Shh... Don't tell anyone...
I rarely talk about politics in here, but I stumbled across something that really makes me happy, in a strange round-a-bout kind of way: Ron Paul raised $5 million this quarter. Thats equal with John McCain and about half of what Mitt Romney raised, and it also blows away the other "bottom tier" Republicans. I like Ron Paul for his strict constitutionalism and a few other things, but I dislike him for a few things too (he supports the national sales tax, for one). I'm not sure if I could vote for him in the general election, but if there's a strong leader in the polls on the Democrat side here by the time of Virginia's primaries, I'll probly vote for him in the Republican one to avoid "wasting my vote".
But all that isn't what makes me happy, in a round-a-bout kind of way. What does is that we're starting to see a major shift in how politics works, at least in fundraising and grassroots support. It's been going on for awhile on the Dem side most notably with Obama's massive amount of small donors, but also with the huge online push on John Tester and here in Virginia, Jim Webb. Both are non-mainstream politicians pushed, prodded and funded by internet campaigns before getting picked up by the party elite. Paul is much the same way, in his own party (though, he's really a RINO libertarian) (and he'll never be picked up by mainstream Repubilcans, but thats another story).
Anyway, the point of this post is really just that change is coming (on both sides of the aisle), and change is good. Especially when its normal folk doing the pushing.
But all that isn't what makes me happy, in a round-a-bout kind of way. What does is that we're starting to see a major shift in how politics works, at least in fundraising and grassroots support. It's been going on for awhile on the Dem side most notably with Obama's massive amount of small donors, but also with the huge online push on John Tester and here in Virginia, Jim Webb. Both are non-mainstream politicians pushed, prodded and funded by internet campaigns before getting picked up by the party elite. Paul is much the same way, in his own party (though, he's really a RINO libertarian) (and he'll never be picked up by mainstream Repubilcans, but thats another story).
Anyway, the point of this post is really just that change is coming (on both sides of the aisle), and change is good. Especially when its normal folk doing the pushing.