Dr. Ron Paul - The Exponential Rise in Popularity & Why He May Represent the Very Same Voter that Propelled Barrack Obama in 2008Johnston-Sequoia Commentary:
Let me begin by saying this is the first & quite possibly the last time I speak publicly in regard to politics. This bloghub is intended to be a community - which by definition is an organization of individuals committed to supporting a shared vision. It is for this reason and this reason alone I choose to write this piece.
As of January 1st, 2012 approximately 500 million people use Facebook, 300 million use Twitter, 200 million use Mobile Youtube & 100 million professionals use LinkedIn worldwide. This is the media if you were born after 1972. We work 10 - 14 hour days before you consider the daily commute and we simply do not have the time to watch the evening news. However, thanks to the internet individuals (in particular younger individuals) can share an idea in an instant. We watched in 2008 as this very concept and model assisted the world's largest economy in taking a progressive step in it's storied evolution by electing it's very first African American President. It is this very same vehicle that may be dominated by the very intelligent, very polite Ron Paul supporters in 2012.
"Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American physician, author, Republican United States Representative, and a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination. He has been an outspoken critic of American foreign and monetary policies, recognized for sharply opposing his own party on many issues. Since 1997, Paul has represented Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes Galveston. Paul serves on the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Financial Services, and on the Joint Economic Committee, as well as chairman of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Paul is a graduate of Gettysburg College and Duke University School of Medicine, where he earned his medical degree. He served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force from 1963 until 1968. He worked as an obstetrician-gynecologist during the 1960s and 1970s, delivering more than 4,000 babies, before entering politics in 1976.
Following his 2008 run for the Republican Party presidential nomination, Paul became the initiator of the advocacy group Campaign for Liberty and his ideas have been expressed in numerous published articles and books, including Liberty Defined: 50 Essential Issues That Affect Our Freedom (2011), End The Fed (2009), The Revolution: A Manifesto (2008), Pillars of Prosperity (2008), A Foreign Policy of Freedom: Peace, Commerce, and Honest Friendship (2007), and The Case for Gold (1982). His son Rand Paul was elected to the United States Senate for Kentucky in 2010, making the elder Paul the first Representative in history to serve concurrently with a child in the Senate. Paul has been characterized as the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement.He has become well known for his libertarian ideas on many political issues, often differing from both Republican and Democratic Party stances.
On July 12, 2011, Paul announced that he would not seek another term in Congress in order to focus on his presidential bid."
Legislation
Highlights Include:
- Imposing term limits
- Abolish the Federal Reserve
- He has helped prohibit funding for national identification numbers, funding for federal teacher certification, International Criminal Court jurisdiction over the U.S. military, American participation with any U.N. global tax, and surveillance of peaceful First Amendment activities by citizens.
- He introduced "Sunlight Rule" legislation, which requires lawmakers to take enough time to read bills before voting on them, after the Patriot Act was passed within 24 hours of its introduction. Paul was one of six Republicans to vote against the Iraq War Resolution, and (with Oregon representative Peter DeFazio) sponsored a resolution to repeal the war authorization during February 2003. Paul's speech, 35 "Questions That Won't Be Asked About Iraq," was translated and published in German, French, Russian, Italian, and Swiss periodicals before the Iraq War began.
- Paul says his fellow members of Congress have increased government spending by 75 percent during the presidency of George W. Bush. After a 2005 bill was touted as "slashing" government waste, Paul wrote that it decreased spending by a fraction of one percent and that "Congress couldn't slash spending if the members' lives depended on it." He said that during three years he had voted against more than 700 bills intended to expand government.
- Paul has introduced several bills to apply tax credits to education, including credits for parental spending on public, private, or homeschool students (Family Education Freedom Act); for salaries for all K–12 teachers, librarians, counselors, and other school personnel; and for donations to scholarships or to benefit academics (Education Improvement Tax Cut Act). In accord with his political opinions, he has also introduced the Sanctity of Life Act in each Congress from the 109th (2005–06) through the 112th (2011–12), the We the People Act, and the American Freedom Agenda Act.
- During June 2011, Paul co-sponsored a bill with U.S. Representative Barney Frank that is intended to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.
--- Source - Ron Paul Wikipedia
What are his Goals if Elected President?
"I'll run on my record - not away from it. And I'll lay out my Plan to Restore America, which:
- CUTS $1 trillion in federal spending during the first year of my presidency without taking one penny from our seniors, our veterans, or our national defense;
- BALANCES the federal budget in my third year;
- ELIMINATES FIVE federal departments, including the bloated Department of Education, which Newt Gingrich voted to create, and Rick Santorum voted to dramatically expand;
- REDUCES the federal workforce by 10%, slashes congressional pay and perks, curbs excessive federal travel, and lowers my salary as President from $400,000 to $39,336 - which is roughly equal to the median personal income of the American worker."
Who Would Do the Best Against Barrack Obama?
Dr. Ron Paul. "The congressman from Texas, who also ran as a libertarian candidate for president in 1988 and who is well liked by many in the tea party movement, trails the president by only seven points (52 to 45 percent) in a hypothetical general election showdown. Huckabee trails by eight points, with Romney down 11 points to Obama."
--- CNN Poll 2011-05-05
Social Media in Barrack Obama's 2008 Presidential Campaign:
How Obama Tapped Into Social Networks’ Power
David Carr
New York Times
"“Thomas Jefferson used newspapers to win the presidency, F.D.R. used radio to change the way he governed, J.F.K. was the first president to understand television, and Howard Dean saw the value of the Web for raising money,” said Ranjit Mathoda, a lawyer and money manager who blogs at Mathoda.com. “But Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use the Web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work.”
All of the Obama supporters who traded their personal information for a ticket to a rally or an e-mail alert about the vice presidential choice, or opted in on Facebook or MyBarackObama can now be mass e-mailed at a cost of close to zero. And instead of the constant polling that has been a motor of presidential governance, an Obama White House can use the Web to measure voter attitudes....
“It’s clear there has been a dramatic shift,” said Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, an annual conference about the intersection of politics and technology. “Any politician who fails to recognize that we are in a post-party era with a new political ecology in which connecting like minds and forming a movement is so much easier will not be around long.
“Yes, we have met Big Brother, the one who is always watching. And Big Brother is us.""
--- David Carr
New York Times
Why Do Young Voters Care?:
Ron Paul supporters are passionate, young, intelligent and full of energy. They're also the demographic that is by far the most affected by the downturn in unemployment. With student loans at all-time highs - being unemployed or underemployed in your twenty's and thirty's can be nearly impossible to recover from. The change that these voters were seeking with Obama in 2008 is exactly what Dr. Paul represents here in 2012.
We shall watch with keen interest as this social media led campaign unfolds for Dr. Paul. "Ron Paul Supporters - They're Everywhere..." - As always please do your own due diligence.
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