I’m a huge Ron Paul supporter, and a precinct leader.
This has been EXACTLY my problem.
People are completely thrown off by his honest attempt at changing this country, they dont understand him at all and refuse to accept that he can truly make a difference. Most of the people whose doors i’ve knocked on have almost had a “too good to be true” attitude.
Luckily, i’ve also had some good results. Nearly everyone in my life knows I’m an active supporter, and after I’ve explained to all of them what he stands for, 100% of them have become avid supporters.
There’s also another LARGE group of people who support him completely, but dont support our system, so they refuse to “throw their vote away”. I’ve persuaded a couple of people to accept that the point of voting is to make your voice heard in regards to your presidential vote – not simply to go with who you think will win and will be the lesser of two evils.
It’s an uphill battle, but it’s the right thing to do.

I don’t think you can blame the mainstream media, or people’s desire not to be called metaphorically “fat.”
You have to blame Ron Paul’s ideas.
He wants to go back to the Gold Standard. I guess you don’t remember William Jennings Bryan. His monetary policy is interesting theoretically, but would be a DISASTER in the world economy.
He wants to “respect the constitution” but only in the way that HE reads it. Even though we’ve had more than 50 years of constitutional authority recognizing that there’s a right to privacy that prohibits the government from making abortions illegal, he says that decision is wrong and wants it overturned. But, of course HE wants HIS version of privacy to protect HIS interests. He says that the Federal Government can’t be involved in the criminal law, but he’s ignored 200 years of the federal government doing just that. With this “states do everything” platform, he’s ignoring the federal government’s GREAT role in ending slavery, granting equal rights for women, and creating equal playing fields for all in EVERY state. Without the federal government, the University of Alabama would still be segregated, and we’d probably still have “whites only” drinking fountains.
Paul ignores the HUGE changes the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments meant to the balance of power in this country after the civil war. Thousands of Americans died to keep the country together, and he wants to tear it apart again.
Finally, Paul’s idea of “everyone’s free to make their own destiny, and get the government off our backs” sounds great in theory, but is HORRIBLE in practice. Without the government and social security, our elderly poverty rate would be 400% higher than it is now. Without our government and food stamps, millions of children woudl go hungry every night. WIthout our government and the GI bill, Stafford loans, and Pell grants, education would be affordable ONLY to the very rich, and we’d have a HUGE aristocracy and a HUGER population of people who are taken advatage of by capitalism. It’d be like 1830 all over again.
When a natural disaster strikes (like Katrina), we say “how is the government going to help and prevent this again?” When we have an economic disaster, we ask the same questions. When we see the divide between rich and poor, between those discriminated against and the majority, we say “how can the government balance the forces of capitalism”? Why? Because WE REALIZE THAT, COLLECTIVELY WE CAN DO MORE THAN WE CAN AS INDIVIDUALS. Yes, some things should be left to the private sector. Indeed, most things should. But if a road is going to be built, it should be built by all of us, so that we can all use it and it goes to the places most needed by all citizens, instead of a private road for the convenience of the rich. If people in society fall ill, or are victims of a natural disaster, or are taken advantage of by the system, WE can work TOGETHER to make lives better. We expect that, and we want that.
THAT is why Ron Paul cannot be elected. He is a fringe candidate with interesting academic ideas, but ultimately destructive ideas for our society.

