Dispatches from the Ron Paul Revolution

Item the first:

All politicians need money for their campaigns. But a congressional candidate from Santa Fe is asking supporters to give his campaign something he says is far more valuable than cash: gold and silver.

Adam Kokesh, who hopes to win the Republican nomination to run against incumbent Democrat Rep. Ben Ray Luján next year, said in a news release Monday that his campaign is encouraging donations in the form of precious metals partly to influence supporters “to learn to purchase those metals as a store of personal wealth.”

Kokesh is a supporter of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who campaigned for president last year on a platform that included returning U.S. currency to the gold standard.

I’ve seen much the same story before.  I guess running for office to make a point — in this case the Glories of Precious metals — is an honorable use of the ballot access.

The thing about this race, when compared to the earlier Oregon race in 2006, is the rise of Ron Paul into the insertion of the story.  “Ron Paul supporter” becomes either a shorthand, or an explainer for a phenomenon of candidates in Republican primary.  Or else we could say that these candidacies have been taking place from time immemorial (or at least since around the heyday of the Birch Society), but are now being corralled into something else.

… which happened somewhere around the point of:
Item the Second.

Nope.  Nothing cultish about that.
And what in the world is this?

Meanwhile, interesting twists in the race of Rand Paul, enter Kentucky AND Item the Third.

“I was actually going to offer to pay for Rand’s registration myself today with a personal check if he would file what he really is – a Libertarian,” said Mike Bryant, a Paul protester.

Party hack.  It’s a primary — and I do believe a two way primary at that.  If you want the mainline Republican to go to the general against the Democrat instead of the “Libertarian trying to take over the Republican Party” — mobilize your Republican base to beat the Paul.

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