Ron Paul’s supporters are diligent in their support of him. Unfortunately, a lot of that support is what is known in the software industry as vaporware. In other words it is phony to non-existent. Right now, for example, I have a bunch of emails flooding my inbox telling me why I should support Ron Paul from droves of supposedly enthusiastic Paulbots. The problem however is that 98% of those emails are from obviously hastily registered email addresses at any number of free email service providers. In email after email the message is the same, word for droning word. Checking the IP Addresses in the email headers shows that many of these messages are being sent from the same computer under different emails. One enthusiastic Paulbot sent me the same message, under different Gmail addresses, thirty-seven times within the span of three hours. He even forgot to change his signature every time he sent it. So, “B. Anderson”, and I know you are reading this, try to at least be a little less obvious next time ok? And you folks honestly wonder why I make fun of you?
What is sad though is that sometimes Paulbots are able to fool enough people and parlay this phony sense of support into actual results. See the final vote count of the Iowa Caucuses where Mr. Paul netted more than 21% of the vote.
Now, Ron Paul has some good ideas. He is right that the federal government spends too much money and does far too many things that it should not be doing. But of course his actual belief in such rhetoric on this important issue has to be questioned since it is a fact that he has helped bring back a plethora of earmarks for unconstitutional spending to his district in Texas. He spins this by saying that the money was going to be spent anyway so he was just doing what he should do and help out his constituency and that is how the game is played. To that I say you either believe in the Constitution or you do not. And these actions show me that Mr. Paul does not, absolutely, believe in the Constitution.
But there is one Big Lie that Mr. Paul’s supporters like to throw out there that really gets my dander up. It gets my dander up because it annoys so many people who are bravely defending this country day in and day out while standing on a wall and in the line of enemy fire. Something that few people, even ravenous Paulbots, have the courage to do. I hear it every day because the election is upon us. The Paulbot emails me and says, “Ron Paul has more support from the military than any other candidate!” Military personnel email me every day telling me that on base there is at best one Ron Paul supporter and how frustrated they are that the Paulbots are telling this Big Lie.
See, members of the military do not like Mr. Paul all that much because they have heard him denigrate America and its military as the source of evil in the world. While I have yet to meet a member of the American military who does not, in general, agree with Congressman Paul that the U.S. military is used too freely, too often and is too diluted around the world. I have also met very few members of the military who do not think that Ron Paul is a dangerous isolationist and worse, someone who cannot be trusted to stand up to evil when it rears its ugly head.
So I thought I would break it down in a manner so simple that we can put the issue of Ron Paul’s military support to rest once and for all and do so using the same standard that Paulbots use to tout how great and mighty this support really is. That method is to look at campaign donations by members of the military. The common refrain from Paulbots is that Ron Paul has more donations from military personnel than any other candidate. Ergo he has the most support. So let’s look at that shall we?
According to the numbers available on January 6th, 2012[1], Ron Paul has received $24,503, $23,335 and $17,432 from people who declared themselves as working for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy respectively. The total is $65,270. They are the top three donors listed.
Now, let’s assume that this $65,270 donated to Mr. Paul’s campaign by members of the military all came in one dollar increments. The average donation was in fact higher. But bear with me as we make the number that follows as big, and as unrealistic, as possible to give the Paulbots as much of an advantage as possible ok?
So, $65,270 made in one dollar increments would mean 65,270 members of the military donated to Ron Paul. In September 2011[2] there were 1,468,364 total active duty military personnel in the United States . Divide the inflated number of Paul donors by the total active members of the military and you get 4.4%. Hardly an outpouring of support if you ask me. This leaves over 95% of the military that do not, but the Paulbots' own flawed methodology, that do not support Ron Paul.
Now assume that the average donation by declared military personnel to Ron Paul is ten dollars instead of one dollar. The percentage of active duty personnel that support Paul dips to a pathetic 0.44%. Again, using the argument of Ron Paul’s supporters who like to tout that we look only at the dollar amounts of the donations by members of the military to him that is.
If the average donation was one hundred dollars? Well, that makes the percentage just 0.044%.
When you look at other candidates, it is true that you do not see anywhere near these numbers for these military professions if you even see them at all. There are however reasons for this. First, active duty personnel stationed overseas will often have their spouses make donation for their household to candidates. These donations are then listed under the spouse’s information which is often times not military related. Secondly is that members of the military, from my personal experience, hate to be used as political pawns and when they donate to political candidates they often do not list their military service as their profession. Thirdly, military personnel, as I have been told by military personnel themselves, generally really hate to be used for political purposes thus they again do not like to list their service on donations made to military candidates so that their donations cannot be used in this manner. And fourthly is that there is a concerted effort by Ron Paul supporters in the military to make sure that their donations are listed as coming from military personnel in order to perpetuate this talking point for political gain. But let’s ignore all that. Let’s ignore it because Ron Paul’s supporters use simply the dollar numbers as the end all and be all of the proof to support their supposed claims.
When you look at the numbers alone and apply a little logic you see that less than 5% of active duty military personnel support Ron Paul at best. In reality however the number is less than half a percent. Again, using the “logic” of the Paulbots of course. Not the numbers they want to paint. But the numbers they are forcing us to accept if they want us to accept their initial premise.
Now I am emptying out my email inbox. I have to. Because over the next month I am going to have to field all the angry emails from Ron Paul supporters because I dared to once again bust their little bubble.
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