The Ron Paul disparity

This is going to be a departure for me because I’m not going to say a single negative word about the guy. Rather, I’m going to marvel about one thing he’s done: he has amassed the most vocal and motivated supporters I think politics has seen in an incredibly long time.

Consider his fundraising capabilities. In the 4th quarter of 2007, he raised more than any other GOP candidate, totaling nearly $20mil in raised funds, with who knows how much more with each “money bomb” that gets announced.

Then there’s his book, which despite not coming out until April has landed in 3rd place on Amazon’s top sellers. That’s up there in Harry Potter territory (which is still on the list, somehow).

Despite all this, to say that Paul’s achievements in the primaries has been underwhelming would be an understatement. In Florida he got a paltry 3%, far below even the “undecided” category. With few exceptions, he sits in the 4th place area every time, boosted from 5th mainly by Thompson’s dropping out and now I assume by Rudy’s exit.

Put those two together. He has, undoubtedly, fewer total supporters than any other candidate currently running in the GOP field aside from the non-entities of Tancredo and Duncan Hunter. And yet those few supporters have become so motivated, so vocal, and care so much about politics and the fate of the nation that they will pour out, by the thousands, to donate more than the mere pocket change “mainstream” candidates receive from donors.

You never see people putting up a thousand John McCain fliers, none for Clinton or Obama. Out here in Pittsburgh I regularly find massive amounts of Ron Paul literature taped to telephone poles, windows, or simply left out for people to pick up. Paul’s supporters chased Sean Hannity down. I’ve never seen anyone else’s pull off a stunt like that.

Disagree with their politics if you want, Paul’s supporters are far more than the casual observers who skim the morning paper and then vote based on how they come across in interviews. Ask someone why they’ll vote Hillary or Obama and it tends to be personality. Ask a Ron Paul supporter why they’d vote for him and you’ll get a near encyclopedic litany of policies that they endorse. You’ll get responses about the economy, fixing the tax structure, Constitutional adherence, and a responsible foreign policy.

It’s hard to avoid the question of why it is that people who focus on policy support folks like Paul and Kucinich, but those who go for personality go for the mainstream. More so the question of why Paul’s supporters are so much more vocal about it.

I could see Paul running independent, and getting the kind of support we saw for Nader in 2000, or possibly even Perot in 1992. The protest vote, showing that those who reject “mainstream” candidates are no fringe group, not some radical ragtag bunch that can be shrugged off. Imagine that, if the youth vote comes out, and most of it goes for Paul.

In fact, if a Paul/Kucinich or Kucinich/Paul ticket comes around as the third-party vote (which is apparently not out of the question), then I’d be hard pressed to convince myself not to pull that lever.

Paul’s supporters talk about the “revolution” a lot, and I agree that there is one. However, it’s not Paul that’s the revolution, it’s his supporters themselves. The thousands of people he has gotten to care so much about politics that they’ll donate half their paychecks and spend hours a day handing out fliers, reading up on policy and economics rather than giving $10 and watching the highlights from a debate.

So to that effect, I tip my hat to Dr Ron Paul, but more than that to everyone that’s banded together behind him. Kudos to the lot of you. I look forward to a day when you and I get to watch our candidates battle it out in the debates over policy points rather than sitting on the sidelines as two people talk about being “for change” and who’s got a more presidential demeanor.