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I don't think Ron Paul could get elected dogcatcher in 99% of the counties in America, especially given his past survivalist-type rants about blacks and gays and all that.  America has some obvious libertarian tendencies, but it's not a fundamentally libertarian country.

Look what happened to Bush when he suggested privatizing Social Security.  He didn't even get a bill written.

Beyond the foreign policy, on which I think someone like him could do well, I don't see his appeal.  Maybe capitalizing on the Fed and Wall Street's unholy alliance, but I think people's eyes would glaze over, and he'd simply come off sounding like he was a hundred years old.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin

by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Tue Jul 15th, 2008 at 01:44:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well, I'm trying to calibrate for a populace struggling through a depression, which is admittedly not much more than a guessing game.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Tue Jul 15th, 2008 at 01:48:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Actually I think a depression makes the election of someone like Ron Paul even less likely.  People want security during times of crisis.  They want the government to do something.  Ron Paul would be the opposite of what most people would have in mind.  His message would be easily turned into basically telling the people, "Hey, go screw yourselves."  He'd be Herbert Hoover, but without even the half-assed effort.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Tue Jul 15th, 2008 at 01:57:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I think it's a knife edge between demanding socialist policies and attacking scapegoats.

you are the media you consume.

by MillMan (millguy at gmail) on Tue Jul 15th, 2008 at 02:23:09 PM EST
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Agreed.  Really, I think it's a lot of both, and the line between the two can be pretty blurry in the real world.  But I don't think scapegoating blacks/gays/Jews/Latinos/whatever would earn you much political capital outside of maybe 5% of the electorate these days.  Even the immigration stuff only appeals to about 25% of the electorate who really care about the borders, and they're all Republicans anyway.  Back in the early-20th Century it would've worked, but nowadays you'd have to scapegoat -- oh, I dunno -- speculators.

Conservatives want live babies so they can raise them to be dead soldiers. - George Carlin
by Drew J Jones (myfriends@thisispancakes.com) on Tue Jul 15th, 2008 at 02:37:49 PM EST
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