Ron Paul Pwns Alabama Straw Poll

Nobody's paying much attention to the Alabama Straw Poll, but Ron Paul just got 216 of 266 votes there—81 percent of the total.

Some caveats: It was much smaller than the Iowa or Illinois straw polls, smaller than the last Alabama poll in 1999 (won by Alan Keyes) and Mitt Romney didn't even bother to try and buy it. It was structured a little bit like Ames Straw Poll with voting card that cost $25 in advance, $35 at the door, and required an Alabama ID to pick up. No candidate came to speak: Baptist minister John Killian spoke for Paul. So there's a little grist for the cynics… for the true believers, 81 percent is better even than Paul usually does in online polls.

The rundown:

Paul 216
Romney 14
Hunter 10
Thompson 9
Giuliani 7
Huckabee 6
McCain 2
Brownback 2
Tancredo 0
Cox 0

Thanks to Stephen Gordon for the tip. Here's the thread at Ron Paul Forums.

Comments

[Chris Brunner]

Please help us digg this:
http://www.digg.com/2008_us_elections/Ron_Paul_Wins_By_Landslide_in_Alabama_Straw_Poll

[jb]

Go Alabama! Normally I dislike the Deep South, but if Paul continues to walk over the Big Godverment conservatives there I may have to change my tune.

[Zach]

kick ass.

[SIV]

Normally I dislike the Deep South

jb:

Well we aren't too fond of you either.
Please remain in whatever Yankee shit hole you abide in.

[dbh]

Yep, we want to tell it to those big government conservatives. Them with their desire to ban abortion, stop immigration and build a wall on the border, those theocrats who think that separation of church and state is a fraud. So Ron,... want a second??? Ron! Oh, never mind I forgot he wants to ban abortion, stop immigration, build the damn wall, and doesn't think separation of church and state is a valid concept (due to all those references to God he says are in the constitution -- well I didn't find them, but he assures us they are there_) So when it comes time to bash the big government conservatives, I'm all for it, now we just need a candidate who is for it as well.

[Marcvs]

This is so dumb.

[Max]

Don't get too excited. They thought they were voting to add another 10,000 seats to the Bryant-Denny Stadium, but the butterfly ballet was confusing.

[S.A. Miller]

Surely this will be the straw that breaks the camel's back!

[libertreee]

Oh, never mind I forgot he wants to ban abortion, stop immigration, build the damn wall, and doesn't think separation of church and state is a valid concept (due to all those references to God he says are in the constitution -- well I didn't find them, but he assures us they are there_dbh

I agree with you on these issues. RP says he wants to send abortion to the states, and that is a controversial, minority, but acceptable libertarian position. He then takes the more unacceptable position that immigration can't be free until the welfare state is gone. He also takes the extreme position that international trade agreements are not pure enough to keep, and while he is a free trader he thinks that the normally protectionist Congress should have the only say because of " national sovereignty." Besides the fact that sovereignty is less compromised than he believes by these agreements, I thought libertarians were more interested in individual sovereignty (like being able to buy goods from all over the world, and contract with willing transactors no matter how far they travel to contract with you, etc. ) To be fair, with immigration he seems to regard citizenship as very precious, which is a founding idea, but the Declaration of Independence, while it only pertained to citizens strictly speaking, is a more universalist document.

All these and a few other flaws aside, Dr. Paul is by far the most libertarian candidate to try for a major party nomination possibly in our entire sordid history, and is more libertarian than some LP candidates or would be candidates.He is certainly more libertarian than anyone in the current field. And he promises to make the military industrial complex, the IRS and Fed Reserve his primary targets in restoring constitutional government.
(Not that my anarchist side believes that constitutional government is the best of all possible worlds, but it would be a welcome relief from the fascist statism we have long endured).

He has my support. Ron Paul! Ron Paul! Ron Paul!

[Parts of it say the nicest<]

Normally I dislike the Deep South

TMI, QED.

[jb]

SIV,
The Deep South has for a long time been home to some of the least libertarian strains of American politics out there, everything but gun control.

Southerners are also quick to jump to extremes--in response to my expression of personal preference for the North and West, SIV called whole regions shitholes (although, to be honest I live in Chicago which is not that much of a Libertarian stronghold either, to say the least). What, will you challenge me to a duel next? Fought with fighting cocks?

