Craig Westover, MN Delegate's Excellent OpEd @ MN Star Tribune: Ignore Ron Paul at your Peril!

Ron Paul revolution is well beyond the fringe

Article by: CRAIG WESTOVER
Updated: May 25, 2012 - 9:58 PM

Counterpoint

After a lengthy analysis of the Ron Paul influence evident at the Minnesota GOP Convention May 18-19 in St. Cloud ("Libertarian surge remakes state GOP," May 20), the burning question for the Star Tribune Editorial Board was whether "a caucus-based political system that magnifies populist tides [and enabled Paul supporters to dominate the state convention] serves this state well."

Couple that with a harsher Washington Post piece published in full online ("The party of Ron Paul?" May 24) -- which labeled recently adopted planks in the Iowa Republican Party platform "wacky" and "nutty" and gleefully anticipated "a few highly visible fights" erupting over "Paulite positions in the national platform" -- and it's evident the Strib is a more than a little confused about what the Ron Paul revolution is all about.

Let me do what I can to clarify.

First, let's understand what a "movement" or a "revolution" is. All movements -- the Pat Robertson Republican coup in the 1980s, gay rights, women's suffrage, civil rights and, yes, the Ron Paul movement -- follow a common pattern.

Movements all begin at the margins with people who have little or nothing to lose. Unsuccessful movements never expand beyond the sloganeering fringe. Successful movements -- those with an intellectual and moral basis -- mature to attract a mainstream following.