If you want a single proof of how miserable the Republican presidential candidates look to their natural convervative constituency you have to look no farther than this NY Times headline: Ron Paul Raises More Than $4 Million in One Day. Yes, Ron Paul raised more in a single day than first-tier Republican candidate Mitt Romney did on his best single day. Even more bizarre is the motivation for the giving on that day. Some bright bulb decided Paul’s campaign needed a Guy Fawkes tie-in. Other than fireworks and the ominous threat of revolution implied by the figure of Guy Fawkes, I’m not sure what the connection would be. Whatever it was, it seemed to work.
Do you think if Rudy were firing up the base there would be such a huge groundswell for a ten-term Texas Congressmember whose name was barely known outside his district until last year? There’s only one explanation that makes sense to me: none of the other Republican candidates make sense to their fellow Republicans and they’re looking for somewhere to turn.
Paul clearly caters to libertarian voters and some of these may come from other parties. In fact, I’m seeing lots of Ron Paul signs on lawns in Seattle, which is really startling. I can’t tell you the last time I saw a sign on a lawn here touting a libertarian Republican candidate. There’s something going on here but you don’t know what it is–do you, Mr. Giuliani?
My fervent wish is that Paul will run a third party candidacy though given how badly Bush is doing for the Republicans’ prospects the Democratic candidate may not need that to win.
I think the tie-in wasn’t so much with Guy Fawkes Day, as with the recent movie V for Vendetta, where the Guy Fawkes plot is used as a symbol. It’s a political thriller, the story of a people taking back control of their country from a corrupt government exploiting fear to maintain power. It’s set in a near-future Britain but the political analogies are hard to miss.
But coincidence, I just saw it recently and rather enjoyed it.
Ah, now I understand. I was misled by the first paragraph of the story which focussed solely on Guy Fawkes, the historical figure. It wasn’t till the second paragraph that Kirkpatrick mentioned the film. Thanks for correcting me.
Nice piece in this month’s Harper’s on Guy Fawkes Day “Happy Counter-terrorism Day” (http://tinyurl.com/2bhpa8) that concludes there are three lessons from Guy Fawkes:
1. Torture Never Works and is Always Wrong
2. Beware the Government that Rules By Fear
3. A Government That Stereotypes Is Unjust
The article concludes:
“The original George W. saw things quite differently. For him, America was involved in a struggle for its liberty, and the commemoration of Guy Fawkes stood for the opposite: government by fear, oppression of a minority, a celebration of arbitrary power. Guy Fawkes Day was the abnegation of the essential values of the Revolution. So the original George W. put it in an order: No more Guy Fawkes Day.”
We need to be very wary of the Ron Paul campaign he has some very serious anti-Semitic skeletons in his closet with his past relationship to the “Patriot Militia” movement. There were some articles penned his name (that he is trying to pass off as the work of a “Ghost writer” and hence claims no responsibility) that are very troubling…
OBviously this isn’t the point of your post – but he seems to be getting a complete pass from our illustrious media on this (outisde of David Neiwart’s blog)
I too am skeptical of Paul & I certainly wouldn’t vote for or support him.
Richard – just to make clear – I didn’t think you were implying in ANY way that you would – I just think that the extremist/anti-semitic aspect to Paul is being grossly overlooked. Once again – Neiwart does a great job in brining up the issue after i posted my last response here:
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2007/11/ron-paul-and-his-followers.html
“the extremist/anti-semitic aspect to Paul”
Don’t you have to at least pretend to justify smears like this? Any evidence you’d care to offer (apart from the eternal, ever-present antisemitism in all gentile hearts, of course)?
I think the jury’s out on whether Ron Paul is anti-Semitic. I tend to be doubtful on the subject but I’m waiting to see whether more information comes out as a result of the closer media scrutiny Paul will clearly get due to his fundraising bonanza last week. I think he’s probably somewhat ill-informed & cliche-bound on some of these issues, but that’s diff. than being an anti-Semite.
Michael Weiss wrote an excellent post on the subject at Jewcy.