Letter #3 -- Ron Paul and You

Dear Barry,

What’s the takeaway for you from last night’s New Hampshire primary?  I would urge you to look carefully at Ron Paul’s results.  Whatever your re-election campaign has learned about Mitt Romney as your putative opponent this Fall, I think that Ron Paul’s success may provide for you a useful opening (if not a sobering warning) in facing the national electorate this time around.

In 2008, Paul received 7.8% of the vote in New Hampshire’s Republican primary and finished a distant fifth.   This time, he finished second with 23%.  More importantly, press accounts report that over half of all the votes cast in yesterday’s primary came from so-called “undeclared” voters – the crucial, and heavily courted Independents.  Of these, more voted for Paul than for any other candidate.

Why?  How is it that Paul did so much better this time than last? His is, after all, a protest candidacy.  But what, exactly, is he protesting? What is his appeal to the electorate? His positions on monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank, and America’s role in the world are not new and did little to promote him in the past.  What is resonating in 2012, however, is his profound mistrust of government, his stinging judgment that government continues to fail the American people, and his caustic disbelief that it can do anything to correct itself.  Hence his conclusion that the best one can hope for from government is that it get off our backs.  In sum, Paul’s message reflects the anger and disappointment that many Americans, themselves not merely hurting in the aftermath of the recession but still immersed in it, feel about their government.

In your 2004 Keynote Address at the Democratic National Convention you observed,

 [F]or alongside our famous individualism, there’s another ingredient in the American saga, a belief that we’re all connected as one people. . . .

It is that fundamental belief [that] I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.

This call to a bedrock American belief in our national exceptionalism and common purpose fired the imagination and energy of those who became your core supporters in 2008 campaign.  It fueled the outreach to formerly disaffected Americans, including the young, the poor, minority group members, and independent voters of all stripes.  Events have transpired that have driven many of these same folks to despair, even cynicism, about government.  Some have found that Ron Paul articulates their current situation. 

My hope is that your campaign will see in the Ron Paul phenomenon the importance of reminding the American people of the values and vision that undergird the way you approach governance.  There will be much discussion and debate of the way you have and have not succeeded in actualizing your program.  That’s fair comment and criticism.  But what you and your campaign need to insist on, I believe, is that your commitment to “find[ing] the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort” (2008 Acceptance Speech) remains unshakable.

Respectfully,

Larry

January 11, 2012