in both parties who consider it unlimited. Indeed, Ron Paul is the conservative constant in US politics. To the extent that the American Right is consistently conservative, it is generally in line with Paul. To the extent that the American Right gets distracted from conservative principles—typically in the name of Republican partisanship or some emotional attachment to a particular aspect of statism conservatives generally like—it finds itself at war with Paul. In 2012, the Right has been significantly less at war with Paul. Reported Time last year: (Paul) is still defining the GOP race… When Republican heavies like Newt Gingrich and (Rick) Perry bash the Fed’s monetary policy, he mocks them as latecomers to his party. “Who would have thought the former Speaker of the House would come out for ‘Audit the Fed?’” Paul says to deafening applause in Concord. “Now we have a Southern governor. I can’t remember his name” — a wry reference to Perry, who suggested it would be almost “treasonous” for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to pump more money into the economy — “[who] realizes talking about the Fed is good too.” The Christian Science Monitor noted the “Ron Paul Effect”: So what, ultimately, might be The Ron Paul Effect? For one, he’s already changed the conversation to a degree – in Republican debates and beyond. “The candidates talk more like [Paul] on taxes and government than they did in 2008,” says Rob Richie, executive director of FairVote, an advocacy group in Takoma Park, Md… Paul has campaigned on cutting $1 trillion in federal spending – something that has perhaps upped the ante on how aggressively other candidates say they’ll cut. Several polls have asked about whether likely GOP primary voters have a favorable view of returning the US monetary system to the gold standard – a reflection of how much Paul has championed this idea. He’s also brought to the fore more scrutiny of the Federal Reserve. Paul has also tapped into deep-seated dissatisfaction with the cost – in dollars and human life – of the past decade’s foreign wars… The CSM added: For young potential voters – frustrated with student debt, unemployment, and gridlock in Washington – Paul is the buzz these days… Of the under-30 vote in the Iowa caucuses, 48 percent supported Paul… He’s also winning over some people with tea party roots. One of Paul’s recent endorsements in New Hampshire came from Jane Aitken, co-founder of the New Hampshire Tea Party Coalition… When people suggest Paul is too extreme to be president, her response? “If you are on an extreme collision course you need extreme correction.” The American Conservative Editor Daniel McCarthy put Paul’s revolutionary influence into context after the Iowa Caucus by noting not only the ideological shift happening in the GOP, but also how that shift is generational: Five years ago, no one, not even Congressman Paul, would have imagined that 21 percent of voters in a hotly contested Republican caucus would support the Texas
congressman’s brand of antiwar, constitutional conservatism and libertarianism. Paul didn’t just improve on his 2008 showing last night, he’s brought his philosophy from an asterisk in the Republican Party of George W. Bush to as much as a fifth of the vote in the GOP of 2012… More significant than the overall percentage Paul claimed in Iowa, however, is the 48 percent he won of the under-30 vote. This augurs more than just a change in the factional balance within the GOP. It’s suggestive of a generational realignment in American politics. The fact that many of these young people do not consider themselves Republican is very much the point: Paul’s detractors cite that as a reason to discount them, but what it really means is that the existing ideological configuration of U.S. politics doesn’t fit the rising generation. They’re not Republicans, but they’re voting in a Republican primary: at one time, that same description applied to Southerners, social conservatives, and Reagan Democrats, groups that were not part of the traditional GOP coalition and whose participation completely remade the party. Which brings us to the current state of conservatism. As McCarthy notes, Paul is unquestionably remaking the Republican Party whether the party establishment likes it or not. With an overarching concern for limiting government and eliminating the debt, the now widespread conservative condemnations of “Keynesian economics” and attacks on Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve would’ve been unthinkable in 2008. Today, more Americans than ever seem willing to accept substantive entitlement reform and even oppose raising the debt ceiling, reflecting popular sentiments noticeably more radical than anything that could have been conceivable just a few years ago. Not all conservatives are in agreement with Paul’s foreign policy views, but they are significantly more open to them, especially within the context of criticizing a Democratic president’s seemingly foolish interventions and the absurdity of borrowing money from China to pay for them. In 2012, Paul’s poll numbers have equaled or exceeded those of the perceived major potential candidates, his fundraising abilities equaled or exceeded those candidates and the once perennial political outsider has now become a household name. More importantly, when it comes to the issues—most conservatives and perhaps most Americans are finding themselves increasingly in agreement with Paul. Ron Paul is the conservative constant in American politics. Paul does not change; the conservative movement does. The current state of American conservatism cannot be understood without understanding Paul and his influence. Paul’s GOP critics haven’t understood conservatism in any substantive sense for a long time. To the degree that the Republican Party understands, accepts or acquiesces to Paul is to the degree that limited government could become a reality in our time. Jack Hunter (also known by his moniker the “Southern Avenger”) is a columnist for The American Conservative and assisted Sen. Rand Paul with his book The Tea Party Goes to Washington.
9 Young American Revolution