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Posted on 07/05/2007 3:10:24 PM PDT by George W. Bush
The Iconoclast
GOP Candidate Catches on in Washington State
By Eli Sanders
How did a Republican Texas Congressman named Ron Paul become a darling of the Washington State Meetup scene?
It all began, oddly enough, with Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell and a stand she took against the international sex trade.
In 2004, Cantwell became a prominent voice behind the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act, which was intended to fight "human trafficking"—mail-order brides and the like. This highly displeased Adam Berman, 40, of Gig Harbor, who runs LatinLoveSearch.com, which he calls "the largest free Latin-themed dating website on the internet." His site is about love connections, not human exploitation, Berman says, and it wasn't forced to go free until after Cantwell's bill passed.
The bill actually wasn't Cantwell's alone: It was introduced in the House by another Washington Democrat, Rick Larsen, and it had strong bipartisan support. But Cantwell is a big name here in Washington State, and she stuck in Berman's mind. Her anti-human-trafficking agenda involved describing people like Berman—people running pay sites that connect Americans with foreign lovers—as "international marriage brokers," and when the bill became law it imposed strict requirements on these brokers, mandating that they conduct criminal background checks on their American customers and then translate the results into the native languages of all foreign users.
The only way Berman could get around the new rules was to stop charging people to use his site, which he did, losing a huge amount of money in the process.
As Berman was fuming about what Cantwell had done to his business, he noticed that Ron Paul, a Republican Congressman from Texas, had voted against the bill. Paul, a physician, has earned the nickname "Dr. No" because of his refusal to support any bill that he feels isn't constitutional, and apparently Paul felt Cantwell's "human trafficking" law fell short. When Dr. No jumped into the presidential race this year, Berman, who has never been active in politics before, decided to do all he could to support the guy.
"He's just against the federal government having so much control," Berman told me. "He's hitting home with people who are frustrated with what's going on."
For a web-savvy character like Berman, getting behind Paul meant starting a group on Meetup.com for Paul supporters in Washington. He now heads three groups—in Seattle, Tacoma, and Bellevue—with more than 300 members between them. That's almost as many Meetup supporters as Barack Obama has in this state, and more Washington Meetup members than Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, and John McCain combined.
The online traction Paul is getting here mirrors a national phenomenon. Thanks to his iconoclastic showing in the Republican debates—where he's been the only candidate to speak forcefully against the Iraq war and to come out clearly in favor of fiscal conservatism, limited government, and hands-off social policy—Paul's candidacy is exploding online, bringing him more total Meetup groups nationwide than any other presidential candidate.
Does Meetup membership really matter? If you ask Howard Dean, the answer is yes. It was through Meetup that Dean's surprise internet support began to take off in Washington and around the country in 2003, the year that the internet first emerged as a platform for launching nonmainstream candidates into mainstream viability. And as a gauge of potential online donors, Paul's Meetup numbers are huge; there are rumors that he may have pulled in $4 million online during the most recent fund-raising quarter.
Paul's actual fundraising numbers for the quarter won't be released until July 15, but if the rumors prove true he will vault from being an entertaining Republican asterisk to... well, being an entertaining Republican asterisk with a good chunk of cash and a lot of online supporters.
As Dean showed, that doesn't necessarily transform a person into a winning candidate. But here in Washington, the Paul Meetup contingent is optimistic. Berman, the local Meetup leader, was at a Round Table Pizza in Tacoma on July 2 communing with Paul supporters. The next day another Meetup group gathered in the food court of the Crossroads Mall in Bellevue. And Berman is planning a huge Ron Paul presence at Hempfest. (Paul has opposed federal raids on medical-marijuana operations in states that allow medical marijuana, based on states' rights principles.)
Paul's candidacy, Berman says, "is growing like wildfire" because of "a crossover message that's able to escape the party line." Paul himself likes to put it this way: "Freedom is popular." In independent-minded Washington State, it's no surprise that this message would be appealing to antiwar lefties, libertarians, and frustrated conservatives alike—people who applaud Paul's votes against the Iraq war, against the PATRIOT Act, against gun control, and against raising taxes.
"The guy's definitely a phenomenon that most people haven't seen," Berman says.