Thanks for that article. Of course like every other human on earth, Ron Paul does have flaws. If we examine each & every human on earth,,,yes, we can come up with imperfections, of some kind or another.
As a Ron Paul supporter, I have tried to come up with a reasonable explanation on why he hasn’t recieved more votes in the primaries.
1. First, Ron opposed the reighning King of the neo-cons, who in order to get elected twice must have a huge following, who will act like subjects and do exactly what they’re told, irregardless of consequences. A very dangerous situation in my opinion. { Americans, you’re either for us or against us! …the King has spoken! }
2. Apparently the believers in a Centralized government, who have been a part of America since the days of Alexander Hamilton, feel incapable of providing a good life for themselves & their families without the assisstance of a big brother government. I call this inherited insecurity!
3. The next obsticle for Ron was/is the primary voting process itself. The majority of Americans { Independents outnumber Republicans & Democrats, but cannot vote in closed primary states. } don’t, or will not take the time to re-register as Republicans, mistakenly saving their vote until the general election when Bad & Worse are the only top choices.
4. As Ron correctly points out, the founders who knew tyranny first hand, realized that individual rights far outweigh the benifits of a centralized government & central bank.
Why?
A parable:
Because through out history it has been proven that a bad apple or a few bad apples that get into power turn all the rest of the apples into a spoiled self destructive mess!
Enough! Thanks for this opportunity to express!
Ron Paul’s name will live on through out American history, as the best choice of the common folks of 2008!!!
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no….it was his over-reliance on spreading the word through low-budget “new media” avenues…
…although the strategy had limited success in creating a “Paul Phenomenon” that caught on with the “Comic-Con” crowd….it actually hindered the creation of a legitimate “Paul Candidacy”….
…using the same avenues that made “Mentos & Coke” a hit assured him exposure, but only among those who were more interested in congratulating themselves on how clever they were for supporting the good Doctor, than in actually promoting him as a candidate.
…and the whole “he’s just too honest” thing is as old (and transparent) as the tired job-interview strategy of answering the “what’s your biggest weakness” question with “I tend to work too hard” or “I just care too much.” It sounds neat right out of college, but those who have heard it a hundred times before can only roll their eyes and feel a little embarassed on your behalf…

this is a great article and is spot on!!
Ron Paul’s message scares people — especially the MSM and major-party fat cats who all get their money from groups that Paul refuses to “play ball” with.
Paul’s message is of REAL change — a message of going back to following the Constitution and not just hiding behind it’s words when convenient. is he for FAIR free trade, he is for non-interventionist foreign policy, he is for personal responsibility — all of which are now despised by the big wigs in the major parties and unfortunately, by most of the pundits that force-feed information to the unwitting public.
Ron Paul could have been our nation’s savior – but mindless people let themselves be bamboozled into accepting McCain as the annointed nominee for President. sad, very sad!

I’m afraid so. And the sad fact is, anyone who is honest and would be a good leader can’t compete with the professional liars with bottomless pockets to fund their campaigns. So that’s why we’re stuck with the sorry group of candidates we have to choose from.

There was no twisting of facts, no manipulation or misrepresentation of the truth–he said how he felt and it was. Shocking isn’t it?
Don’t you agree that greed and selfish ambition are still very much the motives that impel many people to lie – be deceptive? Greedy business, corrupt politics, and false religion are rife with deception, falsehood, manipulation, and fraud. Why? Is it not because people are often motivated by greed and ambition and selfishness to get ahead or to reach out for wealth, power, or a position they desire. Selfishness rules.
I think his unpopularity Is because people want to excuse themselves from things he believe were wrong–abortion, gays, drugs (even heavy drinking),etc. He didn’t even excuse his friends from wrong actions
Shocking isn’t it in these times–where people pick and choose their values.
He seem to respect values–and people made fun. They don’t want accountability or responsibility really–they want people to say what they want to hear and can bare.

Honesty, lack of negative attacks on others and not much money are failing strategies in American politics.

I think that is part of the problem, but I also think RP should have started small with all his proposed changes for government. Then if he got elected, he could begin to flesh them out more.
When you start talking about eliminating 2/3 of the departments in Washington, you make a whole lot of people there nervous.

I don’t think Ron Paul wanted to be president. I think what he was doing was to try open people’s eyes up to issues that are relevant to the people of USA and the candidates should be questioned as to whether they are vying for real change or just blowing smoke.

