LA Times: Foot soldiers for the Ron Paul revolution

Pretty accurate write up from the LA Times of the freaks, truthers, neo-nazis, John Bircher cranks, isolationists, pot-smokers, peace lovers, hippies, tax protesters, constitutionalists, freedom lovers, anarchists, and weirdos that populate the meetup groups:

Paulites tend to be tech-savvy, tired of traditional politics and suspicious of their government and the mainstream media.

But after that, they defy categories. A quick survey of the Pasadena group found Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Constitution Party followers uniting behind some or all of the Paul libertarian agenda -- ending the war in Iraq, abolishing gun control laws, legalizing marijuana and dismantling big hunks of the U.S. government, especially the IRS and Federal Reserve system.

I've attended a couple of meetups in Southern California, and you will never meet a group of people who are more informed, more creative, and more motivated than these people. They are savvy, have resources, and are very upset about the status quo. They don't like Bush, they REALLY don't like Hillary, and they think the rest of the candidates are more of the same. Oh yeah, and their numbers are growing.


But why? Why Ron Paul? I wrote this way back in May (new and improved with better formatting!):

Why him? Hope. History is littered with the wreckage of failed empires, the map of which our country is following. Entangling alliances, oppressive government policies on it own citizens, failure to protect and defend its borders, continued currency devaluation. It’s all there. I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Ron Paul gives me hope that it is not too late. That the ills our country faces in the near and long term can be cured. That the constant and increasing intrusion of our government into our lives can be stopped and the correlating freedoms that have been stamped out can be restored.

He gives me hope because he knows that the map to restoring our greatness exists, it is tried and true and it will work.

When I say greatness, I don’t mean having the biggest and best military, we have that. There is greatness in the people that make up this country; for the most part we are generous, hardworking, optimistic, law-abiding citizens. When I talk about restoring greatness to this country, I am talking about setting its people free.

Free to pursue our dreams, free to think what we want, free criticize our government, free to defend ourselves, free to choose how we live and free to fail and accept the consequences of that failure.

That is what America is about, choosing the path that makes the most sense to us. The audacious idea that each and every one of us has the ability to choose the life they want to lead because we know what’s best.

That is what attracts people to us. That is why we won the great war against communism. That is what made my parents move half a world away with only each other to build their life around. That is what will save us from an economic and political meltdown.

Here we are 8 months later, and I'm more optimistic than ever that he will win the nomination. (Eat it Stephanopolous)