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Before I go into another work-imposed exile from posting for a couple of weeks, I wanted to comment on Ron Paul’s win in the CPAC straw poll.
The powers that be tend to dismiss in significance what they don’t like and vise-versa on what they do like. No doubt if Ron Paul ever won the White House, Bill Kristol will probably say the Presidency doesn’t mean much either. That’s how they operate. The problem is, if CPAC is insignifacnt, why were all those Fox News reporters there? Why were their events given such attention and coverage? They want to crawl out after they crawled in. Sorry, too late.
Ron Paul won a lot of straw polls, online and in real time during his run for the presidency. What makes this one different is three ago, the Paulites had a miniscule presence at CPAC. Now it has grown considerably. And because of this, look who else was at CPAC too: Thomas Wood, people from Antiwar.com and Lew Rockwell.com, the Campaign for Liberty, the John Birch Society. They held and led pannel discussion and gave speeches. Paul’s was the most attended. Three years ago, they probably wouldn’t be able to get into the parking lot, let alone the front door.
I’ve criticized David Keene of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the event, before for being just another Washington hack, but I have to give him credit for letting the dissenters in this time and giving their views a hearing. Yes CPAC is filled with all those Blue Blazered mafiosi looking to make a living for Conservative INC. They didn’t give cheers to Dick Cheney or booed Ron for nothing. But at the same time, Ron Paul packed the house and got the most votes in a straw poll of those registered. His support fell among the youngest and as anyone will tell you, they rather be with the future than the past. That is the essence of Paul’s appeal and the strength of his support.
Whether this means Paul will run in 2012 is still up in the air, but its another step in the process, along with getting Carol Paul approval (absolutely crucial). I think if Rand wins the Senate seat in Kentucky, RP overwhelmingly wins re-election in Texas and another RP candidates wins a major office, than you can see the forces in place pushing Paul towards another run.
RedPhillips on 24 Feb 2010 at 8:16 pm #
The significance of Ron Paul can be measured by the hysteria of the response he elicits from more conventional movement cons. The mere mention of his name at movement con sites immediately sends then into paroxysmal spasms of irrationality. Reasoned discussion is the exception. Hate filled invective laced diatribes are the norm. See this for example.
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/02/21/does-the-ron-paul-straw-poll-v
C Bowen on 24 Feb 2010 at 11:27 pm #
I cannot suggest AmSpec is a serious site–one of the folks linked to a Doug Bandow column to prove his point, not knowing Doug Bandow writes and blogs for AmSpec. (Mr. Antle is a good man, of course.)
These aren’t serious people worth considering, beyond the silliness of democracy.
What we should appreciate and be focused on is communicating with the youngsters, the street theater activists, who just like to put on a good show. We can force the major candidates and personality to tact Left, long before the time of elections and primaries, where the average hack has not a clue about anything (witness McCain taking the anti-war vote in NH, and the national question vote in SC.)
Already, Glenn Beck is now in the Global Warming Inc camp.
‘We’ are the rock, they’ll break themselves against.