Brother I am black and really wouldn’t vote for Obama. I like Ron Paul and my website proves it http://www.pitt.edu/~jbh42 just go to the menu and click on anything goes. He is coming to the University of Pittsburgh tonight and is the most honest candidate. Also I am a Christian and Obama just destroys my beliefs so I would just be voting for him because he is black and that ould be racist. Ron Paul is the smartest one in the race and should be our President. That shows you how much the media has control over our minds that people can continue to lie and we accept that. GO RON PAUL

No. Ron Paul and what he is about is Ron Pauls Problem.
I refer you to his Newsletters where he congratulated David Duke on the number of votes he got while running for Senator in Louisiana, Touted the nutjob militias as being the saviors of liberty 3 months before the Murrah building was blown to hell by a militia whacko named Tim McVeigh, Called Donna Shalala is a “short lesbian”, quoted his friend Representative William Dannemeyer…who advocated quarantining people with AIDS–praising him for “speak[ing] out fearlessly despite the organized power of the gay lobby.” , and said that the Mossad was behind the WTC bombings in 1993.
Blacks weren’t ignored by Mr. Paul. He said in one of his newsletters regarding the Los Angeles riots that
“Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks three days after rioting began,”. Add to that RP thinks the federal government was involved in a conspiracy regarding 9/11, and what you have at the end of the day is a racist anti-semite LOON.
If people are going to pimp this moron…then be as honest as he says he is. He didn’t fall of the turnip truck yesterday and neither did I.
Edit:
Really?
You’re sure about that huh?http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?i…
1 of dozens of links out there on him and his antics over the years.
He’s been well documented over the years.

How can the people be accused of “wanting” a lie over a truth when they’ve never heard either…because the Main-stream media refuse to broadcast/print anything beyond sensationalized sound-bites?
Honestly, I ask people every day – perfect strangers, friends, relatives, anyone I can – what they know about Ron Paul. The answers are about 95% “Who?”.
But if I ask what Obama’s middle name is, everyone knows. They know his pastor’s name, Hillary’s “crying game” story, McCain’s alliance with Kennedy on veiled amnesty and on and on.
But NONE know that Paul’s platform is to push for a return to Constitutional limits for government.
I’d assume there are some people in any society who’d rather here a lie. They may even account for a third or a half of some societal sub-sets. But they’re not the reason Dr. Paul is unknown. He’s unknown because he’s never been perched upon the gilded column in the shop window that is the Agenda-driven media.
…

I had a distant relative run for Senator. He made no negative campaigns and only stated what he will do for the state. He obviously lost. It’s a coping device. IF tehy know the truth, people shut down. Sometimes I discuss politics and people near by would scream I don’t want to hear it, and basically cream LA LA LA LA. Listen to the same speach as everyone else, and I am shocked that people think that Hilalry and Obama advocate getting out of Iraq. I would hear people say Hillary or Obama would do this for our country, but I have never heard them make any statement of what their plans are. There whole speach is made to not get anyone mad at them. Listening to people, they think the President can lower Gasoline prices. THy think the President can bring them alternative few tommorrow. They all want the easy solution, but they don’t want to hear that there is going to be some lean times ahead. That we will have to sort through a recession to fix our economy. We need to suffer high oil prices until we can figure an alternative fuel. THe politicians are hiding the fact that Hydrogen is 30 years away and it might not work. I agree about wanting to hand the next President their problems. THey all know about the problem of Social security, but refuse to fix it in fear of losing votes. I try to talk to people about Social security and they refuse to understand it is not a retirement program. That the money we put in, isn’t put in a savings account. Both CLinton and George W BUsh created bubbles to show they can create a good economy. They refuse to allow our economy to slip to mislead the public. They decided to take an 8 year approach and sacrifice our future, by borrowing from the future to pay for good growth in the hear and now. The problem was that Bush Sr. got voted out for the two things that we complain about his son. He cut military spending (Which sent us into a recession) and he attacked Iraq, but never stayed. People seem to not understand recession is a temporary thing,although Bush might of handled to military cuts better to minimize the recession.

