A college revolution

Ron Paul supporters hold signs and shout out their support for the candidate at his rally on Saturday.

It's hard to imagine a more appropriate location for last weekend's Ron Paul rally than Independence Mall.

The National Constitution Center, the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall provided the inspiration for his political beliefs; the nearby U.S. Mint and Federal Reserve branch, he wants to do away with.

U.S. Representative Paul (R-Texas) is running for the Republican presidential nomination on a platform of restoring the country to the values of the Constitution and founding fathers. Specifically, he wants to pull troops out of Iraq, repeal the income tax, abolish the Federal Reserve and put America back on the gold standard.

It's those views that make him the Republican Party's most radical candidate; they are also beliefs that have made Paul an icon for many college-aged voters.

Paul, who has served on and off in Congress for the last 30 years, garnered national headlines Nov. 5 when supporters raised over $4.3 million for his campaign in a single day.

College students have served as Paul's base of support, as evidenced by a contingent of Penn students who went to join a crowd of over 5,000 other supporters to cheer and chant their candidate's name at the Independence Mall rally, held on Saturday. Students at the rally said they were attracted to Paul's campaign because they believe the country has strayed too far from its founding principles.

College sophomore Michelle Potter, president of the group Penn Students for Ron Paul, said her group has drawn students of all political stripes, ranging from Libertarians to Democrats. And likely as a result of Paul's popularity, libertarianism is also seeing a resurgence on college campuses.

"There are people who call themselves a Democrat or a Republican just because they don't really know what's out there," Potter said. "Until it's been presented to them as a candidate, it's never been an option."

Several Libertarian student groups have sprung up on campuses over the past few years. Penn, Drexel, Temple, Harvard and Columbia universities, among others, all have newly formed libertarian groups. There is also a libertarian conference being held for college students at Columbia this spring.

"When I first got to Penn, I was surprised that there wasn't any type of libertarian group," said Penn Libertarians President and College senior Alex McCobin. "I got the idea, hey, if no one else is, why don't I step up and do something?"

The group was founded in spring 2006, and now has about 150 students on its listserv.

Nationally, libertarian viewpoints also seem to be gaining supporters. According to Gallup poll results analyzed last fall by the Cato Institute, a Libertarian think-tank, about 10 to 15 percent of Americans gave answers to policy questions indicating they held libertarian beliefs.

"I'm actually a former Republican and about a year ago this time I was defecting from the Republican platform issue by issue, and I embraced libertarianism," said Ryan Kuchinskas, the president of the Temple Libertarians.

David Karpf, a Penn political science Ph.D. candidate studying the Internet's impact on elections, said that the Paul campaign has used the Web to attract students, with communities of Paul activists recently springing up on sites like YouTube.com and Facebook.

On Facebook, Ron Paul is the leading Republican candidate, with 34 percent support from Republicans using the U.S. Politics Facebook application.

In an ABC News Poll, on the other hand, he has three-percent support.

Karpf said that those who have followed Paul are mostly Republicans who identify with Paul's criticisms of President Bush.

"Bush is at [about] 30-percent popularity, and there's an awful lot of Republicans who don't like him," Karpf said, adding that, since no other Republican candidate has openly attacked the president, Paul has managed to tap into that dislike.

"Every election cycle you get that kind of one or two percenter that gets his position out there," Karpf said.

Student supporters say Paul's principles have drawn them away from the traditional parties.

"I think most students, if they really knew what libertarianism was, they would realize they were a libertarian," said College sophomore Anne Skuza, a Libertarian who said she was previously a Republican. "Free markets and keep the government out of people's lives."

Comments (10)

He does want an end to fiat money. The gold standard is one way to do that and Ron Paul has mentioned this. Opposition leaders like to poke fun at this calling it anachronistic, but all Paul is saying is that the Government should have no more right to counterfeit money than you do. Enormous increases in Federal Reserve counterfeiting to pay for the war has led to the devaluation of the dollar which robs everyone who has money in the bank or earns salary (you).

My interpretation is that Paul wants to legalize gold and silver as legal tender (and thus they would compete with the fiat dollar). All this means is that there's no capital gains tax on gold or silver that increases in value (due to inflating currency or due to increased industrial demand). Such a change doesn't imply a huge change in the law or a huge change in our daily lives. If it's phrased as "legalize gold and silver" rather than "return to the gold standard", you realize that we simply get more options for settling debts and saving, rather than being forced into something.