Online gamblers and dating sites, those who oppose modem taxes and online sales taxes, those who oppose the Surveilance State in all its forms, the anti-U.N. folks, closed-borders folks, pro-gun folk, medical marijuana advocates, small-government/lower-taxes folk of al stripes, goldbugs who want to see real gold currency return to compete with paper money... these are the kind of supporters Ron Paul has.
Many post scornfully on these threads about Ron Paul's position on Iraq. What they find it hard to grasp, apparently, is there are a sizable number of people (perhaps even voters) who care rather passionately about just a single issue or just a few issues. And Ron Paul has a lot of these diverse single-issue groups supporting him. I don't think anyone could list them all because Ron Paul has said NO! to a lot of things over the years. LOL.
Some will say you can't form a political movement from groups of single-issue voters. But the reason that RP can do this is because he favors smaller government and more liberty in every case and this is precisely why he is so fittingly titled "Dr. No". And when he votes no on these bills, he often writes a piece or speaks in the well of the House to these issues and these voter groups, often the only one in Congress who speaks and votes to defend their Liberty against Big Government. So his cause is inevitably pro-liberty and small-government and, therefore, a genuinely conservative candidacy, regardless of any ongoing Wilsonian adventure the D.C. establishment has embarked upon across The Pond.
So for all of you who don't understand how Ron Paul has any support at all, look at just this one website owner and how he became a Friend Of Ron because of Big Government prying its way into his online business.
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Good find. I think it can happen! And your rant is well done, also. Nice work.
I don't see why not. It's a perfect description of the Democrat party.
L
Ron Paul will be on Stephanapolis on Sunday morning. Pass it on.
Well, if “The Stranger” endorses him, that’s good enough for me. Gawd almighty.
LOL!! You’re joking right?
This is what I mean by diverse single-issue supporters. And they are active. Just when you think you've heard it all, another group like this surfaces, all having been fans of Ron Paul for years.
July 2, 2007 Neal Rodriguez
I emailed Ron Paul's events coordinator Andrew Michel with the following proposal to offer him a free flight on a private jet to any campaign stop of his choice:
June 7, 2007
Dear Andrew,
I am Neal Rodriguez, with Imperial Jets, out of New York City. We have some private aircraft at our disposal, and I wanted to know if Congressman Ron Paul would be interested in being flown by private jet on our dime. We can arrange private jet travel to a destination on the campaign trail if he finds it appropriate.
We are most supportive of Ron Paul’s stand on limited government; particularly his opposition to FAA User Fees which surprisingly gathered considerable positive feedback and has helped spread the word on Ron Paul’s bid for the presidency on several social search networks: Ron Paul Uncensored
It would be my esteemed pleasure to make his transportation means more convenient.
Best regards,
Neal
BTW, that picture of the RP coins is from their website. Just click the graphic. It’s for real and they’re using it to campaign with all the precious metals folk.
Thats sweet. I just sent the link out to my meetup group. We went out here locally to a number of fireworks events and handed out fliers. All volunteer, all paid for by grass roots supporters. I hope this type of organization is going on in states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Those are the most important. Most people dont even know who Ron Paul is yet but when they find out about him theyre all receptive to his message. Get out there and make it happen!
gotta love that photo of Ron Paul
Nah — I’m afraid RP doesn’t do it for me. Gold coins and free jets aside, I just think he’s way too out there for me. And I’m still scratching my head to figure out how he can run as a republican and not even be close to the platform on most issues. *shrugs*
the scariest thing about ron paul are his supporters. who are these nut cases?
For todays Republican Party's acquired taste for liberalism and big government JFK would be considered too conservative. Name me one besides Ron Paul running for POTUS that is actually saying government is too big and too intrusive on our freedoms and rights. Name one who besides Ron Paul says he will roll back the increase in government programs since Reagan left office. By that I mean shut down such useless departments as Education and leave it to the states, Department of Homeland Insecurity and leave it to the various departments professionals, and other created make jobs for political friends federal programs that have been created.
His attraction though reminds me of Howard Dean.
That is a trick question. There is no candidate other than Ron Paul.
Did you see in the news yesterday that it was supposedly a terrorist target?
I don’t believe Ron Paul is conservative. Sorry.
When I staggered up the wrong brow at pier 12? LOL. Just joking :>} CVA/CV 66 was AMERICA one carrier her senior. I'd see the Kennedy when it on rare occassions pulled into NOB NORVA usually headed for the yards. I saw the article a minute ago. Mayport surprises me for reasons I won't go into. I don't know the time frame this was to happen but if it was pre-9/11 it was a possibility of reality as was any base for that matter.