As a libertarian, I support many of Paul’s positions, but I became disillusioned with his CAMPAIGN early on when it appeared he was going to rely almost totally on his supporters chatting online and having house party get togethers to get the word out instead of spending the MILLIONS of dollars he raised on advertising.
What is he doing hoarding all of that money? He doesn’t need that much to run for re-election in his district.
Does he REALLY want to be president?

A lot of useless verbiage only deserves a very sucinct answer. He could never be nominated.

my normal routine is not to read what others say, so i’ll stick to it–it makes my opinions stay only my own, don’t you think?
ron paul is a man of himself and only of himself, and that is the charm about him. i.e., he’s not dishonest at all. we NEED a president that is willing to face the facts and take the problems by the horns with and including congress and Finally, Paul’s idea of “everyone’s free to make their own destiny, and get the government off our backs” sounds great in theory, but is HORRIBLE in practice. Without the government and social security, our elderly poverty rate would be 400% higher than it is now. Without our government and food stamps, millions of children woudl go hungry every night. WIthout our government and the GI bill, Stafford loans, and Pell grants, education would be affordable ONLY to the very rich, and we’d have a HUGE aristocracy and a HUGER population of people who are taken advatage of by capitalism. It’d be like 1830 all over again.
When a natural disaster strikes (like Katrina), we say “how is the government going to help and prevent this again?” When we have an economic disaster, we ask the same questions. When we see the divide between rich and poor, between those discriminated against and the majority, we say “how can the government balance the forces of capitalism”? Why? Because WE REALIZE THAT, COLLECTIVELY WE CAN DO MORE THAN WE CAN AS INDIVIDUALS. Yes, some things should be left to the private sector. Indeed, most things should. But if a road is going to be built, it should be built by all of us, so that we can all use it and it goes to the places most needed by all citizens, instead of a private road for the convenience of the rich. If people in society fall ill, or are victims of a natural disaster, or are taken advantage of by the system, WE can work TOGETHER to make lives better. We expect that, and we want that.
governors. it’s so true that the us government should have nothing to do with how schools should be run, what the new national health care project will be and so forth and so on, and so on, and so on (do you sort of dig what i mean here…i mean that big government has no idea of what the people of a state want, nor should it…). okay, now that you get my drift, i just have to tell you:
ron paul is engendering support RIGHT NOW. which is sort of how i felt he may have either strategized his campaign what with so few dollars and a public that is so dumbed down that it will not even read the constitution and learn of its history and why it is the best document of civil liberties that the world has ever seen, and the public is so stupid that it will debate on how terrible the big 3 candidates are, but it will not look past them for someone different, someone that would begin to really and truly make CHANGE.
i think we supporters of ron paul are beginning to have some bearing on paul’s popularity, and we are, i think, by our asking questions mentioning ron paul and by posting film clips with ron paul speaking in them, and especially, by showing how he cares about our citizens’ MONEY (money is very, very powerful, isn’t it?), we are furthering others to take a good look at what this doctor and congressman is all about. i think he is about ready to get his foot in the door and i think that the TV journalists cannot ignore him any longer. i think his popularity is on the rise.
do you know that ron paul, MD (how could a doctor of medicine that knows about the 46 chromosomes in each race of humans it takes to make a human baby of any color be a RACIST??? that’s impossible.) takes all the blame for what his volunteers had put into a newletter a long time ago? do you know he shoulders the blame for this racism when he should be pointing fingers like americans have gotten too used to doing in the past and even today?
so what if ron paul LOOKS at the possibility that our government could have had someting to do with 9-11? for a long time, i refused to believe it and i still don’t believe it, but i have, by now, watched zeitgeist and i too find some very pointed questioning about exactly how 9-11 came about and that the government MAY have had something to do with it. as well as that it seems to always be true that when a country becomes dead broke, usually war, so horridly profitable, evolves.
