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July 16, 2007

An Interesting News Day for Ron Paul

Ron Paul is having a great news day, but lest you miss the more interesting elements of the larger Ron Paul story, note that some of today's news slips a little off the edge of "normalcy." The news that everyone is talking about is that he is reporting having raised nearly $2.4 million from April through June, putting him in a better financial position than John McCain. Where things start to slip into the interesting is with reports of his being honored by the folks who make Liberty Dollars with the issue of a new coin bearing his likeness. It slips even further with his most recent comments on the Bush Administration -- not so much for what he says, which so many are inclined to believe, but because of where he said it: on Alex Jones's radio program -- conspiracy theory central.

Paul isn't very high in the rankings in terms of potential for winning votes. But it is remarkable that by virtue of the fact that he is speaking out so frankly against this Administration and the war, he has been able to raise $3 million for the year. He raised more than Sam Brownback, Mike Huckabee, and Tommy Thompson -- combined! It may only be a tenth what the front-runners have raised, but at the same time, holy moley! The spokesman of the conspiracy theorists has raised a full tenth of the record-breaking, astronomically oversized amounts that have been raised by the front-runners. Meanwhile, McCain raised less than he spent in the same period, leaving him with $3.2 million cash and $1.8 million in debt, and he is hemorrhaging staff.

The only explanation I can think of is that 9/11 has given conspiracy theorists so much amazing fodder that they are just plain on fire about it and digging deep to help Paul warn the rest of us. And warning us he is.

Speaking to The Alex Jones Show, the Texas Congressman was asked his opinion on Cindy Sheehan's recent comments that the U.S. is in danger of a staged terror attack or a Gulf of Tonkin style provocation that will validate the Neo-Con agenda and lead to the implementation of the infrastructure of martial law that Bush recently signed into law via executive order, as well as public pronouncements from prominent officials that the West needs terrorism to save a doomed foreign policy.

"I think we're in great danger of it," responded the Congressman, "We're in danger in many ways, the attack on our civil liberties here at home, the foreign policy that's in shambles and our obligations overseas and commitment which endangers our troops and our national defense."

"Every day we're in worse shape and right now there's an orchestrated effort to blame the Iranians for everything that's gone wrong in Iraq and we're quite concerned that the attack will be on Iran and that will jeopardize so many more of our troops, so I would say that we're in much greater danger than we even were four or five years ago," asserted Paul. …

The Congressman concluded by surmising that record lows in approval ratings for Bush, Cheney and Congress showed that, "The American people are alive and well and disgusted yet they haven't had good alternatives....it's justifiable, they are looking for true answers and options and quite frankly I think that's probably one of the reasons why our campaign is growing by leaps and bounds right now."

I wonder why Paul does not avoid such a marginalized venue, which only serves to foster doubt about every word he says. Surely he can get interviews on more mainstream programs. Why couldn't he say the same things on any other radio show? I mean, come on. Alex Jones? Is he out of touch with reality to such an extent that he cannot recognize how association with that show discredits his message? And if so, why are the Democrats praising him as if he was a legitimate spokesman for mainstream Republicans? Is the mere fact that he is a Republican badmouthing a Republican Administration enough to win Democratic admiration? Come to think of it, Charlie Sheen is another outspoken 9/11 conspiracy believer who is praised by Democrats and he, too, has been a guest on the Alex Jones show. Is the show now considered to be fairly mainstream and I'm just somewhat behind the times?

The answers to all of these questions might be easier if it wasn't for all that amazing fodder for 9/11 conspiracy theorists that is so thick and rich it can make even the skeptic secretly wonder. Perhaps, because of the Internet, a lot of people out there are becoming closet consumers of all those fabulous, intricate, spooky, and, yes, very convincing 9/11 conspiracy theories. Perhaps, as a result, their fear of sources like Alex Jones is being tossed by the wayside. Perhaps someday we will see an end to "normal" governance. I wonder what that would be like.

Posted by Becky at July 16, 2007 12:40 PM