Interesting development over at conservative message board site freerepublic.com: Ron Paul's popularity there seems to be growing.
Free Republic started off as an old-school conservative website, but its readers largely followed Bush's lead after September 11th. They overwhelmingly supported the war in Iraq, for example, and most still do, although there has been growing skepticism, and their support for Bush on this issue led many to look the other way when he went big government on domestic issues like the prescription drug benefit, illegal immigration amnesty, etc.
When Ron Paul threads started to show up a couple of months ago, he was usually hacked to pieces with charges of being a "crank" or having "crazy ideas."
But I've noticed a distinct shift there over the past month, as more and more posters are becoming Paul defenders and fans. They tend to present more coherent arguments than the somewhat robotic he's-crazy-and-can't-win charges of Paul opponents, and are getting better organized and reacting more quickly to (often grossly uninformed or unfair) attacks on Paul. I'd say the anti-Pauls and the pro-Pauls are now evenly matched in thread comments, but the trend is toward us.
Free Republic also has a function where you can see how long a poster has been a member, and these Paul fans are generally not new members; the majority I have checked on have been members since 2005 or long before (I found a few from the late '90s).
So while we know RP has crossover appeal to Democrats and firm support with libertarians and paleocons, we still have to deal with a large segment of the Republican Party whom I would label misled by the neocon establishment. This Free Republic shift shows me these Republicans are open to being re-convinced that the conservatism they knew before 9/11 should not have been abandoned after it, and are looking at RP as a guy who might be right about a lot of things. At the very least they want to know more about him.
I think this obnoxious amnesty bill and its process are opening a lot of eyes on the right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/se...ime&s=ron+paul
Connect With Us