{"id":13068,"date":"2012-01-14T12:17:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-14T17:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=13068"},"modified":"2012-01-14T12:17:13","modified_gmt":"2012-01-14T17:17:13","slug":"george-jonas-ron-paul-as-candidate-ron-paul-as-cult-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2012\/01\/14\/george-jonas-ron-paul-as-candidate-ron-paul-as-cult-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"George Jonas: Ron Paul as candidate, Ron Paul as cult leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Jonas<\/a> likes Ron Paul, but he does point out that as a candidate, he’s not cut from the same cloth as the rest of them (to say the least):<\/p>\n

\n

Appearing in turn a sober, even austere, public-spirited physician and a mischievous, even vicious, old crank, Paul is between a candidate and a cult figure. Candidates have supporters; cult figures have devotees. You may express reservations about a candidate without necessarily incurring the wrath of his supporters, but expressing reservations about a cult figure will result in his devotees trying to eat you alive. Being a cult figure, however, doesn\u2019t necessarily predict what happens at the polls. My paternal grandfather, an old-style ward boss in Europe, called one office-seeker an unelectable idol. \u201cIt\u2019s easier to find people who\u2019d die for him,\u201d he said, \u201cthan people who\u2019d vote for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are quite a few people voting for Paul. When cult figures break through the numbers-barrier, you suddenly encounter the Real Thing. In 2012, could it be a retired obstetrician from Texas? While Paul has only a very remote chance of winning his party\u2019s nomination, should he do so, his chances of winning the White House are actually better.<\/p>\n

How so? Well, Republicans disenchanted with, say, Mitt Romney would hardly flock to Paul on the convention floor, but Democrats disenchanted with Obama might gravitate to him in November. This, ironically, would give Paul a better crack at the American presidency than the Republican nomination, though of course he couldn\u2019t have one without the other. His chance is wafer-thin but \u201cwafer-thin\u201d is a real chance. While it\u2019s unlikely to happen, it could.<\/p>\n

What would the world be like the day after? Well, whatever the intended consequences of President Paul\u2019s policies, their potential reminds me of an editorial cartoon published during the war years in London\u2019s Daily Mail. It shows a neat little man in a bowler hat unhappily shaking hands with a disheveled colossus. The caption reads: \u201cAh, Mr. Policy, young Side Effect here has been anxious to meet you \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Jonas likes Ron Paul, but he does point out that as a candidate, he’s not cut from the same cloth as the rest of them (to say the least): Appearing in turn a sober, even austere, public-spirited physician and a mischievous, even vicious, old crank, Paul is between a candidate and a cult figure. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,53,13],"tags":[188,517,419],"class_list":["post-13068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","category-politics","category-usa","tag-electionwatch","tag-republican","tag-ronpaul"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-3oM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13068"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13069,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13068\/revisions\/13069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}