It started with some random
Facebook status, "Who is Ron Paul?"
Who is Ron Paul? I thought to myself, who is this guy? He moves young people and cures "political apathy" which was a misunderstood concept to me at the time. He is laughed at by the Republican Party, who I thought could do no wrong, and criticized by the Democratic Party, whom I have never seen do right.
Lets set the stage of my political life at this time.
I was so busy defending President George W. Bush and GOP principles of the time, I lost myself. The President was socializing education even further with No Child Left Behind, he was taking part in interventionist policies, foreign and domestic. He was impeding the pursuit of liberty with the Patriot act. Finally, he bailed out failing companies and intruded in the private market, I found myself saying inside, "I don't believe in these things.."
I asked myself "Am I a Republican?"
I didn't agree with hardly anything we were doing. I studied and studied, I tried to look like a conservative and sound like a moderate at the same time. I was using the cop-outs like "If you're doing no wrong then you have nothing to hide" to defend the so-called Patriot Act or in defense of the bail outs I would say "..sometimes the government has to step in to make sure chaos doesn't ensue."
I was becoming something I whole-heartily disagreed with, a liberal.
And then, some random
Facebook status said "Who is Ron Paul?"
It was January of 2008, I was on a hunting trip with my grandfather in Iowa, in the middle of the Iowa caucus. We drove down the snow drifted streets of
Corydon, Iowa and I looked on at the campaign signs out in the open fields. There was Mike
Huckabee, whom my family supported, and then Mitt Romney, then Hillary Clinton, a lot of John Edwards...I commented on every one of the signs trying to stir a response or a debate out of my grandpa, who was the rock of my love of politics. He just kept driving, turning up the
doo-wop music to drown my political rambling.
Finally, I assume I pestered him enough and he looked straight ahead and said something that secretly I held in my heart for the rest of that primary election, and even on to the general election.
He said of the candidates,"All known names, all more of the same."
He was right.
There wasn't that big of a difference between any of the names that were flashing by on the side of the road. I sat there, hopeless for a while. I wanted to support someone that was going to change the world. Another John Kennedy, or a Ronald Reagan.
And then, a small car driven by a guy in his mid-twenties passed us. In the back seat he had a sign that said, "Google Ron Paul". I looked at grandpa, and he looked at me knowing we had been looking at the same thing.
"What about Ron Paul?" I asked.
Grandpa's response, "Never heard of him..."
I watched the debates, looking for my candidate to electrify the crowd (which never happened). I watched them all say the same things in more or less words.
All except for,
you guessed it,
Ron Paul.
I was young and looking for something to conform to. I had grown up and matured under "
Dubya" and that was my brand of Republicanism,
Neo-conservative, big spending, corporatist, interventionist bull crap. It truly was bull crap, but it was MY bull crap, I didn't believe in it, but it was all there was to believe in, I thought.
I watched Ron Paul attack my candidate, my President and my Party.
I was going through some type of political ideological war in my heart.
I tried to defend them against the onslaught I heard from Congressman Paul.
I was yelling at my television, yelling at Ron Paul and his supporters in the crowd. I grew to resent this so called "Ron Paul Revolution".
He had taken my love of
Neo-conservatism, walked it out back, and put it down like Old
Yeller.
And, then a bunch of random
Facebook statuses said "Who is Ron Paul?"
The months went on, Fred Thompson fizzled out, Rudy dropped out, McCain was winning,
Huckabee was still floating around.
I watched with a dropped jaw as the primaries settled down, and John McCain and Barack Obama became our contenders for the Presidency.
I was disappointed, but I said "Hey, it could be worse."
I told myself I would campaign for John McCain, learn the ins and outs of grass roots campaigning and learn how to, as Pappy
O'Daniel would say, "court the electorate".
I worked hard. Went door to door, walked several parade routes, organized political rallies, made hundreds of phone calls, and put up yard signs everywhere. I was published in the newspaper, interviewed by television stations and cussed out more than any 17 year old kid should be, all of this I did to support a candidate that I didn't even believe in.
Alas, we lost.
Some random
Facebook status read "
Should've went with Ron Paul"
That December, I went to the mall with my friend Jason, who had been a Bob Barr supporter. On the way there we got into a heated debate in his car about politics and government and he had my heart beating and my head turning. I was now in the political mood as we entered the
Ashland Town Center Mall, and I insisted we head to Walden Books.
As we walked in I immediately headed for the history section and Jason headed toward the literature. We goofed around and poked fun at some of the book titles, we thumbed through the pages of a couple of interesting ones, and we stood and scoffed at the fact that there were more copies of "Twilight" than the works of Walt Whitman.
After we had our fill of the books, we began to walk out, when I noticed on the side of the politics shelf, a book called "The Revolution: A Manifesto"
by none other than Ron Paul.
Interested, I picked up the book.
I bought it.
I read it.
And MY
Facebook status read "Google Ron Paul."
I read in depth, Rep. Paul's story and his ongoing fight for freedom and liberty. I found that his beliefs matched mine. He explained his reasoning on his highly controversial stances.
He explained the differences of isolationism and non-interventionism. He talked about the necessity for the United States to keep its nose out of other countries affairs and to respect their sovereignty. He showed that, by our intervening, we had created anti-American sentiment and global hatred of, not our liberty but, our arrogance.
He showed the undermining plots of unelected bureaucrats that are robbing us of our freedom and devaluing our monetary system.
He taught me the importance of states rights and the significance of my rights.
He pointed out the flaws of the current Republican stances and showed me the roots of my party.
He looked me in the eye and told me that I was involved in the worst practice a person like me could be mixed up in, Ideological Apathy.
I suppressed my true beliefs to conform with the beliefs of a particular sect of a political party. What was worse than doing that, was the fact that I knew I was doing it, and in knowing, said nothing.
I didn't look for a better way, a different voice, a new party or way of thinking.
I made myself change.
I gave up my liberty, voluntarily.
Ron Paul showed me I didn't have to agree with everyone.
He showed me that I could stand up, sometimes alone, and be heard.
He told me, if the cause is just and the message is truth, who is going to silence me?
Ron Paul showed me that I am free.
So I ask you.
"Who is Ron Paul?"
And I believe some
Facebook status will say "I believe in Ron Paul."
