Liberty Maven

A great article appeared on the Vanity Fair blog today regarding Ron Paul’s Rally For The Republic.

Last week, thousands of people descended upon Minneapolis—the other Twin City—for Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic, a colorful affair heavy on Revolutionary War symbolism. The gathering meant to serve as a message of revolt to the Republican Party from some of its most disaffected constituents. Just a little more than a cannon’s range away from Xcel center in St. Paul, where the official R.N.C was taking place, Paul’s rally attracted pilgrims from all over the country—some driving from as far as New York and Alabama, some even walking from Wisconsin, 200 miles away—and ended up having all the energy that the R.N.C. lacked in its halting start. The atmosphere was certainly more informal and the attendees more outré. Compared to the general electorate, Ron Paul believers tend to be disproportionately white and male, but they’re also younger and grungier. There’s a misfit quality to many of them, and a disagreeable odor to some. Ponytails, mullets, goatees, dreadlocks, and piercings were everywhere. But families also made the trip, a few wearing tricorne hats and other colonial clothing.

The culmination of the rally took place on Tuesday at the Target Center, where a procession of libertarian- and conservative-leaning speakers, including Grover Norquist, Tucker Carlson, and Jesse Ventura, condemned the state of the Republican establishment. (“Socialist” Democrats also took a lashing, though their evilness was so obvious as to warrant less mention.) They also praised Paul’s proposals to abolish the Fed, reinstate the gold standard, and immediately withdraw nearly all U.S. troops from abroad. By the time Barry Goldwater Jr. made the grand introduction, 12,000 people had gathered in the arena, and when Paul took the stage he electrified them with a call to action and a hard-hitting denunciation of the Patriot Act, the War on Drugs, national I.D. cards, and executive abuses. Paul is an underrated speaker capable of preacher-like animation, and he was particularly fired up on this night. No fewer than three times did stomping chants of “END THE FED!” break out.

Paul is no longer running for president. In fact, when I ask the 73-year-old Texas congressman if he’ll ever run for the White House again, he answers, “Oh, I doubt that very much,” then adds, “If I was anxious to do that then I would have continued the process, as an independent person or something, because we had a fair amount of momentum.” So what was the point of his convention?

Enjoy the full article here.