Monday, November 5, 2007

On Ron Paul (from Jim Peterson and MND)

I didn't write this one, but would like people to read it anyway. I'm not ALL about me, you know ;)

Ron Paul Report: Who Supports Him and Why is November 5th Important?

The British version of Halloween is Guy Fawkes Night, November 5th. Guy is a well known anarchist who tried to blow up the British parliament, with everybody in it, on November 5th, 1605. As much as the English love democracy, Brits and Scots and Irishmen often say with dry humor "Guy Fawkes was the only man who ever entered Parliament with honorable intentions." British, Canadian, Australian and South African children sang the following song for centuries right up to at least the last generation before TV:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder, treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Anyway, the Republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, wants to dismantle (figuratively blow up) a number of large government agencies (without people in them of course). His supporters, now numbering at least 3% of registered Republicans and probably numbering at least 3% of the US population, are not anarchists, despite their choice of Monday, November 5th as the day when they try to get 100,000 people to donate $100 each in a "Money Bomb" that would put Ron Paul in the major leagues in terms of being able to compete financially in the 2008 election cycle. Ron Paul has already raised enough money to be considered a first tier candidate (financially), but he wants to break records with the November 5th effort.

Who are these people?

I went under cover in the past week to investigate the "Ron Paul Revolution". On the Internet there is a lot to be found on the phenomenon and a lot of evidence that this man is the most popular candidate among users of the Internet. Whereas a well-made amateur video can expect to get no more than 2000 views on YouTube, there are dozens of Ron Paul videos with an excess of 600,000 views. My favorite videos are the Ron Paul Girl series which features a bright young American college coed who explains politics with a deadpan humor such as "Howard Dean was doing well until he left his Ritalin prescription at home in Vermont". A good news site to keep track of would be DailyPaul.com. Ron Paul has more Meetup groups and more Meetup members than all the other presidential candidates in both parties combined.

Ron Paul supporters are an eclectic group, mostly under 45, pushing the 72 year old Texas congressman at least in an effort to make sure other Republicans and the media mention the Constitution and individual rights at all during the coming election year 2008.

Before I describe who I see them to be, I will explain who they are not: Paulites are not Moonbat Lefties. A Moonbat is defined as someone who swallows the entire Marxist smorgasbord of which being reflexively anti-war really means wanting the white patriarchy to be defeated. If a Paulite agrees with Ron Paul about not wanting to fight wars all the time, it comes from recognizing that a nation's worst enemy is most often itself, and fighting corruption and defending freedom at home is a full-time job. That being said, Ron Paul has been getting more donation support from pro-war vets and active duty service-people than any other candidate.

Socialists are absent in the crowd of Paul supporters. Gender feminists are absent in the crowd. Men who no longer have a pair are absent as well. One would think this might be a good milieu for the Men's Rights Movement.

My observation of the make-up of Ron Paul supporters so far:

1) True intellectuals who may have actually read the Constitution and want to at least send a message about that
2) Successful businesspeople, between 25-45, who would rather save for retirement than pay for more government
3) Expats, Americans living in other countries whom Congress apparently believes can still be regulated and ruled over
4) Military, especially those who may have been wounded or almost killed defending the Constitution. They often disagree with Ron Paul on the war, but still support him.
5) Males who still have a pair and who at least want to send a message about men's rights
6) Women who respect males who still have a pair
7) Women who really think for themselves and not for the sisterhood

That would be about 3% total of the US population.

In order to get more votes than that, the above people will have to get their parents and relatives on board and convinced, especially those with landlines who are, apparently, the only ones the media pollsters contact.

I forgot to mention that most foreigners, who know about Ron Paul, are for him as well. A poll in Switzerland has him winning the US Presidency if the Swiss were the ones who decided. In Germany, a poll has shown that Ron Paul loses to Dennis Kucinich by a few votes.

Don't laugh: Europe was solidly behind Gore and Kerry in the last elections and the European preference influenced American voters big-time. If European journalists play up Ron Paul over the next year, which would be in accordance with the preference of many of their citizens, it could boost Ron Paul's stature considerably. If Nicolas Sarkozy or Vladimir Putin were to mix with American politics by just discussing Ron Paul's ideas, the ensuing controversy would not hurt the candidate either.

Oscar Wilde once said "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about".

We will see this coming week whether Ron Paul's November 5th "Money Bomb" event rivals Guy Fawkes in terms of getting people to talk about him.

Jim Peterson

Veterans Abroad

Helsinki, Finland

www.veteransabroad.com

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've told my mom about Ron Paul (who I support). She said he 'looks likes the perdu chicken man' and thusly is not presidential material.

Yep.

--MikeeUSA--

jay c said...

Ron Paul is the only republocrat for whom I would even consider voting. Unfortunately, Mikee is right. Americans vote by whim and herd not by reason or responsibility.

KellyMac said...

Well, it could be just because I hang out at men's rights boards, but I see his name all the time.

Anonymous said...

Nah Kelly. His supporters are on all the boards. As of a couple minutes ago, Ron Paul had 5.7 million raised today. That's probably a bit more than 3%.

T.E.

Anonymous said...

Whoops, that should have been 2.7 mil. I can't read apparently.

T.E.

Anonymous said...

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/11/05/post_179.html#more

MikeeUSA said...

