This is a shame because (and I’m not afraid to mention this) I have several strong sympathies with the Ron Paul movement.
That Paul still hasn’t been able to break out of 5-6% is symptomatic of a number of reasons. The vitriol of an extreme minority of his supporters would be one. Ron Paul’s inability to answer questions on whether or not he truly believed the goverment was behind the September 11th attacks was another. Capping it off, the TNR hit piece on Ron Paul’s fundraising letters during the 1980’s may not have made Ron Paul a racist, but it did make him someone who appeared willing to pander to racist sentiment to further his cause.
But beyond all of these concerns is one overarching item: Ron Paul never had a bright idea. He may have several very good ideas, but there was no one single “brass ring” to mainstream Ron Paul.
One might argue that Ron Paul could never create such a brass ring, because his objective is to close down massive portions of the federal government. Fine, fine… no one is arguing that he had to create something out of nothing.
There are still plenty of things that Ron Paul could have done as policy that would have made a difference. Reform the American dollar? Easy. A balanced budget amendment? Easy. Libertarian minded reform for Social Security that ensures payments while sunsetting the program? Not so easy, but it would have clearly demonstrated the resiliency of libertarian economic ideas, other than slamming on the brakes.
In the end, there are many conservatives and erstwhile libertarians who would love to slay the Washington Leviathan. The solution many have to “just kill it” may sound easy enough, but won’t last long as those surviving off of the federal entitlement system want “their” money back.
Libertarians need to demonstrate how their ideas can be implemented pragmatically. Ron Paul failed to do this, either by design or incapacity.
Nevertheless, there is a pulse. Whether or not the Ron Paul Revolution can survive without it’s champion, much less coalesce around actionable ideas rather than idylistic rhetoric, will be a challenge that the LP and the lowercase-l libertarians will have to address over the next four years.