The Chris Moeller Archives

Searching for Ron Paul

Ron Paul finished second to Michelle Bachmann in the Ames Republican Straw Poll on Saturday. (Oh, my beloved former home of Ames, Iowa-- why must you be increasingly known for this mortifying exercise in political and media fraud?) Paul lost by fewer than 200 votes, has raised more money than any GOP candidate other than Mitt Romney, and routinely finishes in the top 3 or 4 in GOP presidential nomination polls.

But he does not exist as far as the national news media is concerned. Bachmann appeared on five national television news programs on Sunday morning. Paul had one scheduled appearance, he says, and the show cancelled on him. Iowa's largest newspaper and national papers like USA Today declared Bachmann, Romney, and recent entry Rick Perry to be the frontrunners-- in bold headlines Sunday and Monday. Paul was given the same concentration as Herman Cain.

This is how it works. Paul is not a "serious" contender, by the estimation of the insiders, because he bores them with substance. He talks about policy while Bachmann accuses her political opponents of being anti-America. He questions the existence of the Federal Reserve Bank while Perry vaguely threatens violence towards the Fed's chairman.

Paul holds a belief system (libertarian) that is well-documented and quite popular, but he is anti-Washington to his core. He defies their narratives. He appears with Ralph Nader at joint news conferences and interviews to promote the concepts of third-parties and citizen empowerment. He's a Republican that opposes the imperial wars of Bush and Obama in the Middle East, opposes the surveillance state championed by both Democrats and Republicans, and opposes Wall Street bailouts on philosophical grounds, rather than politically-expedient ones. (In other words, unlike Bachmann, Romney, and Perry, Paul opposed bailouts under President Bush before he opposed them under President Obama.)

I'm not a libertarian. If you're talking about keeping government away from the sex lives of adults, or opposing illegal overreach by law enforcement against accused enemies of the state, I'm with you, but economically, for example, laissez faire capitalism has corrupted and nearly destroyed us. We've attempted at the allowance of investing and lending without government regulation and consumer safeguards, and the result is the clusterfuck you see outside your window. Bankers made off with billions by selling garbage loan products and then betting against them. Libertarians, at this point, should be considered wholly discredited in the debate, frankly, after the reckless and totally avoidable collapse of 2008. But I respect Paul, who is a libertarian through and through, because he never, ever panders and he's fundamentally honest. And you can count the honest politicians in Washington without having to take off your shoes and socks.

That's the final reason the Washington press corps doesn't treat Paul as a "serious" contender for the Republican nomination-- even though he drew 10% of party support in 2008 and has grown his campaign and fundraising operations considerably since, along with his national profile. The candidate that is treated seriously says things that are complete and utter bullshit. He or she flat out lies. In fact, if you don't lie or attempt to spin, you're not acting "serious," in their view. The traditional political press doesn't want to discuss matters of policy. Then they would be forced to acknowledge that some political ideas have more merit, fundamentally, than others. Instead, they prefer to hear mindless, focus group-approved piffle from candidates that allow them to judge the "performance" rather than the ideas themselves. That's what we've been getting from them thus far, and unfortunately, that's what we're going to be forced to endure for the next 15 months.

posted by CM @ 9:08 PM