In terms of what is being sold today by politico's as Conservatism neither do I. The term Constitution Preservationist comes more to mind. When Bush and Thompson, McCain, etc can be called conservative it pretty much leaves the door open to anyone besides Rudy & Mitt to fall under Conservative. Ron Paul is the closest person in congress we have to believing in and upholding the government the founders intended for us to have.
LOL Paul is my first choice. But I could handle voting for Huckabee, Tancredo, and Hunter in the general. That's it though unless a third party choice that's better comes along. The media's top four darlings of the election will not be getting my vote either in the primaries or general election. I think we can do beter than Rudy, Mitt, Fred, or John.
“What they find it hard to grasp, apparently, is there are a sizable number of people (perhaps even voters) who care rather passionately about just a single issue or just a few issues.”
I find it hard to grasp that 23% of registered voters got our current president in office. 22% voted for Kerry and that leaves around 50% that didn’t vote at all.
Foreign aid often more harmful than helpful : Strongly Opposes topic 17
YES on redeploying US troops out of Iraq starting in 90 days: Strongly Favors topic 17
Strongly Opposes topic 19:
Drug use is immoral: enforce laws against it
(10 points on Social scale)
Legalize industrial hemp: Opposes topic 19
War on Drugs has abused Bill of Rights : Strongly Opposes topic 19
Legalize medical marijuana: Strongly Opposes topic 19
Rated A by VOTE-HEMP, indicating a pro-hemp voting record: Strongly Opposes topic 19
NO on subjecting federal employees to random drug tests: Strongly Opposes topic 19
NO on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism: Strongly Opposes topic 19
http://www.ontheissues.org/Ron_Paul.htm
He also votes strongly in favor of Arab issues over Israel. I have no interest in supporting someone who does that.
| Ron Paul is a Moderate Libertarian. Click here for explanation of political philosophy. Click here for VoteMatch quiz. |
Even though he's not one of the top tier contenders, I thought it might be worthwhile to go ahead and write a short, but sweet primer that will explain why so many Republicans have a big problem with Ron Paul. Enjoy! #1) Ron Paul is a libertarian, not a conservative: I have nothing against libertarians. To the contrary, I like them and welcome them into the Republican Party. But, conservatives have even less interest in seeing a libertarian as the GOP's standard bearer than seeing a moderate as our party's nominee. In Paul's case, his voting record shows that he is the least conservative member of Congress running for President on the GOP side. So, although he is a small government guy, he very poorly represents conservative opinion on a wide variety of other important issues. #2) Ron Paul is one of the people spreading the North American Union conspiracy: If you're so inclined, you can click here for just one example of Paul talking up a mythical Bush administration merger of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, but you're not missing much if you don't. Reputable conservatives shouldn't be spreading these crazy conspiracy theories and the last thing the GOP needs is a conspiracy crank as our nominee in 2008. #3) Ron Paul encourages "truther" conspiracy nuts: Even though Ron Paul admits that he does not believe in a 9/11 government conspiracy, he has been flirting with the wackjobs in the "truther movement," like Alex Jones and the "Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth." Republican politicians should either ignore people like them or set them straight, not lend credence to their bizarre conspiracy theories by acting as if they may have some merit, which is what Ron Paul has done. #4) Ron Paul's racial views: From the Houston Chronicle, Texas congressional candidate Ron Paul's 1992 political newsletter highlighted portrayals of blacks as inclined toward crime and lacking sense about top political issues. Under the headline of "Terrorist Update," for instance, Paul reported on gang crime in Los Angeles and commented, "If you have ever been robbed by a black teen-aged male, you know how unbelievably fleet-footed they can be." Paul, a Republican obstetrician from Surfside, said Wednesday he opposes racism and that his written commentaries about blacks came in the context of "current events and statistical reports of the time." ..."Given the inefficiencies of what D.C. laughingly calls the `criminal justice system,' I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal," Paul said. ...He added, "We don't think a child of 13 should be held responsible as a man of 23. That's true for most people, but black males age 13 who have been raised on the streets and who have joined criminal gangs are as big, strong, tough, scary and culpable as any adult and should be treated as such." Paul also asserted that "complex embezzling" is conducted exclusively by non-blacks. "What else do we need to know about the political establishment than that it