How did you become a RP junkie?

[VRP08]

So, how, when did it happen to you the first time?


I heard about RP from my husband, who came from work and was telling me all about the RP candidate. It seriously right away made me like him. Rest is history.:D

Next...

[hard@work]

I was on youtube and they were giving out free samples of Dr. Paul at the debates.

[RPinSEAZ]

Someone on my favorite car forum (my350z.com) posted a video of a politician that actually said everything that I've been thinking.

[Chester Copperpot]

5 years ago. When I started researching the income tax.

[Furis]

9 years ago while reading the Conservative Index. I was 13.

[Goldwater Conservative]

I didn't become involved in politics at my college until after the '04 election. When I did, I found myself amazed by how many people were all about the party ID and not conservative principles. I forget how it happened, but I stumbled across Ron Paul's name while better educating myself on some issues, and soon learned about his record and views. Not too long after that, whatever support I had for Bush (I had barely convinced myself to vote for him in '04) quickly dwindled, especially in light of the Katrina aftermath.

Anyway, long story short, I became an advocate of Barry Goldwater (I also read Conscience of a Conservative around this time) and Paul, spreading the good word whenever I got the chance. I was surprised when I heard he was actually running for president, but didn't pay much attention until late summer... when I realized that not only does this guy actually have a shot (and a lot of people rooting for him), but we need him now more than ever.

[09Ag]

6 months ago. I was reading all of the candidates stances on the issues, and once I saw Paul's it was a no-brainer.

[RonPaulStreetTeam]

a bulitien via Alex Jones on myspace in April about FOX censoring Ron paul.

so then I tried to repost and GOT MY ACCOUNT LOCKED for 5 days!!

I dedicated all my free time since then to be the anti-fox and get the word out.

[happyphilter]

I was listening a debate half asleep with a blanket over my face. And every now and than I would hear something I would really like, but when I decided to look to see who was talking it was too late and they were on to the next person. This happend throughout the first debate, so I made sure i found out who it was the second time. After that I became a junkie.

[RonPaulFever]

I've been following the campaign since May, but after I found this forum......game over. RP 24/7.

[Ready2Revolt]

Ever since he said "because we've been over there." I saw Rachels junkie video and knew I wasn't alone and then found this forum.

[user]

I wish I could remember the exact moment. I knew about him way before the campaign as the closest thing to a libertarian we have in Congress, and I'm ecstatic his campaign has taken off now.

[Ron Paul in 2008]

Some guys on another forum said Ron Paul was the only good guy on capitol hill; I decided to read about him on Wikipedia 5-6 months before he announced he was running for President. I immediately respected him but I wasn't very comfortable with his stance on marijuanna and the death penalty. I saw Freedom To Fascism and saw what a nice guy he was to grant an interview to Aarron Russo and talk against the government and I was taken aback. I learned that he was running for president around May and immediately got on board. However, I really got struck with Ron Paul fever when I saw him in the video on Youtube about the Iowa Straw Poll.

[RonPaulCult]

I was a liberal never even considering voting for a republican but some strangers on myspace were posting Ron Paul stuff constantly and I saw that he is the anti-war candidate with the strongest chance of winnning. I put all of my efforts into getting him elected (including registering republican).

The funny thing is that it's caused a political transformation in my life. For years I've been outside the two major parties wanting candidates to use tax money to really help people instead of to help corporations. I wanted government to do good and be perfect. Ron Paul has taught me there is another way - and it's probably a better way. Instead of waiting around for politicians to not be corrupt let's just make the government very small and out of our lives and OF the people.

From hardcore liberal to hardcore libertarian in just a few months - I guess it's true.

Anyway keep up the work guys. It was the PASSION I saw in others that made me think it could really happen. Make others see that passion!

[JosephTheLibertarian]

So, how, when did it happen to you the first time?


I heard about RP from my husband, who came from work and was telling me all about the RP candidate. It seriously right away made me like him. Rest is history.:D

Next...

