Liberal Democracy

Liberal Democracy
The Free State

Friday, November 16, 2012

Washington Times: U.S. Senator Rand Paul: 'Ron Paul Revolution: GOP’s Last Best Hope, How To Save The GOP'

Source:The Washington Times- U.S. Representative Ron Paul (Libertarian, Texas) is retiring from the House, at the end of this Congress.

"Some argue that Ron Paul was never relevant, that he was simply a gadfly who never accomplished anything legislatively. Others, myself included, argue that maybe, just maybe, the Ron Paul Revolution is the last best hope for saving the GOP from oblivion.

As I walk through airports, ride in taxis and meet people in large cities — people of color, working-class people, people with tattoos, people in overalls, people with piercings and even, at times, people in suits — I am amazed at the diversity of folks who come up and say how much they admire Ron Paul.

At rallies around the country, from the liberal bastion of Berkeley, Calif., where 8,000 students came to an event, to Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, kids from all over the political spectrum came to listen to Ron Paul." 

The naysayers will point out: “He didn’t even win a primary.” This is true, but when polled directly against President Obama, Ron Paul ran neck-and-neck with an interesting demographic. In the heat of the campaign, a Feb. 28 Rasmussen poll showed him leading Mr. Obama, winning the independent vote, taking a significant part of the Democratic vote and losing a significant part of the Republican vote. He truly attracted voters across the political divide from both parties and from independents.

His colleagues in Congress would ask with envy, “How do you raise so much money from the youth? From the Internet?” The truth was much more revealing. College students, welders, carpenters, maids, blacks, whites and Hispanics latched onto Ron Paul’s unique message of fiscal conservatism, personal privacy and liberty and a less bellicose foreign policy, one of taking care of things at home before sending our soldiers and our money abroad. It is and was the message that attracted the youth, the message that combined the fiscal conservatism and limited constitutional government of Republicans and a more restrained foreign policy sometimes exhibited by Democrats." 

You can read the rest of Senator Rand Paul's column, at The Washington Times