Ron Paul Doesn’t Even Get A Participation Trophy

by evanmcmurry

I’ll admit that at one time I was secretly rooting for Ron Paul to mount enough of a primary effort that he got onto the ballot at the Republican National Convention. a) It might have forced the RNC into an actual debate over actual policy, as opposed to the Anti-Obama Greatest Hits Package it will now surely be; and b) the resulting chaos would have been the best political spectator sport of the entire race. The stills of William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer grimacing alone would have been worth it.

Alas, at some point after New Hampshire, Ron Paul stopped standing for anything besides getting his son a speaking spot at the convention, and his followers took over, implementing a strategy that sure looked, walked, and talked like backdoor disenfranchisement. So now that Ron Paul isn’t actually a substantive alternative to the GOP platform, I’m happy to hear he didn’t clear the delegate threshold to get on the ballot. No Ron Paul party this year, kids. You’ll have to wait until Rand runs.

Scott Lemieux with the close:

Paul’s strategy was to game the system in order to produce a nominee (or at least competitive campaign) whose political positions were dramatically at variance with the bulk of his party; this strategy was premised on the assumption that the Paul people were, in effect, the smartest people in the room. This is generally in accord with the “you just don’t get it, do you” feeling that accompanies any conversation with a Ron Paul fanatic, and it’s altogether satisfying to see that deflated.