refuses to discuss the crimes that terrify Americans on grounds that doing so is racist? Why isn't that true of complex embezzling, which is 100 percent white and Asian?" he wrote." Ron Paul has since claimed that although these comments were in his newsletter, under his name, he didn't write them. Is he telling the truth? Who knows? Either way, those comments don't say much for Paul. #5) A lot of Ron Paul's supporters are incredibly irritating: There are, without question, plenty of decent folks who support Ron Paul. However, for whatever reason, his supporters as a group are far more annoying than those of all the other candidates put together. It's like every spammer, truther, troll, and flake on the net got together under one banner to spam polls and try to annoy everyone into voting for Ron Paul (which is, I must admit, a novel strategy). #7) Ron Paul wants to immediately cut and run in Iraq: Even if you're an isolationist like Ron Paul, the reality is that our foreign policy isn't currently one of isolationism and certain allowances should be made to deal with that reality. Yet, Paul believes we should immediately retreat from Al-Qaeda in Iraq and let that entire nation collapse into genocide and civil war as a result. Maybe, just maybe, Paul's motives are better than those of liberals like Murtha and Kerry, who want to see us lose a war for political gain, but the catastrophic results would be exactly the same. #8) In the single most repulsive moment of the entire Presidential race so far, Ron Paul excused Al-Qaeda's attack on America with this comment about 9/11: "They attack us because we've been over there. We've been bombing Iraq for 10 years." In other words, America deserved to be attacked by Al-Qaeda. This is the sort of facile comment you'd expect to hear from an America-hating left winger like Michael Moore or Noam Chomsky, not from a Republican running for President -- or from any Republican in office for that matter. If you want to truly realize how foolish that sort of thinking is, imagine what the reaction would be if we had bombed Egyptian or Indonesian civilians after 9/11 and then justified it by saying "We attacked them because those Muslims have been over here." #9) Ron Paul is the single, least electable major candidate running for the presidency in either party: Libertarianism simply is not considered to be a mainstream political philosophy in the United States by most Americans. That's why the Libertarian candidate in 2004, Michael Badnarik, only pulled .3% of the vote. Even more notably, Ron Paul only pulled .47% of the vote when he ran at the top of the Libertarian ticket in 1988. Granted, Paul would do considerably better than that if he ran at the top of the Republican Party ticket, but it's hard to imagine his winning more than, say 35%, of the national vote and a state or two -- even if he were very lucky. In other words, having Ron Paul as the GOP nominee would absolutely guarantee the Democratic nominee a Reaganesque sweep in the election. Summary: Is Ron Paul serious about small government, enforcing the Constitution, and enforcing the borders? Yes, and those are all admirable qualities. However, he also has a host of enormous flaws that makes him unqualified to be President and undesirable, even as a Republican Congressmen.
Republican presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas., answers a question during the first republican presidential primary debate of the 2008 election at the Ronald Reagan Library on Thursday, May 3, 2007 in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Related Media:
Who was the winner of the debate?
VIDEO: Q-and-A: Winners, Surprises of GOP Debate
VIDEO: Inside the Debate Spin Room
Mr. Hawkins is a professional blogger who runs Conservative Grapevine and Right Wing News. He also writes a weekly column for Townhall.com and consults for the Duncan Hunter campaign. http://townhall.com/columnists/column.aspx?UrlTitle=the_conservative_case_against_ron_paul&ns=JohnHawkins&dt=06/15/2007&page=2
#6) Ron Paul is an isolationist: The last time the United States retreated to isolationism was after WW1 and the result was WW2. Since then, the world has become even more interconnected which makes Ron Paul's strategy of retreating behind the walls of Fortress America even more unworkable than it was back in the thirties.
Republican presidential contender Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas., answers a question during the first republican presidential primary debate of the 2008 election at the Ronald Reagan Library on Thursday, May 3, 2007 in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Related Media:
Who was the winner of the debate?
VIDEO: Q-and-A: Winners, Surprises of GOP Debate
VIDEO: Inside the Debate Spin Room
I’m going to head over on my lunch break and see if I can meet him.If the man doesn't have enough "principles" to run as what he is, and instead pretends to be a Republican just to try to cash in, then his "principles" really aren't.
I think you forgot your /humor tag.
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