[TrappedEastOfTheBigMuddy]

Don't get too excited. They thought they were voting to add another 10,000 seats to the Bryant-Denny Stadium, but the butterfly ballet was confusing.

That would do it.

Hmm...

Not sure if I hope they won't 'cause I don't want to deal with even more traffic, or wish they would so I can profit from reselling the tickets...

[Dave B.]

jb -

You say you don't like the deep south, SIV says he doesn't like where you're from, and somehow his statement proves yours right?

[Jay D]

New Hampshire too.

[jb]

Dave B: Sure, "I don't like" is less extreme than "is a shithole." I could have said in my first comment "The South is usually a shithole, but maybe this means a change for the better," but I didn't.

[Stephen Macklin]

Ron Paul wins utterly meaningless straw poll. Film at 11:00.

The sad thing is, when it comes time to vote in the primary he'll probably wind up with the same 216 votes.

[Buckwheat]

He also won a New Hampshire County straw poll today with 73% of the vote:

http://ronpaul2008.typepad.com/ron_paul_2008/2007/08/ron-paul-also-w.html

Paul 208 votes
Romney 26
Huckabee 20
Tancredo 8
McCain 7
Cox 5
Hunter 5
Fred Thompson 5
Giuliani 3
Brownback 1

[GB]

You may say that these are small, but at least they are fair. Congrats Ron!

[Buckwheat]

jb --

please just stop talking.

[SIV]

The Deep South has for a long time been home to some of the least libertarian strains of American politics out there, everything but gun control.

Actually the South is the most libertarian in distrust in,and hostility to the Federal government,excluding the military.

[SIV]

jb,

Anti-Southern bigotry is one of the few forms considered "socially acceptable" yet we don't whine about it nearly as much(if at all) as other "groups".

I travel extensively and though there are some places I don't like I would never issue a blanket condemnation of a whole region of the United States.

[Brick Cheney]

Wherever you're from, I'm sure the Deep South outlibertarians it. I myself was raised in Cobb County, Georgia, where guns flow like wine.

[Sola]

Not sure I would class this as an utterly meaningless straw poll. If you look at the CNN poll where they are touting Romney in the lead in NH....its based on a poll of 303

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/states/new.hampshire.html

[Brandybuck]

Normally I dislike the Deep South

As a Californian from the leftist coast, I've found Alabama and the deep south to be full warm and friendly people, who almost single-handedly keep the word "gracious" alive and well.

[shithole resident]

I don't like the way they vote but I rarely meet a southerner I could dislike. Otherwise it's like any other area, gorgeous in places and crappy in others. Amazin', huh?

[SIV]

I don't like the way they vote

Are there any States which vote for Libertarians in greater proportion than Georgia?

[Mo]

This is good news, but the fact that Alan Keyes won it last time around pretty much means it's meaningless?

Wherever you're from, I'm sure the Deep South outlibertarians it. I myself was raised in Cobb County, Georgia, where guns flow like wine.

Really? Isn't the Deep South where there are states where you can't buy sex toys? Where anti-immigration sentiment is the strongest and where invasion of civil liberties is most popular? Not to mention the harshest penalties for consensual crimes. I doubt anywhere is more libertarian than the west, sans the coast.

However, Southerners are wonderful, warm people.

[shithole resident]

I agree with Mo. Unless you define libertarianism as revolving entirely around the gun issue, I don't see the south as any libertopia. But if it makes you feel better, I don't like the way my state votes either.

[Tacos mmm...]

Actually the South is the most libertarian in distrust in,and hostility to the Federal government,excluding the military.

Well, we know where the that hostility to the federal government comes from, and I hardly think that Wallace's stand in the schoolhouse door is something "libertarian" to be proud of.

The south has never really been libertarian in the leave-your-neighbor-alone sense. It has meddling booze, gambling and sex laws and loves the drug war. Most of the current conflict with the federal government is focused around federal judges rebuffing attempts to codify fundamentalist christian morals as law.

The west is more libertarian. Not only do they like guns here in the rockies, but they don't seem to particularly care what you do in private, either.