i do not think that simply because ron paul has a questioning mind (like i have stated on my bumper sticker ever since 1986 “question authority,” which, btw, when i was stopped by the police, one of them actually told me he loved that bumper sticker and so, i offered to send him one!!!) that it disqualifies any potential for him being voted in as president. the people of the united states, via the loss of value of THEIR DOLLARS, are beginning to wake up and scratch their heads and say to themselves, “isn’t there anyone of more character, of more honesty–even if it’s the brutal truth–so that we can know it and then fix the problems inside of that brutal truth that is running for the president? why should we continue to be led down the politicians’ outlandish pathways whereby they promise everything to everyone all at the same time and also, that they tell lies, over and over again so that their personal agenda of gaining power over us will be achieved and perpetuated? why can’t we find anyone of real VALUE to lead us back to our values as americans? MUST WE vote for the status quo again, only to again be led astray, and perhaps, to end up getting into a much more costly, in dollars, but particularly in our boy’s lives and limbs, war?” i think americans are really and truly beginning to “question authority.” for example,
what really is the authority? is the authority what the politicians determine it to be, or is it OUR authority because we are careful in our responsibility to only elect true americans and honest people that will give us the truth, in order that we, the people, can work together to make it right? isn’t our country and its people more important than are other peoples of the world? why should we be concerned with the governments of every country on this planet? what about US??? yes, what about US, WE, THE PEOPLE? when will it be OUR TURN to be cared for? what with all the taxes they take, when will WE be number one on their agenda? when? what, should we wait for godot (an exitential play called “waiting for godot” which is the most boring play you could ever read or watch in your entire life) when gogot will never come swoop down to save us because godot just doesn’t give a damn? when will our politicians give a damn about us?
and yes, that is the case. when will they show and demonstrate via their DEEDS that they deserve our vote?
ron paul DESERVES to become our next president; however, i do not think that 4 years will be enough time for him to impliment the changes that it will take to get us back to being the republic that we once were. i think he will need at least 8 years, because first of all, he must convince congress to work with him when congress is full of self-serving and big-business-serving “congressmen” that really are out to benefit themselves via the connections they form while sitting around in their congressional offices for only 2 days per week, and zero days a week from memorial to labor days!
here is just one for instance of the questions: why does barrack obama claim that it is the responsibility of the united states of america to fork over 0.7 percent of our GDP every year to poverty-stricken nations, while we, the working class stiffs that are forever fearful of losing our jobs to big business concerns OUTSOURCING to poverty-stricken countries where the people will [carelessly make an item that should have a serial number stamped into its casing, but they don't even have the tools or knowledge or communication to put one on the item] make what we want and need here in our own country at one-tenth of the cost, then to give it over to middlemen and “global warming producing” oil-driven super tankers that are laden with gigantic boxcars (that hitch onto the backs of trucks that run on deisel fuel–yes, that climate changer!) of goods for use in the united states in order that it all gets overpriced when we go to the store to buy what we used to make better and cheaper than anyone else without all the outsourcing?
another instance: why should hillary rodham clinton force a national health care package down our throats that is equivalent to a very bad health care package, whereby we shall not be able to choose our own doctors or even stay with the doctors that already treat us within their specified FIFTEEN MINUTE appointment time frames that HMOs and PPOs (what a farce they are) have designated to be the acceptable time frame that they have to treat our ailments? why should we have our wages garnished by hillary’s tax collectors if we do not bow down to kiss her feet in utter ignorance, but loyalty, to her all-encompassing plan of health? just what in the world are we voting her in for?
for example: why vote for john mccain when his plan is to invade iran, which will have to, in turn, reestablish The Draft, which means that more and more innocent young men that may have had a chance to make it in their lifetimes, here, in our own country, even based on the little real education that they got taught to them in the government controlled public schools, and why should we let this status quo hawk make it so that we stay in the middle east for 100 years when we are already so deeply in debt to, for example, CHINA, for having outworn our welcome in iraq?!?
i think that the american people are JUST BEGINNING to see that ron paul is the right man to be elected, and the reason they

All I can say is I don’t want to see marijuana legalized. Ron Paul does. End of story.