The Ron Paul Revolution?
I've never understood the Ron Paul candidacy, but I'm constantly suprised when I meet his supporters. It's such a hodge-podge of backers that I never expected them to organize. Besides all the graffiti, the signs over freeways, the bumper stickers slapped on newspaper boxes, I didn't think there was much below the surface.But today I learn, via Atrios, that Paul apparently raised 2.4 million dollars...in one day! That's pretty remarkable for a protest candidate. Is this real? (update: 4.2 million in 1 day)
Is this anything beyond general disatisfaction with the political system? Paul's backers would hardly agree on much besides their universal dislike of the political process as it stands in this country. But his supporters are apparently willing to their money where their mouths are.
Of course, never discount plain old kooky voter attitudes. On debate day I met a student who didn't want to join the Drexel Democrats because she was a libertarian. I asked her if she was supporting Paul, and she didn't know who he was. Then she mentioned that she was supporting Joe Biden, and I didn't detect an ounce of sarcasm. The distributions of voter information and attitudes have some pretty long tails.
If there are any Drexel Students out there supporting Paul, please enlighten me in the comments. I'd like to know why I'm missing all the excitement.
