an attempt by a Catholic revolutionary to bomb parliament and kill King James I in 1605, Ron Paul supporters donated $4,380,000 to the Paul campaign. This was the largest single day donation total for a Presidential campaign - ever. The date was chosen not because of any interest in British history, but because of the interest in the movie V for Vendetta, a paean to resistance against a future tyrannical government in England. The fund raising event has been called a "money bomb," apparently a pun on the original Gunpowder Plot. Ron Paul and his operatives didn't have anything to do with this fund raising campaign. Ron Paul didn't know anything about it until just before the day, and had never even met the primary organizer, Trevor Lyman, a Floridian who had never been politically active before the start of the Ron Paul campaign.
If you search You Tube for "Ron Paul," you will see that his supporters upload literally dozens of new supporting videos each day. His online support at You Tube, My Space, and any other such site is far ahead of any other Presidential candidate. Of all the images on offer, the most striking and compelling is one often seen in Ron Paul videos - a little red-haired girl holding a Ron Paul sign. It's worth seeing just for the cuteness factor. Does the little girl really understand much of anything about politics or the Ron Paul candidacy? I don't think so. But his supporters definitely are media-savvy. They know how to push a message, even though they are almost all amateurs.
I saw a video of a Ron Paul rally held in Philadelphia. There were at least 5,000 supporters present. No other candidate gets crowds like that. And considering that it was in Philadelphia, not exactly a bastion of liberty-minded people (anymore), the figure is astounding. The mainstream news media would have you believe that the Ron Paul campaign attracts only people who are against the occupation of Iraq, and who want to smoke marijuana. But if you watch the videos of the Philadelphia rally, you'll see that the cheering for the destruction of the I.R.S. and a return to sound money were just as strong as the cheering for the two former causes. Those people understand the entire libertarian/conservative message, and they are not just a bunch of dope-smoking peaceniks. They have obviously read a lot more Ayn Rand than Timothy Leary. The seeds of modern-day libertarianism, sown and tended by obscure writers for over 50 years, have grown and penetrated far deeper into American political thought than the mainstream media understands.
No, they aren't going to win. But I suspect they are going to really shake things up. I sure hope they do. We desperately need more people waving
Gadsen flags and cursing the I.R.S., instead of meekly paying their taxes and being grateful to the politicians for their Social Security payments.
