In what, exactly, did so many Americans place their hope? Was it Obama himself? Was it a set of ideas and principles he articulated in the campaign?
Few will forget the tremendous lack of anything Obama offered in the way of ideas, principles, or even a voting record in the US and Illinois senate. He simply threw out there a vacuous notion of "Hope" and "Change," and the public voraciously ate it up. We placed all our hope in one charming, articulate, well-groomed person who could swoon masses with speeches about nothing, who offered few hints as to the policies he would pursue, and about whom we knew very little.
We placed our hope, not in ourselves as a free people, but in a finely-marketed set of non-ideas articulately refracted back upon us from two teleprompters. We bought it, hook, line, and sinker.
Contrariwise, it is fascinating to retrace the grassroots explosion of the Ron Paul Republican primary campaign of 2008. What was the attraction? Why all the buzz? How did Paul's campaign raise $4 million dollars in one day, uncoordinated by the campaign itself?
Is Paul a smoothly packaged, charming speaker? Hardly. I've seen him speak twice. He rambles around at times, has an irregular voice, lacks the rhythm and cadence needed to effectively drive home a point, and seems greatly out of place behind the microphone he often grasps out of nervousness. By his own admission he has a difficult time in debates because of the time restraints. He does has an avuncular aspect to him, but sweet older uncles are not known to draw the raucous admiration of thronging crowds.
So why all the enthusiastic followers, a good portion of which are under the age of thirty? What's the attraction?
People gravitate to the message, not the messenger. Ron Paul articulates a consistent and clear message of liberty and constitutional government. His book, The Revolution: A Manifesto
, could not be more to the point and principled. Americans are hard-wired for such a messaged---it is part of who we are. Being we have been starved, for so long, not only of politicians who mean what they say and say what they mean, but politicians that say a lot about freedom and how far we have drifted from living within the constitutional restraints required to preserve that freedom.And because Ron Paul is the messenger and not the message, it does not matter if he will run for president in 2012. The freedom movement is about freedom, not about blindly following some charismatic speaker into the misty future of his making. Dr. Paul, I think, would say so much.
We seem poised to again put our hope in freedom, constitutionally-restrained government, and fiscal sanity.
Maybe soon cartoonists will fill up an outline of America with "Freedom."
