I’ve been batting this story around in my head for better than a week. Ever since I got back from CLC in Reno, in fact.
One of my most enjoyable memories of the entire trip was being able to hear 4 separate candidates for President make his pitch to me in person. I even got my picture taken with one of them, Duncan Hunter. My current choice for President, Fred Thompson, was not among those addressing CLC. Neither was Ron Paul.
But you wouldn’t have know that walking around CLC. There was support for Rep. Paul’s campaign everywhere. No candidate had more. And in CLC’s straw poll, the two most recognizable candidates that did speak to us, Mitt Romney and Duncan Hunter, finished 2nd (16%) and 3rd (15%) respectively to Paul’s 33%. Similar results are being reported in other polls, on and offline. Unfortunately, those results aren’t translating well to national polls.
So what should the Congressman do? One would think he would work hard to get his message out to more people and win more over to his way of thinking. Certainly, Rep. Paul, himself, is doing exactly that. He’s doing it successfully, even. But therein lies the problem. It’s not Paul’s message, it’s who is responding to it. From here it seems that Ron Paul is in the unenviable position of having his biggest asset, his supporters, also be his biggest liability.
This first occurred to me at CLC. One of Paul’s supporters had placed himself on the second row on the center aisle for most of the conference. He had the requisite garb - shirt, hat, buttons and such. He also has something else - a sign about 18×36 - telling the world that Ron Paul was his guy! None of this is a problem. Until you add Mitt Romney into the mix. Mere seconds after Romney began his speech, this guy picks up his sign and holds it aloft. Having spoken from the same podium the day before, I know it was visible to Governor Romney. To his credit, the Paul guy didn’t wave it around or, worse, stand up with it or anything. He just held it up for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just a couple of minutes.
I remember what Mitt said generally, but I remember what that guy with his sign looked like as if I was watching it live, right now. My thought then and now was, “How unspeakably rude and boorish!” as I wondered what this guy would do if someone dared insult his candidate in the same fashion. That scenario seems likely to end in a Right wing version of “Don’t TAZE me, bro!”
Fast forward to the buzz in the blogosphere when it came out RedState.com had cracked down on Ron Paul supporters at their site. Some were outright banned, some severely muzzled and some put on notice that they were being watched for signs of impending lunacy. Some of the examples of bad behavior from Paul’s supporters in posts, emails and blogs are just what you’d expect to find from that guy with the sign in Nevada. Some are even worse.
Listen, the GOP really does have a big tent. There’s room for all sorts of disagreement on policy and planks and position. At the end of the day, there’ll be a nominee and the vast majority of the voters that supported other primary candidates will get behind him. I’m guessing the vast majority of those who don’t will be the supporters of Rep. Paul. They won’t do it for political purity. It’ll be reasoning from the fringes of reality. From the stuff I’ve read and the stories I’m hearing, the Right now has its counterpart to those on the Left who insist, to this day, that GWB is an illegitimate President because he stole the election from Al Gore in 2000.
The worst part about it is that Rep. Paul has some really good ideas and has some really fine supporters. His views on adherence to Constitutional constraints and his faithfulness to the precepts of that document are legendary and should be considered by every member of the House and Senate. But what is making the news, what is sticking in people’s throats because it’s being shoved down them and what people will remember are the guy with the sign and the guys who couldn’t control themselves even though they had all the time in the world to edit their thoughts along with a ‘Delete’ key. These people are so passionate and so convinced that Rep. Paul is right it seems they view every other candidate and position as an enemy and respond accordingly. Not exactly Dale Carnegie recommended tactics.
I’d take a moment to wonder what they plan to do if they win, how they plan to govern and work to be the President of all America but I don’t need to. One of the guys banned from RedState saved me the trouble. Writing to and about a generally recognized as right of center site, one commenter says,
Your website, and whatever else you’re supposed to be–ideology, a group of fascists, red commies, whatever, ought to be ashamed of your blatant censorship, and your obvious ignorance to the need of the people of this nation, and this nation itself. The dollar’s crashing, the North American Union is alive and well, Bush is bankrupting us, a Hillary presidency would only completely crush under a socialistic-CFR rule, Israel and London control our foreign policies, and our country is now more than ever hated… And you would suppress those supporters of the one and only candidate who would address any of these issues… I hope you all are some of the first up against the wall. Cowards and traitors all of you.
Like I said, it’s easy to miss some of the points he makes because I’m more focused on the gun he’s waving around. If for no other reason than this, I cannot support Rep. Paul. At the risk of subjecting BCM and all of you to the wrath of these sorts of folks, I have to say that the reason I can’t isn’t because of his campaign. It’s because of his campaign workers. They are his worst enemy. The tragic part not that they don’t see it. I think they do. It’s that they think this is the best way to win the hearts and minds of the rest of the electorate.
Wishing the primary was tomorrow and we could put this behind us …
Blue Collar Muse
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