Well I hope we will beable to vote for the only candidate that gives a damn about freedom.

In the cencorship wars a few new developments have occured: The WOMAN OF STEELE has taken up a jihad against Bob and his "Bob's Truth" Blog http://bobstruth.blogspot.com/: http://womanofsteele.blogspot.com/

She has also got me cancled from the advertising service I was using on my weblog. I didn't make enough money for a payout ever though... my blog got cencored when it was getting popular.

Thirdly, I've decided to post every-so-often on the Blog cencored or not. I've put up a post today. I have also posted it on my journal (though articles wasn't the original purpose of the journal, just unorganized thoughts... it will have to do though.)

literarycritic said...

Paulites are not Moonbat Lefties. A Moonbat is defined as someone who swallows the entire Marxist smorgasbord of which being reflexively anti-war really means wanting the white patriarchy to be defeated.

Well, Marx never mentioned the patriarchy. Engels was the one who wrote the essay about Marxism and the family, which the economic condition of women was discussed. So I wouldn't go that far, unless the author's redefining "Marxism" to mean "explicitly feminist," which I don't really think makes sense.

That being said, I kind of like Ron Paul. I think he's a genuinely good man, a rare commodity in politics these days. I find myself wondering why he's running on a Republican ticket. My so-called "knee-jerk liberalism" does make me question his domestic policies, though, especially since I suspect that's the main reason he's running as a Republican.

But I believe that he's the only candidate we've got who's genuinely committed to ending the war in Iraq ASAP, which should be our most important political concern right now. So I might end up voting for him, if it's between him and a Democrat (especially Hillary -- no, I won't vote for a woman just because she's a woman!). We'll see how it turns out after the primaries, I suppose.

Anonymous said...

I find myself wondering why he's running on a Republican ticket.

He's a libertarian(small government, anti-war), so running as a Democrat(big government socialists) is out. Moreover, he is culturally conservative, pro-life, but as a libertarian wishes to leave abortion to the states. The best presidential candidate for Americans, who are badly in need of one right now.

In spite of this, the voters will still end up voting for Hillary, and they'll get what the deserve ! 8 years of Clinton. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Anonymous said...

GOD, GIVE US MEN!

God, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor, men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

-Josiah Gilbert Holland

Anonymous said...

guilliani is a pussy boy. hillary is crazy a radical feminist. so vote for ron paul to save america.

Marc Garvey said...

The basis of the Republican Party is race. So, regardless of anyone's other great positions (Ron Paul, by faaaaaaaarrr, has the best position on the Iraq War, even better than Kucinich's position) I still question affiliation in the Republican Party. Because race is such a big problem in this country (yes, it is still the biggest issue) and because it is a bipartisan problem, like other bipartisan problems, it doesn't get much attention. And when it does get attention, it is usually the lousiest and most dishonest of coverage.

All that said, race is the backbone motivator for the Republican Party. So while Paul has not just some but lots of good positions, one can never forget that he is also popular as a Republican because he has the support of racists in Texas. I mean, come on, our dialog shouldn't be so dishonest and infantile to resort to pretending that a white Republican repeatedly elected from the heart of Texas has somehow gotten elected on an anti-racist platform.

So I approach Ron Paul and his great position on some issues with a high degree of caution. I have never encountered a Republican in America that didn't have a racist base and that didn't, even if because of the base only, have racist policy initiatives.

So, like the Ron Paul supporters say, think for yourself. But as I say, get even more out of the box than Ron Paul fans would suggest you do and really look at his ENTIRE platform.

I've been doing politics for years and have not once met a Republican that didn't have a platform with deeply racist policy.

Anonymous said...

hey,

u prob dont remember me. but a while back u did a post on domestic violence statistics, and i went psycho. I wanna say sorry, that was mean, and i didnt understand it, plus it just hit home a little too much.

I cant remember wat i said, but if there was sumthing stupid or mean, sorry.

Anyway, I still think Im a feminist, but after talking to 2 guys on a anti-femnist website, they said im not. coz i want everyone to have equal rights, but anyway what im trying to get at is, the ppl ur bitching about here...i dont think they're feminists. there man haters saying they are feminists.

well, thanks. catch ya round.

Clair

Anonymous said...

Number 2 sells it. Ron Paul is not for artists of any kind, minorities especially those making under 30K, women who respect their bodies, men that have a pair and no how to use them, intellectuals that don't buy snake oil, gays and any american making less than 50K. OH WOW! That's a pretty big group huh. They would have supported Mike Gravel if his name and face actaully appeared anywhere and if he had the million dollar herd of spammers Ron Paul seemed to attract.

Anonymous said...

I love Ron Paul and I'm Canadian. Feminists are pissing me off the most when it comes to him because they are too dense to look into what he's really about and instead keep spewing bullshit about him being against abortion: he delivered 4000 babies, I think he has a right to his opinion and he is NOT even imposing it on anyone, and would rather leave the issue to states to decide, and yet these damn puke bitches keep ranting about him regardless. This is why women should not be allowed to vote, and this is coming from a woman. The majority have been brain-damaged beyond repair and will only bring the fall of their nation, because they don't consider the big issues of economy, war, poverty and such and instead get their panties bunched up over trivial social issues that aren't even important at the moment.