FYI, I was born in Alabama and lived there for more than two decades with the accent to prove it. And I will say that Montgomery is a shithole.

[JLM]

I grew up in a yankee shithole (NY- and yes, shithole is very appropriate) and now live in the South (NC). Based on my values I would have to say that it is a hell of a lot more libertarian here than there. But to have a pissing contest about this issue is a gross waste of time because everybody is going to have their set of issues that they consider more important.

[Now ve may perhaps to begin?]

I grew up in a yankee shithole (NY- and yes, shithole is very appropriate) and now live in the South (NC). Based on my values I would have to say that it is a hell of a lot more libertarian here than there. But to have a pissing contest

All neurotics, and many others besides, take exception to the fact that "inter urinas et faeces nascimur [we are born between urine and faeces]."

[thedifferentphil]

Mo is, of course, dead on. Any poll that Alan Keyes won is not a representative sample in any way. Similarly, any poll that Ron Paul blows out is also not relevant in any way. And any person who does not zero in on these facts has forgotten that this magazine is called "Reason." Liking someone is different than suspending reality for him.

[Jay D]

Part of the story I think is that there were fifty (50) non-Paul Alabama strawpollers. Not a lot of Republican enthusiasm is being displayed here.

Alan Keyes won with a plurality of 29% of 1,708 voters.

[Cesar]

Whats so libertarian about the deep south SIV? Is it the history of slavery, segregation, or present-day homophobia and religious intolerance that makes places like Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama such friends of liberty?

[jh]

The Deep South has for a long time been home to some of the least libertarian strains of American politics out there, everything but gun control.

Actually the South is the most libertarian in distrust in,and hostility to the Federal government,excluding the military.

The South is rife with contradictions, libertarianwise. For example, people in the South tried to do one of the most libertarian things imaginable (secede from the Union because they felt the Union was infringing upon their sovereign rights as states) for one of the most unlibertarian reasons imaginable (trying to own other human beings). Economically, the South is one of the most libertarian areas of the country, while socially is it one of the least. Politically, the South switched from being a bastion of a statist political party to being the stronghold of what was a much less statist party, for the unlibertarian reason of trying to continue to take away the rights of the descendents of slaves, and then proceeded to turn the Republican Party into something arguably as statist as the Democratic Party, albeit with differing degrees of statism on various issues.

[jh]

...while socially is it is one of the least.

Fixed my typo.

[Cesar]

JH-

You have summed up the feelings about my native region perfectly. Though I will say the upper south has a much smaller chip on its shoulder than the deep south.

[Peter Griffin]

The deep south? Isn't that the place where the black guys are really lazy and all the white guys are just as lazy but they're mad at the black guys for being so lazy?

[Cesar]

And Peter Griffin from Family Guy shows that New England has its fair share of dumbasses, too.

[Douglas Gray]

Recent polls indicate that Hillary will trounce any Repub. Most Americans want to give the State one more chance to give them health, prosperity, and security. Let 'em have Washington, and then six years from now, in 2012 things will be so bad, the Country will be ready for a true libertarian.

[jb]

SIV said: "I would never issue a blanket condemnation of any region."

In the same thread as he said "Yankee shithole."

Consistency, folks. It's not just for your favored issue.

[Daniel R]

Ron Paul supporters are super zealous for any type of poll. Seems like others are not. It doesn't seem to mean much beyond that.

[Stephen Gordon]

Dave,

Thanks for the credit. I've posted my observations of the day's proceedings here.

[Stephen Gordon]

With respect to the deep south and libertarianism...

My father is from Brooklyn and my mother is from rural north Alabama.

I was born in Alabama, have lived in most sections of the country, recently DC, and have moved back to Alabama.

I'd say it's a wash about whether the NE or the SE are more libertarian.

They ban sex toys in Alabama (and quantities of over six of them in Texas) but ban guns in NY and DC.

Alabama has a considerably lower tax base than the NE states. Alabama has a lot more religious nutcases, too. They just tried to ban drinking in the town 20 miles north of me -- but lost by a 2-1 margin.

On race it's a wash. Alabamians are more likely to be overtly racist, but you know where you stand with these folks. I've seen plenty of racism in Boston, but it's the whispered behind your back sort, not admitted in public.

