Reply #34: Well, hiya neighbor...

[Imajika]

I am in Northern Va, and yeah, at least during the lead up to the 2008 elections I knew of a lot of left of center folks who supported Ron Paul. These were mostly young people attracted to him for his anti-Iraq war/anti-interventionalist views - along with his positions on drug decriminalization. Most of these people were college kids and I suspect the vast majority went on to vote for Obama in 2008 - but many still think Ron Paul is the ideal candidate.

Paul was able to draw a lot of attention to himself because he was the only Republican who opposes the wars. He sticks out like a sore thumb in the GOP field, I think his position gets more attention than the host of real progressives whom oppose the wars as well. And of course, Paul's opposition to the war on drugs attracts a lot of support among young people.

And like I said previously, Paul never slapped down the "truther" brigades who found a home amongst the Paulbots. So Paul's antiwar, pro drug legalization/decriminalization and refusal to reject conspiracy theorists (truthers, fedwatchers, etc) gave him a pretty powerful "underground" following - particularly among young people. You could see it on any popular gaming/tech websites where Paulbots were simply legion.

Neither Ron Paul or his son are in anyway progressive though, and I usually found when talking to an otherwise left of center Paul supporter that they rarely even understood that Paul's libertarian views would destroy the social safety net. IF you could get this across to them, you had a chance to open their eyes some.