The NEW Media Tactic to Marginalize Ron Paul

By Thaddeus S. Kaczor, Jr.


In this piece by Gerald F. Seib in the Wall Street Journal, the media unveils it's newest tactic to combat the continuing growth in popularity of Ron Paul's Presidential Campaign. Since the policy of ignoring him completely failed, then the tactic of dismissing him and his supporters as a 'fringe movement' has been eclipsed by his mainstream successes, the MONEY Party elites and their toadies in the corporate media are now attempting to marginalize Ron Paul and his supporters by backhandedly 'accepting' his successes, while relegating him to a 'spoiler' role.


In his article, Mr. Seib still manages to hit all the major GOP Establishment 'talking points' to minimize and demean Ron Paul and his supporters. However,  in what now appears to the new strategy of 'damning with faint praise' has been passed around for mass consumption (since the previous strategy of totally ignoring him has proven unworkable, and his supposed 'ceiling' of support has moved higher- first it was 5%, then 10%, then 15%). Now, it seems, Ron Paul doesn't have 'supporters' like other candidates, he has 'followers'- so you can isolate and mock them as if they are not expressing their Right to support a candidate like every other American. He is a 'spoiler' and not a 'contender'- since he 'spoils' the establishment's strategy of putting in yet another corporate, big-government shill like Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.. When other candidates (insincerely) advocate 'small government', it is praised- with Ron Paul, it's a 'Gospel of small government and hard money'- as if this is some 'cult' idea, not actually what mainstream America identifies with- as Mr. Seib hypocritically  points out later in the very same article! If Ron Paul wins Iowa, it's not a 'win', but an 'inconclusive outcome', 'muddying the waters' and a 'boon to Romney'. Kind of strange how a loss by a candidate who has spent a lot of money is a 'boon', and a win by a media and establishment underdog is not actually a 'win'!


Later in the article, Mr. Seib states:  "If Mr. Paul really exceeds expectations in Iowa, that also might set the stage for him to break away from the GOP down the road and mount an independent presidential run. After all, he ran once before as a Libertarian Party candidate, in 1988." Really? Whose expectations? The Media Pundits? The Party Establishment? Surely not the 'expectations' of the electorate, since we have yet to cast the first ballot, and the process is designed to vet candidates, not handicap it like a horse race. Because many reputable and respected news outlets, some nationally but many INSIDE Iowa are now saying that Ron Paul has the most support in both breadth and depth, the best organization and the best chance of winning, most GOP Party apparatchiks and their surrogates in the Media will now continue to bring up the despicably crass propaganda theme of a Ron Paul 'possible third-party run'- in the hopes of dissuading undecided primary voters and caucus-goers, and soft supporters of other candidates from voting for Paul by unfairly smearing his consistently Conservative Republican reputation. This tactic, which includes calling him a (Big 'L') 'Libertarian' instead of a REPUBLICAN as much as possible, is clearly a media-driven theme, as it totally discounts the fact that Ron Paul is a long-time elected REPUBLICAN who is in the Top Tier of candidates in most reputable polls, and actually has a shot at winning the nomination (highlighting another tactic of constantly calling him a 'long-shot' and always saying 'but of course he has NO CHANCE of winning').


Constantly citing Polls that show his 'support is primarily among young people' is another propaganda tactic of trying to marginalize him. Disregarding the fact that Polls can be easily manipulated in numerous ways (and usually ARE), even by these flawed means of measuring support Ron Paul surely DOES attract a large number of young people. But the propagandistic pundits and selectively deceptive polls conveniently fail to mention he also attracts a lot of middle-aged, retiree and young adult supporters as well as Students and new, young voters. More over, Ron Paul- more than ANY other GOP contender- attracts overwhelmingly more independents and even DEMOCRAT supporters than any of his competitors! That fact alone- if it applied to any of the other GOP candidates-  would have ANY of his rivals being declared by the media and the party as the odds-on favorite to win the nomination and beat Obama. But of course, it's 'Ron Paul', who isn't in the pockets of the K-Street Lobbyists and the Goldman Sachs Mafiosos who suck up Government money and power like mother's milk! So instead, it's called an 'abberation', and thus makes him 'less Republican'.


No, Ron Paul is NOT the 'Wild Card' in the race as Mr. Seib painfully tries to assert... He is actually the Republican Party's 'Ace-In-The-Hole'- if they truly wish to defeat Barack Obama. Compared to Ron Paul, his broad and deep support base, and his record of consistently Conservative positions, the other candidates are merely flawed contenders with a strong but limited appeal. Most importantly, the GOP Leadership seems to want to ignore the fact that the DNC and the Obama Campaign will have a field day tearing Gingrich, Romney and the others to shreds in the General Election- simply by using their own words and record to do so. 


It's time for the GOP Leadership and the Media to stop treating Ron Paul and his supporters as the pariahs of the GOP. Remember in 1976 and 1980? The Republican establishment and the media all treated Ronald Reagan and his supporters EXACTLY the way Ron Paul and HIS supporters are being treated now. Remember how THAT turned out? The 'washed-up actor' and his 'band of fringe conservatives' won the election by the biggest landslide in modern American political history. Whether The GOP Elites and the media like it or not, Ron Paul and his supporters represent the future of the Republican Party. He alone brings new and youthful (and middle age and retiree) blood back into the party. He does that by returning to the basic policies and ideals of small-government and individual liberties that USED to define Republicanism. The American people are also realizing that Ron Paul is the ONLY candidate who will truly turn this country away from the corporatist corruption that has insinuated itself into the core of BOTH parties.


Republicans now have a choice: reinvigorate the party with a return to it's Core Principles that Ron Paul espouses, or go the way of the Whig Party, which (after dominating politics for decades) decided it would ignore it's grass roots supporters, discard it's core principles and attempt to impose it's 'preferred' candidates upon the electorate in 1856 in a desperate attempt to maintain it's power in Washington. By 1860, the once-dominant Whig Party was gone... Replaced by the upstart and grass-roots responsive- REPUBLICAN PARTY! Ron Paul is pointing the way to a new era, not only for the Republican Party, but for ALL Americans! It is time to cast off the jaundiced eyepiece of the corporate media, ignore the sour siren's song of the corrupt and morally bankrupt politics of the past, and to embrace a return to the basic principles and policies that made America the Greatest Country on Earth. It is time to elect President Ron Paul.