NPR: Ron Paul: Why The Young Flock To An Old Idealist

[bobbyw24]

NPR has been profiling some of the Republicans who are considering a presidential run in 2012, to find out what first sparked their interest in politics. Read more of those profiles.

Go to any Ron Paul event and it strikes you immediately. What's up with all the young people?

The 75-year-old Texas congressman packs halls on college campuses. His campaign volunteers often look too young to shave. And even at a recent New York City book signing, it was surprising to see how many teenagers and 20-somethings line up for an autograph clutching Paul's new book, Liberty Defined.

Sixteen-year-old Rob Gray says the age of the crowd doesn't seem odd to him.

It's "the old canard of the young being more open minded than the old," he says.

http://www.npr.org/2011/05/16/135990053/ron-paul-why-the-young-flock-to-an-old-idealist

[TroySmith]

Younger people have the most to lose by the status quo remaining. The 18-30 age group I think will bear the brunt of the crisis which will only get worse the longer they remain in power. The older generations are more concerned about a "perceived" stability protecting what they have than having actual liberty and more prosperity.

As a teacher, I've also noticed how increasingly frustrated, to the point of raw anger, the younger kids (mostly the achievers) seem to be about their schools are being run and what they will have in the future. I think this plays a significant psychological role.

[malkusm]

sixteen-year-old rob gray says the age of the crowd doesn't seem odd to him.

It's "the old canard of the young being more open minded than the old," he says.

qft.

[jrskblx125]

But what do we know!? Were just twenty somethings that havent had the government suck them off yet to yield complacency!

[tangent4ronpaul]

+1

Great article!

[Dreamofunity]

Ron Paul is my personal Jesus.


The comment section is eh.

[buck000]

Sixteen-year-old Rob Gray says the age of the crowd doesn't seem odd to him.

It's "the old canard of the young being more open minded than the old," he says.

http://rp12.us/aIU3k

That a 16 y.o. used the word 'canard' gives me hope. :)

The article was nice, but ended with basically a little face slap to Dr. Paul along the lines of what Matthews said in the Hardball piece (when I was young, I was into Libertarianism. Then I grew up.").

[SimpleName]

"Old Idealist"..well, alright. Hope that was more of a mere character examination, not a swift jab. Otherwise, pretty nice article.

[Bossobass]

"Old Idealist"

As opposed to:

"Blatant sociopathic Liar"

"Islamophobic War Mongerer"

"Wife-cheating Perjurer"

"Goldman-Sachs Puppet"

Man, these media outlets are stoked with negative IQs speaking daily to a whole bunch of blank stares.

Young folks are like every generation of young folks. They think they're hip more so than the generation before them.

When I was 18, we hated everyone in the establishment and massed to fight them on a regular basis. It would have been nice to have a Ron Paul. Alas, he was the establishment at that time, serving in the military during the "Meat Grinder" War.

Good thing for Dr. Paul. Back then, they were publicly executing every anti-establishment politician.

Nowadays, they save the lead and have taken to just brazenly taking the money right out of the treasury vaults in broad daylight.

Bosso

[LisaNY]

the audio version is good, now available at the top of the article.

[sailingaway]

Gray, the teenager, says Paul gives him hope — "that not everyone is a sellout; not everyone is controlled by special interests. There are people who still stick to their principles."

And in that idealistic way, you can say that Paul never grew up.

I can live with that.

Mind you, the NPR implication that to be grown up you have to be a sell out and be controlled by special interests.... is really a sad statement on what they consider to be normal, adult behavior.

[Fredom101]

That a 16 y.o. used the word 'canard' gives me hope. :)

The article was nice, but ended with basically a little face slap to Dr. Paul along the lines of what Matthews said in the Hardball piece (when I was young, I was into Libertarianism. Then I grew up.").

The Mathews thing sounds silly to me. People who think will often do the opposite. They are raised in a repub or dem family and then they grow up. Mathews obviously has shut off his brain to thinking since that would I guess cost him his job.

[Epic]

"Canard" is used incorrectly.

It means something that is false.

If the sixteen-year-old wanted to praise Paul fans, then he shouldn't have said that Paul fans' openmindedness is a lie.

[bobbyw24]

"Canard" is used incorrectly.

It means something that is false.

If the sixteen-year-old wanted to praise Paul fans, then he shouldn't have said that Paul fans' openmindedness is a lie.