BTW, at the last Klan rally here, black people were cheering as they burned a cross aimed at brown-skinned Spanish speaking people.

The SE has less commies than the NE, but more fascists. However, Giuliani comes from New York, and Hillary claims too. And our GOP governor tried to implement the largest tax increase in state history -- in the name of Jebus.

Despite the rhetoric, abortion isn't a key issue in the SE or NE. Pregnant women who want abortions get them. They always did, but now we all use instruments more sterile than coat hangers.

On foreign policy, right now, Alabama is a bit more interventionist. However, this is changing, perhaps "blowback" from the fact that we have a higher percentage of people from the south volunteering to serve in the military. I'll state, as a veteran, that wearing the uniform for a few years provides plenty of compelling reasons to adopt a non-interventionist foreign policy.

With respect to manners, I used to always think that southerners were more friendly. My last few trips to NYC, as well as recent DC experience, indicate that urban NE areas are becoming more polite. The rudest people I've encountered lately were in Atlanta -- especially drivers at rush hour.

With respect to women, the sexiest ones hail from north Alabama (but I had to say that, as my wife might read this comment).

[Czar]

"Let 'em have Washington, and then six years from now, in 2012 things will be so bad, the Country will be ready for a true libertarian."

Or it will turn out the Olmecs/Mayans were right and things will be so shitty by 2012 that the world ends.

[The Wine Commonsewer-Reg US Pa]

As a Californian from the leftist coast, I've found Alabama and the deep south to be full warm and friendly people, who almost single-handedly keep the word "gracious" alive and well.

Yes. Gracious.

There was a time when Californians were known to be a friendly lot. But that's gone.

[dhex]

Anti-Southern bigotry is one of the few forms considered "socially acceptable" yet we don't whine about it nearly as much(if at all) as other "groups".>

there are so many forms of group bigotry that are socially acceptable it's pretty redonkulated to jump up on the jesus holder just yet.

i mean feel free to guys but to each their own; as they say in the Philippines around easter, hang in there.

[iih]

Living in New England, it is true a lot of the racism happens kind of silently. But it is there.

My most favorite southerner is Larry the Cable Guy. He's hilarious.

[Rick Barton]

There was a time when Californians were known to be a friendly lot. But that's gone.

Don't give up. As long as you're there, TWC, the claim to gracious affability will always have some merit.

[the innominate one]

Larry the Cable Guy isn't from the south, he's a P.O.S. caricature of the worst of southern populist demagoguery

[GILMORE]

Wow! 266 WHOLE votes?!

Thats almost like, a rocking keg party. is that shit like, cross tabbed and stuff? Were all 266 living in the same weird libertarian trailer park, and they're all vaguely related?

Jesus fucking shit on a stick, this ron paul fanfixation is getting stupid. Ron Paul wins Left Handed Lebanese Dentists Association endorsement! Ron Paul didnt Deny Moon Landing this week! Keep fighting the good fight!

[adamson]

Stephen Macklin nailed it perfectly with his comment.

Rep. Paul will get the same 216 votes come primary time - that is, if he's still in the race.

[iih]

the innominate one:

Larry the Cable Guy isn't from the south, he's a P.O.S. caricature of the worst of southern populist demagoguery

Oh I was fooled then. What is P.O.S?

[the innominate one]

piece of fecal matter

according to his wikipedia profile, he's from Nebraska and lived there until he was 16.

I found him amusing when he first started doing bits on a local radio morning show 14 years ago, but his current act is just pathetic, IMO.

Look for David Cross's open letter to Larry on his website. I think it's bobanddavid.com, or there is a link from Cross's wikipedia page. David Cross actually is from the south (Georgia), but doesn't trade exclusively on southern stereotypes and prejudices to make his living.

[GILMORE]

re: the north/south debate

I believe North and South must set aside their differences and unite in mutual contempt of Guidos and those dumb rednecks who keep getting arrested on COPS.

Once we have eradicated this shared menace we will have far less reason to mock each other for shame of ourselves.

People For A Shithead Free America ask for your support!

[NoStar]

For example, people in the South tried to do one of the most libertarian things imaginable (secede from the Union because they felt the Union was infringing upon their sovereign rights as states) for one of the most unlibertarian reasons imaginable (trying to own other human beings).

jh, You've bought the big lie. Abraham Lincoln did not free the slaves until the war was nearly over in 1863.

