My reason for contacting this all-American curiosity was that I was reporting a story about the then Republican congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul for The New Republic. I had obtained a trove of newsletters that the libertarian gadfly had intermittently published from the late s through to the mid s, which were chock-full of conspiratorial, racist, and anti-government ravings.
Ten years ago, the notion that Ron Paul—or anyone espousing his worldview—would ever come close to becoming the president of the United States was extremely far-fetched.
Never mind his far-out proposals to revive the gold standard or abolish the Federal Reserve; Paul was an outspoken opponent of foreign policy interventionism in general and a strong critic of George W. Paul ran once more for president in , and retired from Congress early the following year. The ideological similarities between the two men, and the ways in which they created support, are striking.
Decades before right-wing chain emails—never mind Twitter—fringe political figures and movements used a more prosaic tool for gaining adherents: direct-mail newsletters. No conspiracy theory was too weird, and no person too far beyond the pale, for Paul or, arguably, his presumed ghostwriter Lew Rockwell to endorse. And years before an Intelligence Community assessment would conclude that Kremlin-controlled cable network Russia Today had participated in an influence operation designed to help Trump win the presidency, Paul was a frequent guest on that network, and continues to appear there.
Paul also shares with Trump a reputation for financial flim-flammery. In a letter hawking his Ron Paul Investment Letter , Paul warned readers that a US government redesign of the currency was part of a plot to track Americans.
Though Paul is often called an orthodox libertarian, his ideology is more accurately described as paleolibertarian, which shares the limited government principles of traditional libertarianism but places a heavier emphasis on conservative social values, white racial resentment, and isolationist nationalism.
Among the eclectic interests of Nicholas Young , the thirty-eight-year-old former Washington, D. Still many others who found their political voice in the utterances of Paul, a white-haired obstetrician-turned-congressman, are trying to find a place to land. Paul was speaking out for liberty going back as far as For those seeking guidance on this presidential race, the octogenarian has provided scant direction. In numerous op-eds and cable news appearances, Paul has largely expressed just how displeased he is with the current offerings, chastising Cruz for being "owned by Goldman Sachs" and Trump for having "zero" solutions to offer.
Paul declined to speak to CNBC. Paul's friends have learned better than trying to persuade him to pick the lesser of evils. Block recounts his tireless but fruitless efforts trying to persuade Paul to jump aboard the Trump Train.
And I still don't get an answer out of him," Block said. The current state of the Paul coalition ratifies a general truism about political movements, particularly insurgent ones: They tend to go adrift without a charismatic leader at the helm. It also suggests something specific about the Paul coalition that surprised the race: its support had much more to do with Paul's outsiderism, than his libertarianism. It is this reality that dawned too late on on the presidential campaign of his son, Kentucky U.
Rand Paul , who thought he could expand on his father's base of support by appealing to establishment Republicans as well as true libertarians. Steve Grubbs, Rand Paul's chief Iowa campaign strategist, said the campaign's internal polls found that of Iowa voters who said they supported Ron Paul in , only about a third identified generally as having libertarian leanings.
Iowa was where the Ron Paul phenomenon took hold in There is no one else in the Democratic primary quite like Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, but there was someone in the and Republican primaries who was, and that is former member of Congress Ron Paul. Paul ran the most visible message campaigns of any Republican in those years, a lone voice on the edge of the field railing against foreign intervention and the Federal Reserve.
He attracted a network of enthusiastic grassroots support, and he was unwavering in his principles, even when they were unpopular. He was also a highly controversial figure who dabbled in conspiracy thinking and whose connection to fringe politics dogged his campaign, especially when racist newsletters from the s through the s with his name on them were surfaced. Immigration : Paul falls more to the left on the spectrum on immigration issues than many of his Republican colleagues.
In , during the heart of the Senate immigration debate, Paul delivered a speech in which he backed the idea of allowing immigrants in the U. He favors an expansion of legal immigration and work permit program. But he ultimately voted against the Senate's bipartisan immigration bill, saying the plan failed to secure the border as its first item of business.
Economy : Ron Paul was famous for his call to "End the Fed," the title of his book. Rand Paul doesn't go that far, but has repeatedly introduced bills that would allow Congress to audit the Federal Reserve. He was also among the many politicians in the formative years of the tea party movement to raise alarm about the amount of debt the U.
He has advocated for cutting spending across the board and adopting a requirement that the federal government balance its budget. Criminal justice system : The list of issues that attract bipartisan support is dwindling, but one area where Paul has found friends across the aisle is on issue of reforms to sentencing laws and the criminal justice system. He has worked on legislation to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences and bring disparate drug laws into line.
He has also sought to change the laws in order to make the transition out of prison life easier by pushing for bills that would help people expunge their criminal records and allow convicted felons to vote.
Foreign policy : This is one of the areas where Paul finds himself most at odds with his own party, especially the traditional hawks who are much quicker to propose military intervention. He frequently invokes former President Ronald Reagan's words, calling himself a believer in the "peace through strength" philosophy.
Compared to some of his peers, he favors a more limited authorization for the use of military force in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS - although he believes Congress should always give authorization for war. He has taken heat from fellow Sen. He has also been a proponent of ending foreign aid to other countries, which has led to criticism that he wants to end aid for Israel, a U.
Civil liberties : Paul's libertarian beliefs are especially strong when it comes to civil liberties issues. He opposed the PATRIOT Act extension because it continued to authorize roving wiretaps and government searches of business records, and the filibuster was part of a larger concern over the use of drones to target Americans who have not been formally charged with a crime.
He also joined a conservative group and Virginia's former attorney general to sue the president and other top administration officials over National Security Agency surveillance of Americans' phone records.
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