Ron Paul Convention Outdoes McCain

“I don’t like the thing we do in the media,” said (Tucker) Carlson, “thisdismissive thing — ‘Oh, they’re just crazy.’ And I do it too. That’s alow impulse. I think if you’re going to say that, you should berequired to offer some proof.”

If you were in the Twin Cities onTuesday, you could be forgiven for thinking that Republicans had tocome to Minnesota to nominate Ron Paul instead of John McCain. At St.Paul’s Xcel Center, where the real Republican convention is being held,a substantial number of seats remained empty.Next door in Minneapolis, however, a wildly enthusiastic crowd cameclose to filling the Target Center, capacity 10,000, where the Paul-istfaithful had gathered for their own quasi-convention to pay tribute tothe Texas congressman, failed GOP presidential candidate andLibertarian hero.The event, dubbed the “Rally for the Republic,” was a daylong affairthat marked the formal end of Paul’s quixotic presidential run as wellas, attendees hoped, the beginning of a Paul-sparked revolution inAmerican government. The crowd defied the easy stereotypes thatattached themselves to Paul’s supporters during the Paul-mania ofwinter and spring — the conspiracy-addled Web dweller, the Libertarianeccentric, the kid who only knows that Paul opposed the war. Sure,there was the occasional coonskin cap (and Daniel Boone-style frontieroutfit), one man who appeared to be in Colonial dress and at least acouple of dreadlocked youths. The most striking thing about the peopleat the Target Center, however, was that they seemed so damn normal.But underneath the normality, and unbeknown to many in attendance,there lurked some of the dark undercurrents that have been present inthe Paul movement all along.

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2008-09-06