{"id":14842,"date":"2012-01-11T19:12:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-12T03:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=14842"},"modified":"2012-01-11T19:12:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-12T03:12:13","slug":"adherents-of-the-repeated-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=14842","title":{"rendered":"Adherents of the Repeated Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

How good is Bob Cesca’s post on Ron Paul? So good that I’m\u00a0actually linking to HuffPo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The word “cult” is often employed in political contests, but seldom in recent history has it been more appropriate than when describing the so-called Ron Paul Revolution. Specifically, Ron Paul has no chance of winning the nomination (and he doesn’t really want to); if a miracle happens and he actually does win the nomination and, subsequently, the presidency, he has no chance to successfully govern; and his libertarianism is pure hocus-pocus science fiction, evidenced by the fact that it’s never been successfully implemented. Ever. But Ron Paul’s supporters don’t know it. Or, at least, none of them can describe a single instance in history when such a system has prospered without serious consequences and\u00a0horrendous side-effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The election of Ron Paul is a minor conundrum compared with implementing his libertarian ideas. If we presuppose that he wins and then achieves any of his proposed changes to the system in the face of a divided electorate, few working coalitions and no party support in Congress, those policies would absolutely crush the economy and, ultimately, the very “liberty” which Ron Paul cultists repeat like hiccups in response to any challenges to their leader.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Among other monikers, Ron Paul fancies himself a “constitutionalist,” but that strict adherence to the Constitution ends with the 14th Amendment. The Supreme Court, according to its explicit powers enumerated in Article III, decided that the 14th Amendment includes a right to privacy and, thus, the right for a woman to have an abortion. I fail to understand how constitutionalists and those who cling so dearly to the ideals of limited government and “liberty” can so casually and oppressively order strict government regulations dictating what occurs within the bodies of every woman of child-bearing age.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, with the rolling back of the Civil Rights Act, entire sectors of the free market would be free to discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity and gender. At the state and local level, we would see an inevitable return of Jim Crow laws that allowed, among other things, poll taxes andneo-slavery<\/a>, and so the growing American minority population would find itself trapped in a new American apartheid without any recourse for justice.<\/p>\n

But, you know, “liberty!”<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

See, Ron Paul isn’t a candidate. He’s a meme. Much like a popular YouTube video, Twitter hashtag or literary blog metaphor, if you’re aware of it, you’re savvy — you’re one of\u00a0them<\/em>. Ron Paul is a shibboleth for nihilistic hipsters. If you can work “Ron Paul” and “liberty!” into a tweet, you’re one of\u00a0them<\/em>. You’re anti-establishment. People who are devoted to Ron Paul appear to be more interested in the fantastical, fictitious idea of President Ron Paul than the realistic manifestation of President Ron Paul.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing level: off the charts.<\/p>\n

The beauty of the article is that it completely and accurately diagnoses the Ron Paul fandom. It isn’t rational — no matter how “rational” the Ronulans style themselves. It’s not really a cult of personality, as Ron Paul has no personality other than vaguely menacing crank handing out zines on the corner. It’s a fandom. It’s based on the\u00a0idea<\/em>\u00a0that Paul is Liberty Incarnate, and that if he just wins, then we’ll all be free. It’s why articles that state facts about Paul are met with incredulous posts by Paulbots demanding that the authors go Google Ron Paul, because if they just\u00a0read\u00a0<\/em>about the man’s\u00a0genius<\/em>, they’d see that these concerns about civil rights and women’s rights and economics and isolationism are wrong, because\u00a0Ron Paul is the Constitution, man.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s not rational. It’s just something to mutter in a corner while seeking purity. Ronulans don’t support Ron Paul, the man. They support Ron Paul, the idea. And fortunately for all of us, he’ll never get elected president, so none of us will have to live in the world that Ron Paul, the man, would lead us to.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How good is Bob Cesca’s post on Ron Paul? So good that I’m\u00a0actually linking to HuffPo. The word “cult” is often employed in political contests, but seldom in recent history has it been more appropriate than when describing the so-called … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-and-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14844,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14842\/revisions\/14844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}