South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint, the darling of the Tea Party wing nuts of the GOP, is urging Republican candidates to listen to Ron Paul. "One of the things that's hurt the so-called conservative alternative is saying negative things about Ron Paul," DeMint told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. "I'd like to see a Republican Party that embraces a lot of the libertarian ideas."
Why the sudden enthusiasm of Republican leaders for Ron Paul? Credit his surprisingly strong showing in New Hampshire, where 47 percent of primary voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for him.
No other Republican candidate has come nearly as close to winning over young voters -- and the GOP desperately needs young voters. The median age of registered Republicans is rising faster than the median age of America.
The Republican right thinks Paul's views on the economy are responsible for this fire among the young. Tuesday evening, on Larry Kudlow's CNBC program, I squared off with Larry and the Wall Street Journal's Steve Moore. Both are convinced young people are attracted by Paul's strict adherence to the views of Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises, and Paul's desire to move America back to the gold standard.
Baloney. The young are flocking to Ron Paul because he wants to slice military spending, bring our troops home, stop government from spying on American citizens, and legalize pot.
So do I, but I somehow doubt Jim DeMint would advise Republican candidates to listen to me, even if I were a Republican candidate for president.
Paul is attractive to younger voters precisely because of positions he takes that are anathema to the vast majority of the Republican base, including almost all Tea Party Republicans.
If other Republican candidates want to cozy up to him, fine. But if they do, they'll have a lot of explaining to do in Bluffton, South Carolina.
On the other hand, if Republicans -- or Democrats, for that matter -- want to win over much of the nation's young next November, they'd do well to listen carefully to Paul's positions on national defense and civil liberties.
Robert Reich is the author of Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future, now in bookstores. This post originally appeared at RobertReich.org.
Follow Robert Reich on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RBReich
On the drug war as chief law enforcement officer he has enormous discression with regard to prosecution, and to hiring and firing prosecutors. He can simply choose to not prosecute non-violent drug offenses for the duration of his presidency .
A president Paul could pardon non-violent drug offenders en mass.
Yes he would have some problems with congress, but he would have big stick called a veto to use that presidents that like to recklessly spend the people's money cannot use as the congress controls appropriations. A president that WANTS massive cuts to the budget can use a veto freely.
Ron Paul's comment on this position? "It should have been like that all along!"
Liberty! Yeah! Not only forcing the invasion of vagina's but standing between a woman and her Doctor and legally dictating private medical care.
I bet Ron Paul will open up 10 ultrasound clinics.
I will be there next week. I wish I could close up shop in Texas without hurting my business and the great people who work with me.
I guess you kids plan on living off your parents for the duration.
Screaming about legalization of pot. I don't want potheads working for me. Most jobs worth having drug test so I see you could care less about them.
Screaming about FREEDOM. You guys have more freedom and liberty then any other generation in this country. What you don't have is JOBS.
You are following behind Ron Paul instead of pressuring your local Congressional office to address your issues. Ron Paul spent umpteen years and Congress and only proposed isolationist bills that had no chance of passing instead of crossing the aisle and getting with the progressives that agreed with him on anti-war stances and see how he could help in bi-partisan legislation.
Paul has crossed the aisle to propose bills with progressive members of the house on numerous issues of major importance to our society. He co-sponsored a bill with Kucinich to end funding for the Iraq war. He co-sponsored a bill with Barney Frank to decriminalize cannabis. Paul freaking endorsed Ralph Nader for President in 2008.
He agreed to cosponsor a bill against the no-fly zone in LYBIA and he didn't. You guys have an annoying habit of stretch armstronging the truth. It is NAUSEATING!
NAACP supports Ron Paul and other such nonsense. Go read a book and get off the internet Sean.
He is not purchased by special interest money. He is willing to be honest with them even if it's bad. Even if you do not agree with all his positions, most passionately agree with one or two...passionately.
He is the anti politician, and he is concerned with people as humans first, citizens second protected by a sacred document second. Everything else is noise and jockeying for the government money created and sought by big business.
Young people know something is wrong with the promise of their country and Ron Paul is the one willing to talk with them about it. He doesn't write them off as petulant, entitled, and tell them to go get a job that doesn't exist for them.
It is they that have to fight the wars and go into debt for an education.
It is they that have to bear the burden of this massive debt, decreasing health care benefits, rising energy costs, and exportation of industry overseas. This is not hard to understand.
They all know as we all know the drug war has been a colossal failure. They also keenly understand that currency is no longer paper notes, but binary digits in the cloud controlled by no one they trust.
Ron Paul is the only candidate speaking honestly to them...... and an authentic anything is better than a fake.
I think young people flock to Ron Paul for a far different reason than either economics or War, although those are certainly compelling.
I think it's the growing feeling in this country, especially amongst the young, that things are fundamentally broken and a catalyst for change at a base level is needed. We as a people are tired of a government that continually lies to us and tells us its for our own good. We are tired of the control that multinationals and corporations have over our government. We are tired of politicians who funnel money into their pet projects (Haliburton, Solydra) and bail out the Goldman Sachs of the world. We are sick of attending schools with awful teachers. Sick of being shuffled into meaningless jobs in meaningless fields if those are even available. We are tired of feeling powerless to change anything.
This all culminates into a fundamental belief that the real issue is government Corruption, at every level.
This is why Ron Paul's message resonates. Defund the sociopaths, defund their special interest programs, defund their wars, defund their lies.
The young are staring at a broken system, and calling for a cleaning of house.
They want Ron Paul because he represents the most radical agent of change possible.
And they're right.
He is totally out of touch with today's young. Paul's young supporters are serious student of politics, and strongly believe in the founding principles of small government and personal freedom. They are genuinely afraid of the over-regulation and fiscal irresponsibility demonstrated by both parties in Washington, and want the federal government returned to its Constitutional limits.
Reich cannot comprehend that young people are capable of independent thought, so he dismisses opponents of Big Government as slackers and pot heads.
i have serious concerns about his positions on medicare and social security. i see his point on getting rid of the department of agriculture and other agencies that impose regulations written by lobbyists (revolving door syndrome) to give their companies an unfair advantage. i am most concerned with civil liberties being eroded like ndaa and the patriot act and i agree with paul on these issues. it would be a very difficult decision to choose either dennis kucinich/cynthia mckinney/ralph nader or ron paul. i think i would need to hear a very long and detailed debate and do some serious studying to decide that, but i think all of the politicians i just mentioned are honest, respectable, and principled people that would genuinely do their best to help the american people. if you want to know where the young people are at in this country, look to where these politicians agree to find your answers.
RON PAUL 2012!
Your paragraph, starting with "Baloney.", hits the nail on the head, squarely.
There are a LOT of positions RP takes that are absolutely ludicrous, but the issues you've included in that pararaph are 'exactly' why the younger voters are supporting him.
So yes, the DNC should jump on this and tell the Prez to curb the "Offense" and pentagon spending substantially more to win back the younger voters appeal.
I would love to see a Paul - Obama debate.
I believe I would still vote for Obama. But you have to have real respect for the old Dr.
I think if Dr. Paul was president he'd have to make allot of compromises. He probably do at least as well as the last several the PTB have chosen. Seems they, the PTB, really don't want him to get it, or even be taken seriously.
Someone please explain to him that a family living below the poverty level that is currently paying no tax will not save enough money on taxes to put food on their table when WIC is eliminated...