The winners get to write the history books and the North did a good job in reframing the war to be solely about slavery.

[iih]

piece of fecal matter

Oh I see -- I am not big on acronyms.

I guess I do not have a favorite Southerner then. Just kidding!

[GILMORE]

The winners get to write the history books and the North did a good job in reframing the war

Right. From what, 90% about slavery, to 100% about slavery?

you see, i have shelby foote right here next to me...

(Gilmore pulls bearded southern war historian from sideview who then tells other guy "you understand nothing of my work!")

[bulbman]

As a conservative Republican I find Ron Paul to be an embarrassment. He's a John Birch Society style isolationist crank. His pro-Saddam statements in regard to Iraq and his Israel baiting are proof of my long held belief that the far right is just as anti-American and anti-Semitic as the far left.

[J. Goard]

Let 'em have Washington, and then six years from now, in 2012 things will be so bad, the Country will say that by 2016 it will probably be ready for a true libertarian.

Fixed.

[Stephen Gordon]

Back to the north/south "thang" again, I see. To be clear, I had ancestuhs split over the issue. My maternal-great (to some exponential degree)-grandpappy (from No'th Alabam) lived in a county which seceded from Alabama to fight for the North over the slavery issue.

Another person in the revered history column in the old family Bible was a POW in a northern POW camp. He fought for Calhounian States' Rights. Some great stories there. Not as good as the slave/master child family story, though.

Additionally, lots of family members are UDC/DAR pedigreed.

WTF? That war has been over for at least 30 years. That's over a generation, if you can't do the math. I've even heard rumors that this particular war ended even 100 years prior to our generation (with a Who riff).

Right now, people are dying in Iraq. I have family members there. Call me weird, but I prefer concentrating on the here and now to the libertarian hypothetical.

[loupeznik]

Does anyone have a local news link about the NH poll he won? I'm looking for something a little less biased than a blog.

[Fluffy]

Hey Gilmore, 266 votes isn't a lot, but when the local Republican party promotes a fundraiser and straw poll, you'd expect that, you know, Republicans would attend and vote.

Where were the Thompson supporters? The Giuliani supporters? 266 is a tiny number, why couldn't they produce a similar number?

I don't doubt that if you cornered them on the street, there are large numbers of Alabamans who would say they were supporting Thompson. Why didn't any of those people come to this PARTY-HELD event?

[Fluffy]

Hey bulbman -

By "pro-Saddam comments" do you mean comments like the ones he made in 2002, when he said that Saddam probably had no functioning WMD left, probably hadn't been able to do much in the way of restarting his WMD programs while under the sanctions, and constituted no threat to the United States? I had no idea that being absolutely, positively, 100% RIGHT meant that you were "pro-Saddam".

And as far as the Israel baiting thing goes, if our alliance with Israel is a net benefit to the US we should maintain it, and if it's a net loss to the US we should junk it. The ethnic makeup of that state or the history of misfortunes of people of that ethnicity should have absolutely no bearing on the matter one way or the other. If demanding that our foreign policy actually serve the interest of the US, instead of being some sort of performance art extension of the Holocaust Museum, is wrong, then let me be guilty.

[Ayn_Randian]

Fluffy, you're right in the abstract when you say that The ethnic makeup of that state or the history of misfortunes of people of that ethnicity should have absolutely no bearing on the matter one way or the other.

Hey., I agree with you. Someone just needs to drill it through the thick skulls of the Jew-hating Palestinians and their Arab Allies, and we'll be all set.

[Fluffy]

Hey Ayn -

Well, if you can just get the state of Israel to agree with you, we'll be all set.

After all, the reason the occupied territories are occupied and not absorbed is because absorption would disrupt the ethnic makeup of the Israeli state, which the Israelis wish to maintain at all costs.

I'm sure the Palestinians would be happy to accept occupation if all of them were declared Israeli citizens [which would be the truly "ethically neutral" way to resolve the dispute].

[SIV]

Cesar,

...the history of slavery, segregation, or present-day homophobia and religious intolerance ....