I found out about Ron Paul in the New Jersey Libertarian Party's forum..... there went my political aspirations; All I could think about was Ron Paul. I would rush home just to check for Ron Paul updates...still do

[user]

I was a liberal never even considering voting for a republican but some strangers on myspace were posting Ron Paul stuff constantly and I saw that he is the anti-war candidate with the strongest chance of winnning. I put all of my efforts into getting him elected (including registering republican).

The funny thing is that it's caused a political transformation in my life. For years I've been outside the two major parties wanting candidates to use tax money to really help people instead of to help corporations. I wanted government to do good and be perfect. Ron Paul has taught me there is another way - and it's probably a better way. Instead of waiting around for politicians to not be corrupt let's just make the government very small and out of our lives and OF the people.

From hardcore liberal to hardcore libertarian in just a few months - I guess it's true.

Anyway keep up the work guys. It was the PASSION I saw in others that made me think it could really happen. Make others see that passion!
Sort of related to this, I really think libertarianism is a lot closer to the left than the right, especially these days. I know Ron Paul is a major exception, but I think we libertarians are missing out on a lot of potential "converts" by having allied ourselves so closely with the right over the years.

This seems even more clear when I see how easily the neocons took over the right.

[JosephTheLibertarian]

Sort of related to this, I really think libertarianism is a lot closer to the left than the right, especially these days. I know Ron Paul is a major exception, but I think we libertarians are missing out on a lot of potential "converts" by having allied ourselves so closely with the right over the years.

This seems even more clear when I see how easily the neocons took over the right.

I think it's as much to the right as it is to the left. It depends on the person. We should be drawing from both the left AND the right, but we're still not, I think because the LP is expecting people to find them instead of maybe going out and informing people. Why doesn't the LP have grass roots? If it had Ron Paul kind of gass roots, it would be a major party in no time.

[user]

I think it's as much to the right as it is to the left. It depends on the person. We should be drawing from both the left AND the right, but we're still not, I think because the LP is expecting people to find them instead of maybe going out and informing people. Why doesn't the LP have grass roots? If it had Ron Paul kind of gass roots, it would be a major party in no time.

Even if it is as much to the right as it is to the left, that would be closer to the left than today because we appear to focus so much more on the right. I'm really not sure what the hell has gone wrong with the LP, a lot of libertarians seem to have major problems with it but I guess I don't know the history well enough to understand why.

I hope our Ron Paul movement continues well into the future as a libertarian, or at least Constitutionalist, movement.

[olehounddog]

I was getting ready to go to our board of elections and get out of the party. Then I heard some one say "We marched in we can turn around and march right back out". I thought that is simple, straightforward, and honest talk w/o the bs. Done some checking up on the good Dr. Got goose bumps and teary eyes when I listened to Dr. Pauls message of freedom and liberty. So here I am Ron Paul 24 hrs. a day.

[AdoubleR]

Yeah, i have become a junkie... I don't get work done at work anymore... I google news Ron Paul every five minutes... I gotta get a grasp! LOL... I first heard about the good doctor from http://www.whatreallyhappened.com ... Before that, I never beleived in real politicians...

[Skeeterbug73]

I had never been on yahoo answers and decided to check it out. For a few weeks I would hang out in the books/authors and current events sections. Then one day out of the blue, I peeked in on the politics section and saw a few questions about Ron Paul. I read some of the answers and got curious so I decided to check out his website. Then I did some more research and watched the clips of the debate on you tube. From there I was hooked.

[freedom_junkie]

January 07, Mother's boyfriend's son sent me a google video "freedom to fascism" watched it and for 12 hours straight researched on the net. kept coming back to current administration policies & Constitution. Picked up a few Constitution books, was reading, researching.....then all of a sudden Ron Paul popped up on the radar in March...Boohyah! Here I am :D

[Politeia]

I was a liberal never even considering voting for a republican... From hardcore liberal to hardcore libertarian in just a few months - I guess it's true.

A familiar story, only in my case it was a quarter-century ago. A hereditary liberal Democrat (my parents were big for Stevenson in the 1950s), my first election was in 1964; wanting to be a "good citizen" I took the trouble to read Goldwater's book, and to my surprise I was impressed ... but I still fell for my conditioning and the propaganda that Goldwater "would get us into a war", and voted for Johnson.

