Archive for the ‘Fascism’ tag
Exciting
Beyond my typical cynicism, and the healthy mistrust in political campaigns that I developed over the years, I have to admit that I am very excited about the Ron Paul’s campaign. My wife call it obsession but it is much more than that. I would have followed the political process, and the coming elections, with great interest regardless of the list of candidates - but Ron Paul candidacy makes me excited.
It is hard to explain why - after all I strongly disagree with many of his core agenda. I think that his “Pro Life” position contradicting the idea of liberty he so strongly advocate for, I do not agree that the states should regulate many of the things his is willing to allow the states to regulate and I’m taken back by his statement about the evolution theory. I think that Ron Paul is a much better candidate than we saw for many years, but he is not an ideal candidate - not practically and not in terms of his agenda. And yet, I’m excited and hoping for, against my best observing judgment, for the coming elections.
There’s something that seems a little tragic about the Paul volunteers’ devotion–they’re spending their Christmas vacation in chilly cabins, eating Velveeta potatoes for a week, and their candidate doesn’t arrive in Iowa until the day before the caucus–until I see that it’s not really about Paul. They almost never mention his biography or his leadership style when talking about their movement, a startling contrast with rival campaigns like Huckabee’s or Obama’s. I ask Eli, the student who would have bought Joe’s graphic history of World War I, whether he thinks Ron Paul has charisma. Eli pauses. "He’s so nice," he replies. "He reminds me of your grandpa–your righteous grandpa." A volunteer named Eddie in a tidy checked Oxford shirt says, "He did a rally with us the first night and shook everybody’s hand. It was cute."
"I like his aloofness, to be honest," observes Matthew, the World War II buff.
It’s not about personality worship for the volunteers, the fetishization of a person’s capacity to shine in public or persuade. It’s about questions like the purpose of our Federal Reserve, which really piques these volunteers’ interest, and which just so happens to get a Texas congressman named Ron Paul going, too. When Nickel muses, "I think centrists are the most extremist, because they don’t believe in anything but people," it suddenly seems to make a lot of sense.
In the hands of the volunteers, I’m becoming a Ron Paul convert, and I have to get out. On the way to my car, I take a peek into one of the cabins. There are 17 bunks crammed on the lower floor, boys’ stuff scattered everywhere. Posted on the door is the only sign of raucousness I’ve seen the whole night: a Hillary brochure with little Hitler mustaches doodled onto her pictures. As I examine it, a burst of laughter comes from the cabin’s second level. Suddenly it occurs to me: Did I get stuck with the earnest ones over in the main hall, and this is where the wild, blow-up-the-establishment Ron Paul people are?
A few people are shouting at once, and I can’t make out what they’re talking about. Girls? Nasty gossip about Mitt Romney? Then a phrase rises above the jumble. "That’s why the French had mercenaries!"
They’re debating the comparative merits of how governments throughout history have spent their revenue.