An open letter to Ron Paul fans on the limitations of radical political candidates
Posted
Wed, Dec 26 2007 5:16 PM
by
HeroicLife
Dear Ron Paul Supporter,
Do you honestly believe that your candidate
has a chance in hell of winning the primaries, much less the general elections?
I could cite results from every
reputable polling organization that show Ron Paul with less than 3% of the vote,
but I have a feeling that you will find some reason for their bias, and point
to the online polls that Ron Paul forums enthusiastically and systematically
flood as evidence of his imminent triumph. Dr Paul
himself has repeatedly stated that his campaign is about the message - a
message that most news commentators cannot understand, much less inform the
public about. Online communities make for good news quips, but the
"archaic" gold standard, or the question of whether Ron Paul
is an isolationist is far beyond what news commentators can be expected to
understand.
Despite this, it is undeniable that
the success of Ron
Paul's campaign has been a
surprise to just about everyone, and tapped into some hidden resource that few
suspected of existing. Perhaps it really is the power of the Internet,
coupled with public discontent with the presidential administration and
congressional incompetence. Perhaps people are really uniting around a
leader who offers radical new ideas rather than yet another personality
cult. Even if his current support base is just a fraction of what is to
come, does it really amount to anything?
When the election is over a little
less than a year from now, will any of it matter? Ron Paul
will probably face defeat in the first few primaries, and if he chooses to run
on the Libertarian ticket, he will get the usual 1-3% of the vote. What
will all the millions he raised and all the hours his volunteers spent mean
then? Even if by some miracle, he were to win, it would be of little
practical consequence. Like all politicians, presidents wield their power
by cutting deals and compromising left and right. Without willingness to
compromise on all his principles, President Paul
will be lucky if he is not impeached in the first week.
I am not saying that Ron Paul
is the wrong candidate to support. I am questioning the premise that
radical political ideologies can or should be advocated through political
campaigns. This fact has been aptly demonstrated by the pathetic failure of the Libertarian Party over the last 30+ years. The Left has been much better at recognizing
the failure of explicitly Marxist political movements early in the 20th
century, and successfully shifted the focus of American politics by
establishing a firm foundation in academia and then infiltrating both major
parties.
Whatever your particular political
philosophy, it is not even that likely that Ron Paul
is a great match for it. Whether it is his anti-immigration views, his
promise of saving social security, his blame-America foreign policy, his
borderline theocratic positions, or his support for the state as such, he is
unlikely to be a perfect fit for anyone. Much of his success is in fact
due to moderating or hiding the most radical aspects of his libertarianism, such
as masking his support for free trade by his opposition to free-trade
agreements, or his scapegoating of "illegal aliens seeking the fruits of your
labor" as part of his plan to save Social Security.
An educational movement does not
need to hide its radical views. Sure,
you might not raise five or six million dollars in a day, but the resources you
do have will be spent on spreading ideas, rather than a name and a number in
the polls. Even an extra million votes
is not going to make a bit of difference in the general election, but a
thousand more students motivated to spread rational ideas on liberty can change
the world.
I am not telling you to remove that Ron Paul
bumper sticker. Just recognize the inherent
limitations of radical political candidates in a two party democracy, and
consider supporting educational organizations that will never have to compromise
or hide their principles in order to spread their message.
[Follow up post.]