http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs....0206/710060385
Saturday, 10/06/07
Candidate Ron Paul taps eclectic, fervent base
Rising Republican to visit Nashville fans
By JENNIFER BROOKS
Staff Writer
Ron Paul has spent the bulk of his 2008 presidential campaign relegated to YouTube videos and lecterns at the farthest edge of the stage during Republican debates.
That was before the latest campaign-finance numbers came out. The Paul campaign raised $5 million between July and September. That's five times as much money as Mike Huckabee, and it leaves Paul with more cash on hand than John McCain.
Riding high on his newfound momentum, Paul takes center stage for a rally and fundraiser today in Nashville, home of one of his largest and most active support groups. "In the last week, people have come running to join up," said Cheryl Scott, founder of the Nashville Ron Paul Meetup group, which boasts 372 members, making it the 10th largest group of its kind in the country.
Paul, a Texas congressman whose libertarian politics defies easy pigeonholing, has managed to attract a Nashville following that includes college students, retirees, white-collar professionals, Democrats, Republicans, Independents and people who had never even registered to vote before.
They meet at Bongo Java, a hipster hangout near Hillsboro Village, in the evenings, then spread out across the city, distributing leaflets, waving hand-stenciled signs at intersections.
"It's kind of a people's revolution," said Steve Bryant, who at age 55 just signed on as a Ron Paul volunteer. Preparing to go out leafleting for the first time, he joked that even if the people don't like what he has to say about Paul, "I figure they won't hit an old guy."
Appeal is multi-faceted
No two Paul supporters will give you the same reason he won them over.
For some, it's his opposition to the Iraq war, for others its his plan to eliminate the federal income tax — and a fair chunk of the federal bureaucracy to boot; or his libertarian disdain for the war on drugs, or his staunch opposition to the invasion of privacy sanctioned by the war on terror, or his plan to withdraw the United States from international trade agreements and organizations like the United Nations.
In fact, the main thing Ron Paul supporters have in common is Ron Paul.
"We try not to talk among ourselves about the issues," Scott said wryly. "There have been some fights."
For 19-year-old Caleb Plain, Paul appealed both to his conservative Christian upbringing and his Menonite heritage of pacifism.
"He's been kind of like a beam of hope to my family," he said. "They feel like they were let down by the party. My mom, my dad, my brother, my older sister, my grandparents, they all support Ron Paul."
Brendan Wovchko of Spring Hill, who describes himself as a middle-of-the-road Republican, heard about Paul from a work colleague, a Democrat. He spent two hours on YouTube, watching the dozens of policy speeches Paul posted online, and something about Paul's call for a vastly reduced federal government and empowered local government struck a chord.
"I consider myself a faith voter, but I'm no longer tied to the Republican party. They just pandered to me one election cycle too long," he said.
"I really believe that he's the only one who truly opposes the war," said Williamson County homemaker Lucy Covington, who registered with the Republican Party for the first time this week just to make sure she could cast her vote for Paul.
In politics, money talks, and a lot more people are listening to Paul and his supporters these days.
"Is Ron Paul the Howard Dean of 2008?" the Washington Post speculated this week.
The Wall Street Journal devoted an inside-page article to the grass-roots fundraising force that the campaign is becoming.
Nashville-area Paul supporters are hoping this sudden bust of attention will fill the seats at the Paul rally in War Memorial Auditorium this afternoon.
Reply With Quote
Site Information
About Us
- RonPaulForums.com is an independent grassroots outfit not officially connected to Ron Paul but dedicated to his mission. For more information see our Mission Statement.
Connect With Us