For the Truth About Ron Paul, Skip the Article and Read the Comments

This election cycle, the American media seems determined to set the narrative, regardless of the inconvenience of facts. At the top of their list of priorities has been to destroy Ron Paul, no matter the cost. They have ignored him, ridiculed him, deliberately misrepresented his positions before attacking him on those false premises, conveniently neglected to report on almost all of his straw poll victories, and incessantly repeated the "he can't win" mantra. Indeed, Ron Paul's name is seldom mentioned anywhere without that caveat attached to it. For proof of this, one need only Google "Ron Paul" and read a few current articles. Paul's treatment by the media has been so blatantly biased that even The Daily Show's Jon Stewart ran a segment highlighting it. Ironically, that segment, which contained clips of several reporters suggesting that Paul and his views are unpopular, was the most-viewed of all Daily Show segments in 2011… by far.

One might argue that the media's treatment of Paul is appropriate, given his mediocre results in the first few caucus and primary states. However, this is a symptom of the media blackout of Paul and not a reflection of his real support. The reality is that there is an enormous disparity between what is really happening on the ground and the media's reports. Consider these facts that have been ignored or were severely underreported, at best:

• · Ron Paul has decisively won every single post-debate poll conducted by the network that hosted that debate. This was the case in 2007-2008 as well.
• · Ron Paul has won nearly every straw poll held in the country over the last two years. He continues to win them and they are not reported by any major media outlet.
• · Ron Paul receives more campaign contributions from active duty military than all other Republican candidates put together.
• · Ron Paul is the only military veteran remaining in the race.
• · Ron Paul correctly predicted the housing crisis in 2002 and voted against the Community Reinvestment Act, tried to close the open line of credit to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and has been trying to open the books at the Fed for decades.
• · Ron Paul fought for an audit of the Federal Reserve. When it finally passed a few years ago, we learned that the Fed spent nearly $16 trillion bailing out their cronies in 2008 and 2009.
• · Ron Paul stated in 2007 that we should remove troops from Afghanistan because Osama bin Laden was most likely hiding in Pakistan.
• · Though criticized for being "anti-Semitic", Paul's foreign policy position of allowing Israel to defend herself and regain her self-reliance and autonomy match up exactly with the requests made by Benjamin Netanyahu in front of the US Congress last Fall.

How did I learn these things about Ron Paul? To be sure, this information did not come from any mainstream articles or news reports. It was all found in the comments section below these poorly-researched (or deliberately false) articles written about him. In fact, a treasure trove of information about Paul can be found by reading comments in defense of him underneath articles packed full of straw-man arguments, smears, name-calling, half-truths, and bald-faced lies. This is because Ron Paul's supporters are easily the most studied of all supporters on economics, history, philosophy, and current events.

The truth about Ron Paul is that he's a doctor, veteran, 12-term Congressman, husband of 54 years, and a brilliant (yet humble) libertarian. Every vote he's ever taken in the House has been in support of the Constitution. This makes him the single most conservative Congressman in the last 100 years or more. He's pro-life, pro-gun, and pro-civil liberties. His supporters started the tea party. He's probably done more than any one man to influence the Occupy movement as well. Though much is said about his inability to win the Republican nomination; any objective reporter would agree that he is the only candidate in the race with the ability to secure votes from Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Tea Partiers, Occupiers, and the hordes of apathetic voters who have given up on the political process in this country altogether. So Google "Ron Paul", then do yourself a favor: skip the article and read the comments.