Cognitive Coup

The Ron Paul Revolution has been the most inspiring of my time, but that is because I’m young and was still a child when Ross Perot brought in almost 20 million votes during the 1992 election. As it draws to an anticlimactic close many of us can’t help but to wonder why Dr. Paul has chosen to rally an insignificant number of delegates at a convention that will neither appreciate nor honor his ideas or the support he has raised. For some inexplicable reason he has chosen to pursue this failed strategy when getting his name on November ballots and continuing his message to the end should have been the priority. Fighting John McCain at the convention is fighting him under his terms, in his arena, and with his supporters greatly outnumbering Paul’s. Fighting John McCain in the general election would actually count for something.

In Montana, Ron Paul won 11 counties second only to Mitt Romney. While it seems he has support here, what seems to be isn’t. The delegates in Montana were selected at the Republican caucus on February 5, 2008 which was the first of its kind, and 4 candidates vied for all 25 of them. Yet, the caucuses were not successful in energizing Republicans but instead had the effect of distancing voters. Those who didn’t have enough time, were uncertain of, or simply felt caucuses weren’t their thing stayed away. In Gallatin county (Bozeman’s county, it’s one of the 6 larger cities in Montana) turnout was so low that anyone could walk up to the bar and get a drink in less than a minute; this, at a bar that holds maybe 300 people. It was sad. Given an election, with fewer candidates, and Ron Paul’s support would increase enormously.

I’ve read web-forums that discuss whether to vote for Bob Barr or Barack Obama in the general election. It seems that there is little confidence in Bob Barr’s ability to win over Ron Paul supporters and many just stated they would probably vote for Obama. There is nothing wrong with this I suppose, it’s not unreasonable to want out of Iraq, away from the PATRIOT act, out of burgeoning debt, trust in our federal institutions, honesty from our politicians, and hope in the future. But as one person stated, “The Ron Paul revolution will never get behind anyone like they got behind Ron Paul.” This cannot be ignored, and is the source of my endless frustration with Ron Paul’s decision not to kick-off a general election campaign. In the Preface to The Revolution he writes, “These ideas cannot be allowed to die, buried beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that constitute official political discourse in America. That is why I wrote this book.” But in not taking his movement to the general election what he is doing is allowing his ideas to die beneath the mind-numbing chorus of empty slogans and inanities that will likely constitute a normal general election. The memories will be of a great revolution but the after thoughts will be sadness, despair, and a feeling that it can’t be achieved alone, or without another Ron Paul.

The unfortunate truth is that this is where the revolution is heading: memories of good times, long past, possibly never to return again. What I find most curious about his current strategy of having 35 current delegates plus perhaps some addition delegates from Montana where Mitt Romney released them show and and exclaim, “Surprise! Ron Paul! We still lost!” is its impotence. When Ron Paul’s book hit #1 at amazon.com it made the news, he has a book to build a campaign on. If he really wanted to win in November, after starting a general election campaign, he should be giving that book away to any and every one who might read it. A pdf file on his website would work. He could probably introduce another million people to his ideas just from the allure of getting something for free. Besides, how many candidates get up on stage and introduce themselves and their ideas before telling the audience that a half hour, or hour, is not enough time to truly know them and the ideas they stand for, and then holding up a book and telling the audience that it’s free from their website and they should all read it to gain a better perspective.

The book is only 192 pages, and they’re little pages so it would be interesting to find the word count. My point is that even though many people don’t read they listen to those who do – so start giving them the ideas to use and spread this summer over beers, during barbecues, with friends and strangers instead of rallying a “surprise” that will probably only be seen or heard by a tiny fraction of the country.