Ron Paul: The 'Old School' Republican

Just months ago the name of this ten-term congressman from Texas would elicit a response none other than "Ron who?" But in the age of the internet that is 'so few months ago'. Today Congressman Ron Paul is making tremendous waves all over the web, surpassing Paris Hilton as the third most mentioned person in the blogosphere.

In the Republican lineup of presidential hopefuls Ron Paul stands alone on a vast array of issues, ranging from opposition to invasion of Iraq to his stand against the Patriot Act and FEMA. His raw libertarian fervor and adamantly contrarian voting record have earned Paul the name "Doctor No" and put him at odds with Republican bigwigs.

It is exactly that contrast with today's heavily right-leaning GOP that made Ron Paul an unexpected internet sensation. The World Wide Web was first effectively utilized for fund razing and community building by Howard Dean and has since become the Democrats' turf. Yet among the Republicans Paul is the king of cyberspace, beating Giuliani almost two to one according to the Pajamas Media Republican straw poll.

The Web 2.0 phenomenon of blogs and community forums has also been the rallying point for the growing number of Independents, many of whom are starting to migrate to the Paul camp for such positions as ending the federal war on drugs and getting rid of the Department of Homeland Security.

A self proclaimed "champion of the Constitution", Paul frequently reverts to the Framers during House debates. He relentlessly quotes Madison in support of his resistance to the Iraq war: "The Constitution supposes what the history of all governments demonstrates, that the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has, accordingly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the legislature."

Abortion is perhaps the only issue on which Paul lays down his libertarian arms. A specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Paul delivered over 4,000 babies. "I could get paid for killing a fetus one second before birth, but I could get arrested for killing it one second later," he says, "there's something very strange about that."

At the May 15^th televised presidential debates Paul spoke truth to frontrunner, when he called Rudy Giuliani on his pro-war attitude. "Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us?" he said, referring to Michael Scheue's book Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. "They attack us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years."

Statements to this effect have made Ron Paul the de facto spokesman for the growing number of those, who go beyond the "9/11 hero" rhetoric to question Giuliani's actual qualifications on terrorism. On MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Bill Maher, a popular political satirist and commentator said that "all of the experts told him [Giuliani] to move the command-and-control center out of the World Trade Center. He put it in the World Trade Center." On his HBO show Maher, who professed Ron Paul to be his personal hero, also repeatedly said that the word "hero" should not be used to describe someone who is merely doing his job.

Yet despite the internet blitz, Paul's national numbers are minuscule. On the issues, his pure libertarian approach to policy is often viewed as radical in the context of GOP's current interventionalist trends. What's more, short 72 year-old Ron Paul is hardly picturesque next to the chiseled Mitt Romney, or tall and distinguished-looking Fred Thomson. The situation is further exacerbated by Paul's campaign managers, who insofar have done a dreadful job with their candidate even in light of recent success on the web.

Unlike Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, Ron Paul is one of only four candidates to serve in the US Armed Forces. However, Paul's campaign has yet to contrast him from the two frontrunners by reminding the public of his honorable military service. Conversely, Colorado's Tom Tancredo supported the war in Vietnam as a Republican student activist, but requested a "1-Y" mental health deferment when becoming eligible to serve.

The nation also witnessed unbounded name dropping of Ronald Reagan as millions tuned in to watch the first republican debate at the Reagan Library. And while each of Republicans forged his own attempts to emulate America's foremost optimist, few of those watching realized that Ron Paul was Reagan's earliest supporter and one of only four Republican congressmen to endorse him for president in 1976.

Despite all the warranted attention this Goldwater congressman is still in the second tier, miles behind the flashy frontrunners. And thus it is becoming increasingly clear that Ron Paul is the Denis Kucinich of the GOP - the true, the timely, and the valiant voice of his party; a voice that is almost certain to never reach the highest halls of power.