Most important of all, his supporters are overwhelmingly young and their numbers are growing exponentially.
If you represent the right-wing establishment, chances are the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference was an event you would rather forget. For the second year in a row, Texas Congressman Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll with 30% of the vote, beating GOP-favorite Mitt Romney by seven percentage points.
Instead of being received positively, though, the Congressman’s victory in this fun unscientific poll has set various Internet media outlets abuzz, deriding Ron Paul, his supporters, and the liberty movement for which he stands.
While billionaire Donald Trump heckled the Ron Paul faithful at CPAC by matter-of-factly stating, “Ron Paul has no chance of getting elected,” others of the blogosphere attacked the viability of the movement and the decorum of supporters, claiming that such supporters represented a fringe, libertarian streak of the party.If former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had won the CPAC straw poll, would any media outlet question the legitimacy of the poll in gauging conservative opinion? Most likely not. It is a testament to the spontaneous grassroots support mustered by Ron Paul nationwide that he is able to get such support for maverick ideas, such as auditing the Federal Reserve and ending our militarism abroad.
See also: If Ron Paul Were President