1)he would like to do away with the federal reserve system, but he can't do it alone. He'd try to make them stop printing money out of thin air, I don't think that's radical. 2) He wants to have a competing currency that is backed up by silver and gold. He doesn't want to back the current dollar with gold, I don't think that's too radical considering that our dollar is in the dumps. 3) Ron Paul is 6% nationally, 7% in NH and NV, and 5% in Iowa. Not sure how old that poll from ABC is. 4) Republicans use to embrace libertarianism ideas. Barry Goldwater would probably be the most popular libertarian Republican. I think the current Republican party has gotten far off track from what they use to believe.

One correction: Ron Paul does not want to return to the gold standard.

wow-- its really embarrasing to have Penn students supporting a nihilist who wants to abolish the Federal Reserve.

I'm a Libertarian-Republican who has never voted for any Democrat. Ron Paul's associations with Neo-Nazism and white nationalism make me surprised anyone at Penn would support him. (Then again, plenty of Penn people support black nationalist candidates.) Here's a great article on the subject: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/the_ron_paul_campaign_and_its.html But don't bother reading that whole article. Just go to stormfront.org and scroll all the way down to the giant "Ron Paul for President" link. And Ron Paul has refused to disavow the support of white nationalists.

I only have a couple of comments. First, the gold standard issue. I am no longer surprised by people who mistake his position on gold as competing currency with that of returning to the gold standard. What does surprise me is that so many "journalists" continue to make this same mistake. Are there no investigative journalists who do any kind of research anymore? It took me less than 2 minutes on Youtube to find a clip of Ron Paul on Kudlow & Co. where he talks about just that. His position is very clear on this issue. Second, I may be wrong about this, but when did he ever say that he wanted to abolish the US Mint? I think even Ron Paul recognizes the purpose and value of a centralized agency whose responsibility it is to produce our money according to standards set by the government. Someone help me out here.

I think his answer would be that competing currencies could be produced by anybody, and that in a free currency market, good currency will rapidly drive out bad, the reverse of what happens with debased government money. [QUOTE id="24384fa7-b7f5-443d-8088-2c86d01fbcbb"]I only have a couple of comments. First, the gold standard issue. I am no longer surprised by people who mistake his position on gold as competing currency with that of returning to the gold standard. What does surprise me is that so many "journalists" continue to make this same mistake. Are there no investigative journalists who do any kind of research anymore? It took me less than 2 minutes on Youtube to find a clip of Ron Paul on Kudlow & Co. where he talks about just that. His position is very clear on this issue. Second, I may be wrong about this, but when did he ever say that he wanted to abolish the US Mint? I think even Ron Paul recognizes the purpose and value of a centralized agency whose responsibility it is to produce our money according to standards set by the government. Someone help me out here.[/QUOTE]

Ron Paul is not a nihilist you idiot. [QUOTE id="e2e12e77-b899-4fcf-a9f2-3eeece944fb4"]wow-- its really embarrasing to have Penn students supporting a nihilist who wants to abolish the Federal Reserve.[/QUOTE]

...the problem that we have with dealing with this subject [gays in the military] is we see people as groups, as they belong to certain groups and that they derive their rights as belonging to groups. We don�?t get our rights because we�?re gays or women or minorities. We get our rights from our creator as individuals. So every individual should be treated the same way. -Ron Paul, recently on a nationally televised debate So what was this about white supremacy again? So some crazy people gave him money, every candidate has at least a few people who think they stand for something they don't and give them money. You shouldn't have to give money back because you're not going to follow the donators' agenda; if so then a lot of people would demand their political donations back. [QUOTE id="6c2c66e9-ddab-4fac-a196-da44f61e4ecf"]I'm a Libertarian-Republican who has never voted for any Democrat. Ron Paul's associations with Neo-Nazism and white nationalism make me surprised anyone at Penn would support him. (Then again, plenty of Penn people support black nationalist candidates.) Here's a great article on the subject: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/the_ron_paul_campaign_and_its.html But don't bother reading that whole article. Just go to stormfront.org and scroll all the way down to the giant "Ron Paul for President" link. And Ron Paul has refused to disavow the support of white nationalists.[/QUOTE]

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