Youth is a double-edged sword: enthusiasm and energy are often accompanied by naiveté

[Matt Collins]

I had a radio show host ask me in 2007 "Matt why are all of the young kids flocking to that old fart?" I said "it's not him, it's the ideas he espouses".

[Tim724]

I didn't love that piece - I felt like the underlying message was that libertarian beliefs are for very young and naive people who will eventually wise up and realize they were wrong. I felt it was also tried to marginalize Ron Paul by saying that the people who buy into his platform are mostly just teenagers (who respects the political beliefs of teenagers?).

Though I suppose it should be expected that the limosine-liberal-elitists at NPR would cook up an angle like that. They operate under the assumption that the government needs numerous bureaucracies brimming with educated, enlightened people like themselves to command the economy through their "public policies" and run the lives of the unwashed masses who are way too stupid to run their lives themselves.

I think the reality is that while Dr Paul is capturing significant interest of young unlike any other politician (which is great and impressive), these young people don't make up a majority of his supporters and do not dominate his base (especially not the very young, ~16-23). I would guess that our strongest demographic is late-20s through early 40s....people who are still in the early to middle prime of their most productive years who realize how our system is so hostile to their prosperity. We probably do lose a good amount of the 50 and older demographic, as a lot of those people have already bought/paid into the system and just want to dig in their heels in a vein attempt at maintaining the current status quo of the welfare system. The notion of any real change in "the system" is just scary to them and they don't want to hear anything about it.

It should also be said the Dr Paul's philosophy is not some unique, new-fangled program angled at young people....his philosophy has been a part of our country since founding and there has been a strong minority of formalized, political libertarians for many decades. I would guess that there are a lot of long-time, "old-timer" libertarians making up significant portion of Dr Pauls donations and votes. The young people are the just more visible.

[libertybrewcity]

It must be the public schools.

[bobbyw24]

I had a radio show host ask me in 2007 "Matt why are all of the young kids flocking to that old fart?" I said "it's not him, it's the ideas he espouses".

Like a friend told me: if Ron Paul had Obama's charisma or Romeny's good looks he could be president for life

[TruckinMike]

I didn't love that piece - I felt like the underlying message was that libertarian beliefs are for very young and naive people who will eventually wise up and realize they were wrong. I felt it was also tried to marginalize Ron Paul by saying that the people who buy into his platform are mostly just teenagers (who respects the political beliefs of teenagers?).


You are RIGHT ON! Exactly my concern from RP's interview with Chris Wallace on Sunday.

"MARGINALIZE", yes, and anyway possible, that is the media's word of the day/week/ month/year concerning Ron PAul.

TMike

[Philhelm]

I agree with Tim724. While it certainly is great that the "old idealist" can attract young voters, I view the focus on this as more of a smear than anything else. Depending on the context, being popular with young voters can be taken as a negative. To us it means that his message is curing the apathy of young voters; to them it means that our ideas are immature. It's a bit insulting when it's implied that Ron Paul is the candidate of teenagers, especially since I know what they are doing. Of course, it's also untrue. I assume teenagers raised $1 million for Ron Paul's last moneybombs? I assume the 50% of current veterans that donated to Ron Paul are simply a bunch of children?

[1000-points-of-fright]

That a 16 y.o. used the word 'canard' gives me hope. :)

Not me. He totally misused it and the fact that it gives you hope gives me even less hope.

Canard - a : a false or unfounded report or story; especially : a fabricated report b : a groundless rumor or belief

[PaleoForPaul]

Younger people have the most to lose by the status quo remaining. The 18-30 age group I think will bear the brunt of the crisis which will only get worse the longer they remain in power. The older generations are more concerned about a "perceived" stability protecting what they have than having actual liberty and more prosperity.

As a teacher, I've also noticed how increasingly frustrated, to the point of raw anger, the younger kids (mostly the achievers) seem to be about their schools are being run and what they will have in the future. I think this plays a significant psychological role.

I think you're dead on.

I'd say:

1. Most young people are getting screwed on/by a plethora of government programs.

2. The schools are worse than they were a generation ago, so they see and understand how bad government run programs can be.

3. The internet is around now, so when a candidate like Ron Paul is telling the truth, young people can investigate what he's saying with minimal effort.

4. When the media goes out of their way to smear Ron Paul or treat him differently than other candidates, young people now can see their hypocrisy and corruption which draws them further into Ron Paul's camp.