They had or have all that outside the South.
Indiana and Pennsylvania were the biggest KKK States.I could go on but as JLM said:

But to have a pissing contest about this issue is a gross waste of time because everybody is going to have their set of issues that they consider more important.

In regard to the sex toy thing in Texas and Alabama: Last time I checked it was someone in AL selling the Japan market licensed Disney vibrators on the 'net(Hello Kitty too).

[jh]

For example, people in the South tried to do one of the most libertarian things imaginable (secede from the Union because they felt the Union was infringing upon their sovereign rights as states) for one of the most unlibertarian reasons imaginable (trying to own other human beings).

jh, You've bought the big lie. Abraham Lincoln did not free the slaves until the war was nearly over in 1863.

The winners get to write the history books and the North did a good job in reframing the war to be solely about slavery.

OK, Nostar, please explain what should go in the history books about the War Between the States, besides the obvious notion that Lincoln was one of the worst presidents ever, second only to FDR, because he used military power to change "these united states" into "The United States"? What significant issues drove the secession besides the quarrel over slavery?

Not being snarky -- if you believe I've bought the big lie, then I'd like to hear what you consider the big truth so I can consider your POV and see if I need to reevaluate the indoctrination I suffered in government schools.

[robay]

Just a note that Ron Paul is a Constitutionalist, rather than a Libertarian. I think people get confused because so few have any real interest in the Constitution unless they own a gun. If even one percent of the population was fed up with how our Constitutional rights have been stripped away the last ten years, we'd have millions of people marching on Washington and on their local representative's offices.

It's also worth getting a better understanding of how Congress has wedged all kinds of things into an oft misinterpreted section of the 10th amendment (abetted by Federal Judges from time to time). Ron Paul is right to push a number of things that Congress has worked up to the federal level back to the States. The Feds really have a very limited role under the Constitution, and a lot of the problems we face inside the US stem from excessive federal activity and spending.

[jh]

robay -- So, policywise, how does a constitutionalist differ from a libertarian? What things would a con do that a lib wouldn't? I was at a Ron Paul Meetup and someone got politely agitated when I called Ron Paul a libertarian.

[VM]

because so few have any real interest in the Constitution 2nd Amendment unless they own a gun

there ya go.

[Daze]

In other words, no one but the Ron Paul groupies bothered to show up.

[FatDrunkAndStupid]

jh,
Policy-wise, a libertarian would be against government run schooling, period. A Constitutionalist would say that the Federal Government has no role, and whether schools are private or government run is up to the states. A Constitutionalist Governor could support public schooling, since nothing in the Constitution prevents it, while a Libertarian could not. Though this is more of a touchy subject with libertarians that causes some divisions, in the general sense abortion falls in the same category. Paul's statments on abortion indicate he would vote to prohibit the practice at the state level if he were in state government. Most libertarians hold a different view. So Paul's "libertarian" position on abortion is soley a function of him being a Constitutionalist and happening to be a Federal, rather than State, represenative.

[Cesar]

SIV-

Its true what you said about Indiana and Illinois, however most people there have ancestors mostly from Kentucky and Virginia. Abraham Lincoln's family was typical--born in Kentucky, then move to Indiana and Illinois.

The South also seceded not because the federal government had actually violated their rights. They seceded pretty much because they lost a presidential election. Dumbest reason I can think of to secede.

The South is better on some things, and I'd certainly would rather live here than in the northeast. The economy kicks ass compared to the rustbelt, for one.

However, in my experience far and away the most libertarian area of the country is the rocky mountain west and southwest (sans Utah).

[Ronpauler]

Ron Paul will restore Christian respect for life, the Constitution, and the gold standard. Maybe he can stop the latinization/secularization of our culture, end Israel's occupation of our government and taxes for Israel's wars.

[Stevo Darkly]

Wherever you're from, I'm sure the Deep South outlibertarians it. I myself was raised in Cobb County, Georgia, where guns flow like wine.

But guns flow like wine on the coasts, too. Because after they confiscate the guns, they melt them down. Then pour them into molds to make battering rams for SWAT teams.

[VM]

What Stevo said 🙂

Anti-Southern bigotry is one of the few forms considered "socially acceptable" yet we don't whine about it nearly as much(if at all) as other "groups".

