The Orbis

Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Opinion

The first potential explanation for his popularity is that youth supporters actually agree with his politics. This seems unlikely. That is, it seems unlikely that the sympathetic viewers of Colbert and Bill Maher are seduced into Paul's camp by the promise of catering to big business and abolishing all vestiges of social responsibility in the federal government. The second, and more likely reason, is the tendency to conflate the problems and injustices of the Bush administration, and a submissive congress, with inherent flaws in federal government as a whole. That is, those who are led to support his candidacy fall prey to the conflation that because the current administration initiates a program in a poor fashion, it is the program that is at fault as much as the administration. This is a mistake. That a federal program is poorly administered says nothing of the legitimacy of the program, or of the possibility of government being effective, but only reflects the quality of those enforcing the program. Paul has profited from this misunderstanding and conflation, and owes much of his support to this mistake.

Congressman Paul certainly achieves much of his popular support because he is so blatant and outspoken contrary in his criticism of everything the Bush administration exemplifies. He is, after all, a dyed in the wool Libertarian. He favors massive deregulation, such as abolishing every federal agency, except for those agencies which arm their employees (read: the U.S. military), and espouses a foreign policy that reeks of isolationism. Women's rights are the only significant area in which he is not at all libertarian, taking an anti-choice stance on abortion.

Naturally, his policies appeal to those who are sick of the deception, overspending and corruption of the Bush administration. It is seemingly a simple conclusion. The best way, he says, to avoid corrupt and inefficient government bureaucracy is just to dismantle the government. Or, the simplest way to avoid international conflicts is to not have an international presence. These solutions are juvenile and completely unworkable upon closer scrutiny. Paul's appeal speaks not to the viability or desirability of these solutions, but to the depths to which the Bush administration has damaged public trust of government. His policies of privatization and isolationism are so easy to critique that it seems odd that his popularity amongst college students is so strong. Ron Paul's policies would clearly abolish government programs such as FAFSA, on which many students depend.

It is easy to empathize with the impetus for much of Ron Paul's popularity. It is, indeed, the most visceral and guttural reaction to the trespasses on individual liberty perpetrated by the Bushies. Nonetheless, the implementation of Paul's policies would exacerbate the problems caused by Republican corruption and be even more pernicious. Hopefully those young people angered by the Bush administration will recognize the destructive and nihilistic politics of Ron Paul and, instead, put their efforts behind a candidate who sees government to be something constructive and helpful, and not hopelessly corrupted by the Bush administration.

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