Three years later I had to flee to Canada and what I expected to be permanent exile from home, family and friends -- to escape Johnson's war. A year there (comfortable, if a bit cold, but no Bill of Rights) taught me that I really am an American, and when I unexpectedly found myself able to return, I did, to a brief career as a "dealer in exotic herbs and pharmaceuticals" in the Haight-Ashbury, then a decade studying Zen Buddhism, all the while politically a lukewarm leftist (Peace & Freedom, then Citizens Parties).

Then in 1981, more or less by accident, I learned the truth about the income tax, and began a process of education that totally transformed my understanding of politics, economics, history, etc., and moved me from the left to Libertarian.

In the fall of 1981 (I think it was) I attended a Constitutionalist conference in Marin County, where I got to meet Irwin Schiff, Tupper Saussy and other early heroes of the liberation movement. There I also heard about Ron Paul, and immediately sent him $50, the first time I'd ever donated money to a politician.

I voted for Ron Paul in 1988, of course, and even got to meet him when he came to our city; I remember he made a distinct impression on me then, even beyond his political stance: something really clear about this man.

I haven't voted since 1988; of course I really liked Harry Browne (peace be upon him), whose How I Found Freedom (http://www.harrybrowne.org) Changed My Life, but the exercise in futility hasn't seemed worth the trouble. (And knowing that signing a paper that I am a [14th Amendment] "United States citizen" waives my Constitutional rights -- apparently the "legal" reason they can get away with so many unConstitutional things like the income tax -- didn't give me much incentive to "register".)

But I have kept up with Ron Paul now and then, and sent him a little money occasionally (he remains the only "politician" to whom I've ever given money). My last 15 years have been mostly occupied coping with chronic illness, so I've not done much politically beyond what little I could to prepare for the coming collapse, though I have friends who're involved on the front lines of the struggle; see for instance Citizens of the American Constitution (http://www.citizensoftheamericanconstitution.org).

I'd heard Ron Paul was running again, and wished him well, but wasn't paying much attention, until at the end of June a friend sent me a link to the NYTimes Magazine article, which caught my interest. I looked into what was happening, saw a couple of videos, and ...

I too have been a Ron Paul Junkie for the last four months, an exciting ride that continues to seriously disrupt my life. I really need to get back to what I was doing with my limited energy (like this morning, I have work to do), but this is really exciting -- truly I never expected to see anything like this during my lifetime (as, I'm sure, neither did Dr. Paul) -- and I just can't tear myself away.

Whatever may come of all this, something huge has changed in America. I feel a hope I haven't felt in ... well, ever, really. And I feel part of something in a way I never have before: the America I was taught about as a child, but have never seen. I'm beginning to think something remotely approaching that America might even be possible!

Anyway, at least I have another souvenir to add to my signed copy of Freedom Under Seige (Dr. Paul's 1988 campaign book, with misspelled title on the front): My photo in the Ron Paul Mosaic, published in the Ames, Iowa Tribune, and on that great card produced in New Hampshire, which I've been handing out to everyone I know.

[smtwngrl]

I first heard of Ron Paul in late 1996 or early 1997, when he was just getting back into Congress, and I've had a very high regard for him since then, because of his actions in Congress. I've always thought he would be a great presidential candidate. (But I didn't know how great!)

I became a Ron Paul junkie in late March, after I found that he was running for president. I watched some youtube videos, and I was hooked. :D

[VRP08]

I immediately respected him but I wasn't very comfortable with his stance on marijuanna and the death penalty.

Just curious, why?

[francisco]

I have been a libertarian since high school in 1971. I have always voted for my principles, and voted for Ron in 1988, but gave up long ago about ever seeing a fundamental shift towards liberty.

I was pleasantly surprised this spring when I learned that Dr. Paul was running again, but surmised (and told my wife) that he wouldn't have a real chance.

THEN I WATCHED IN UTTER AMAZEMENT AS HE GAINED SUPPORT AND STARTED ATTRACTING EXPOSURE, ESPECIALLY ON THE WEB!

I think that the fundamental shift in the nation's psychology that I thought would never happen, has started.