*passes the chaeze for the whine (cuz you whine about it about as much as a socially-dominant group can).

**or, as "Mark" (below) notes, why notice it?

*** you still lost. tee hee hee.

[SIV]

VM,

Southerners are a "socially dominant group"?

I'll go along with culturally dominant.

[Seer]

Alt F3 edward

Finsihed searching document.

[bk]

"In regard to the sex toy thing in Texas and Alabama: Last time I checked it was someone in AL selling the Japan market licensed Disney vibrators on the 'net(Hello Kitty too)."

Uhh, you check on this sort of thing?

[cincinnatus]

Ron Paul gets 81%, but hey don't get cocky. Castro and Kim Jung Il gets 99%.

[SIV]

Uhh, you check on this sort of thing?

Why yes. As many liberaltarian commenters here remind us the illegality of some sex toy sales in TX and AL is the most important libertarian issue out there.If Ron Paul came out in favor of a Constitutional Amendment to mandate universally legal sex toy stores we would BE in Libertopia!

[spacemonkey]

I live in Alabama. I have to say every Ron Paul supporter in Alabama was probably present at the straw Poll.

[Rick Barton]

Castro and Kim Jung Il gets 99%.

Yeah, and the other 1% probably never votes again.

[duckman1957]

doesn't think separation of church and state is a valid concept
dbh

Hey, dbh, separation of church and state is not found in the Constitution for anything other than acts of Congress. The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law..." The 14th Amendment, who so many point to as extending the Bill of Rights to the states (it does no such thing - its purpose was to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves), only speaks of states not abridging the "immunities" and "privileges" of citizens. It says nothing even suggesting that a state cannot have whatever religious establishment a majority of its citizens desire. So, yeah, Dr. Paul is right to come down on the "validity" of church/state separation.

[Cesar]

duckman--

But almost all state constitutions have an even stronger anti-state religion clause than the federal constitution.

[David T. Beito]

While no candidate came to speak, Duncan Hunter called in to make an appeal.....with little result.

[Stormy Dragon]

Larry the Cable guy is from New York (by way of a private New England liberal arts college) and is about as un-south as you can get. I've seen video of his act when he first started, and believe it or not, he was originally a Jerry Seinfeld knock off.

Of course, the best part of his new persona is how many of his fans don't get that he's not one of them, he's a yankee making fun of them.

[Brandybuck]

Texas may not have realistically molded sex toys, but their hundred foot high neon "Adult World! Next Exit!" billboards towering over the local kindergarten more than make up for it. 🙂

[Daze]

Ron Paul will restore Christian respect for life, the Constitution, and the gold standard. Maybe he can stop the latinization/secularization of our culture, end Israel's occupation of our government and taxes for Israel's wars.

That sounds like Pat Buchanan's platform.

[Rattlesnake Jake]

"The 14th Amendment, who so many point to as extending the Bill of Rights to the states (it does no such thing - its purpose was to protect the rights of the newly freed slaves)"

Senator Bingham, the author of the amendment said it was his intention to apply the Bill of Rights to the states by the 14th Amendment. That's what he meant by the citizens of each state being entitled to the "immunities and privileges of the citizens of the several states". When a state establishes one church or religion over all the others, it infringes on the rights of the people who don't share the beliefs of the majority. If you read the Federalist Papers, you will see that the authors were very opposed to majoritarian tyranny. They strongly believed in individual rights.

[PaddyFatHands]

The largest problem with most policies domestic and foreign here is that they have been preframed and predetermined by special interest groups (complexes military-industrial, prison-industrial, pharmaceutical-industrial, etc.) These special interest machines run and feed themselves so it really doesn't matter who is supposedly at the "wheel": special interests drive policy makers, not the other way around unfortunately. The only solution I can think of is to bleed them dry (defund), which only a Ron Paul presidency would begin to do.

Look, this country is much too large to be governed by a centralized federal plutocracy driven to appease its special interest overlords. Why should we be beholden to a minority group of priveledged power brokers who can't even begin to represent the diversity that exists here?

The solution is to decentralize through DEVOLUTION (via the UK model: see Scotland '97 for example).

So let's change the slogan: instead of the Ron Paul Revolution let's have the RON PAUL DEVOLUTION!!!!