Salon NH Article~Ron Paul is a baby elephant~ Ron Paul's followers-What Do They Want?

[Mark]

.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/03/ron_paul/

From around the country, Ron Paul's followers are descending on New Hampshire
to go door-to-door for their man.


But what do they really want?


Editor's note:

A transcript of Michael Scherer's interview with Ron Paul can be read here. (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/12/03/paul_interview)

[DealzOnWheelz]

What do we really want???

Ummmm... I'll take a Freedom steak, liberty fries maybe a strong military defense soda and a side of sound money pie

[JordanL]

This is one of the best articles on Paul I've read from a "mainstream" news source:


About 10 minutes earlier, Texas Rep. Paul, a lithe 72-year-old obstetrician running a quixotic Republican campaign for president, arrived at the bar with a wide-eyed state policeman in tow. You would have thought Bono had come to Murphy's. Young and old crushed to the door, waved their arms and stood on chairs to get a glimpse of the man. A 21-year-old from Brooklyn, N.Y., Violet Zharov, presented the candidate with a layer cake she had purchased with her own money, inscribed in frosting: "You're our hero. We love you Ron Paul." A former door-to-door frozen meat salesman, Curtis Fenimore, 26, from Wilmington, N.C., began shouting out cheers. "Who you gonna call?" The crowd responded: "Ron Paul!"

...

At the same time, the Paul campaign has created something far bigger than just the best canvassing after-parties in the 2008 cycle. His message -- a vocal opposition to the war in Iraq, a strict libertarian interpretation of the Constitution and a wholesale rejection of the nation's economic policies -- have caused tens of thousands to rally to his cause, including many who typically shun the political game. "I never voted before in my life," says Trevor Lyman, 37, a former music promoter who now does independent online fundraising for Paul. "I always thought that the system was working. The war showed me that it wasn't."

...

But perhaps the best explanation of the Paul phenomenon came from Rammelkamp, the young man from Long Island who had taken on significant credit card debt for the Paul campaign. He told me that to understand Paul, I had to think of the American people as a baby elephant, chained to a tree. "It realizes that it can only walk 5 feet in each direction. It realizes that it is a slave. When it grows old enough, it is strong enough to break away from the tree. But it doesn't know." He pauses, to let this sink in -- the American people are a captive animal unaware of its own power to claim liberty. "When was the last time you tried it?" he asks me of breaking free. "Maybe you are strong enough."

And so for thousands of his supporters, Paul has begun to symbolize freedom itself. He is the baby elephant who broke his chains, the Guy Fawkes for a new millennium. And with his candidacy, his supporters believe he shows a way out of the morass in Iraq, a way away from the burden of taxation and the fear of economic insecurity, a way to strike back against the creeping power of the federal government and the free-spending culture of Washington. He is a political savior for people who feel trapped by two political parties that have failed to solve the nation's problems, by a political dialogue that often skirts the real issues, and by a federal government that expands its power by marketing fear. Ron Paul, they hope, is the way out. "It's like do or die," says Linda Hannan, a 35-year-old paralegal from Staten Island, N.Y., as the Murphy's celebrations continue. "Liberty and freedom are our future."

[speciallyblend]

kewl

[JosephTheLibertarian]

why don't they ask what huckledic supporters want? hm. perhaps, a brain? a brain to call their own.

[JordanL]

why don't they ask what huckledic supporters want? hm. perhaps, a brain? a brain to call their own.

It's an attention grabbing headline, but in the article it clearly is not phrased as a "what the hell do all these peasants need" type thing that people seem to be thinking.

[Anti Federalist]

///

[The Gold Standard]

Old news. Replace Ron Paul with Donald Trump in the article and then you're on to something.