Why Ron Paul and other candidates deserve better
Posted by Jason Easley on 07.09.2007
Ron Paul finally got some air time on a national Sunday morning talk show this week, only to have the host tell him that he wasn't going to win the election. In this brief commentary, I'll talk about why candidates like Paul deserve better, and why they won't get it.
Why Ron Paul and other candidates deserve better
While appearing on ABC's This Week program on Sunday morning Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul formally announced that he had quadrupled his fundraising from the first quarter of the year. In the first quarter Paul raised $640,000, but that number soared in the second quarter due to the Texas Congressman's large base of support on the Internet. The Paul campaign took in $2.4 million in the second quarter, and the candidate said that they still have all that money in the bank. When host George Stephanopoulos asked why his campaign had done so well he replied, "Some of the candidates are on the down slope; we're on the upslope. We feel good about what's happening."It is rare that a candidate that is being dismissed the way that Ron Paul is actually gets a sit down interview on one of the Sunday morning talk shows. However, Stephanopoulos displayed the typical mainstream media ignorance about the popularity of the Ron Paul campaign on a few different occasions during the interview. The host asked Paul why he thinks his campaign has grown in popularity. Paul replied, "I think people have underestimated the number of people in this country that are interested in a freedom message — just being free. Free of the government oppression of us, whether it's on our personal liberties, our economic liberties, and they certainly like the foreign policy of nonintervention." His biggest slight to Paul was when he told him that he can't win. I'm sure George would never think about saying this to a top Republican or Democrat.It must be pointed out that Dr. Paul still has a long way to go, if he is going to be a serious Republican contender in 2008. The floundering McCain campaign still managed to raise $11.2 million in the second quarter. Most of those funds were taken up by expenses and debt, and McCain was left with only $2 million in the bank. The McCain campaign countered the claims that the Paul campaign had out raised them by pointing out that they also have $800,000 in the bank for use during a potential general election campaign. However, the $800,000 does McCain no good if he can't win the 2008 Republican nomination. I think that the surge in fundraising for the Paul campaign is a continuation of what we learned during the 2004 Howard Dean Democratic campaign. The Internet is a powerful tool.So far establishment politicians like Barack Obama have figured out how to use the Internet for fundraising, but the Paul campaign has taken it another step and is using the Internet to spread a grassroots message of freedom from big government. I think this message resonates particularly well with anti-war Republicans, conservative Democrats, and Libertarians. After watching President Bush expand the federal government and his presidential powers for almost two terms, millions of Americans are fed up with it and want their freedom back. The biggest obstacle for candidates like Ron Paul is that the American political system has been corrupted to the point where fundraising dictates media coverage. McCain has gotten a week's worth of bad publicity due to his inability to raise money. However, it really shouldn't be a surprise that the mainstream media wouldn't really "get" why Ron Paul is popular. Mainstream media tends to view people like Paul as a novelty that should not be taken seriously because he isn't on television all the time. The problem for lower tier candidates who are trying to break though and gain mainstream coverage is that the media tends to devote most of the campaign coverage to the biggest fundraisers, the poll leaders, or the latest scandal. Thus, the media creates a self fulfilling prophecy. Candidates like Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich can't raise money because they aren't seen as able to win, and since the media thinks that they can't win, they don't get coverage. This is what made the fact that Paul got 7:21 of Sunday morning talk show airtime all the more important for him.It is also illuminating that a Washington D.C. insider like Stephanopoulos didn't feel that it was important enough to tell his views that Rep. Paul is the most watched Republican on YouTube. Paul has gotten 2.1 million views. The next closest Republican is Romney at 700,000, but both of them trail Barack Obama's 5.2 million. The difference is that Obama's channel has been up since last September, where as Paul's has been up for 3 months. Paul's channel also has 19,328 subscribers which is twice as many as Obama. Rep. Paul's Internet success has led to a small bump in the polls, but he is still mired far behind Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney.I am not a Ron Paul supporter, because many of his positions on social issues are far too conservative for me, but I do respect him and his views deeply. After much thought, I think I have come up with the reason why Ron Paul has become so popular, sincerity. In a campaign that is filled with prepackaged, imaged enhanced, sound byte machines, Ron Paul stands out because he is sincere. He is not taking positions to win votes. His positions are simply what he believes is right. There is something genuine about Ron Paul that causes him to stand out. In a crowded Republican field where everyone is trying hard to prove their conservatism, Ron Paul is a real conservative. He is a throw back even further than Ronald Reagan. He is a direct ancestor of Goldwater conservatism. The sad part of all this is that the good candidates in both parties are getting punished in the polls for taking positions and having plans. The Clintons, Obamas, and Giulianis have mastered the art of campaigning in vague generalities. When passionate and sincere candidates like Paul and Kucinich come along they are automatically penalized by the current system for wanting to talk about ideas. The reality is that the 2008 primary system has been rigged in favor of the candidates that have the national name recognition and can raise the money required to mount expensive media campaigns for the de facto national primary election on February 5. Candidates like Ron Paul deserve a real chance to take their message to the American people, but that will never happen as long as money dominates our politics.
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