1. “It coincided with an online national fund-raising effort that brought in $6 million in one day, mostly from wealthy, middle-class professionals.”

   That is an incredible statement. The average donation was what, $100? How many people honestly believe that Ron Paul supporters are mostly wealthy, middle-class professionals?

2. I don’t. I’m a poor college student and I donated. I can barely pay my rent. People from all walks of life support Ron Paul and his message.

   On a side-note, he’s not for abolishing the CIA in the sense of disarming the governments necessity of gathering intelligence for DEFENSE purposes, but rather restraining the CIA from conducting military attacks in our various attempts to assassinate leaders of other countries.

   Just clarifying.

3. Every one is ‘out of step’ but the far left?

4. This is little old but clearly the majority of money came from contributions larger than $500.

   It should come as no surprise that a good chunk of his support comes from the upper middle class. Sure there are many smaller donations, but that only accounted for $300,000 of the $3,000,000.

   Would there be a chance I would vote for him with the “greater good” in mind (Iraq War, Patriot Act, WTO, AFTA’s, immigration)? Sure, but that says nothing about supporting his upper middle class political ideology. But then I’d say the same thing about the Boston Tea Party.

5. When I was in the Libertarian Party back in the 1970’s & 1980’s it was a predominantly white, male, middle class organization. The attendance at LP events reminded me of what people told me Star Trek conventions were like. Unless libertarian demographics have drastically changed, I’m not so sure the SWP is off the mark here. I am, of course, assuming that Ron Paul’s base is more or less libertarian to the core.

   Also, I’ve always wondered how a movement (including Ron Paul) that supports almost completely unregulated free market capitalism, which everyone agrees tends towards monopolies, could be supported in large numbers by the poorest, least powerful segments of society.

6. I’m convinced that Dr. Paul’s support comes from a wide variety of Americans and all income levels.

   Dr. Paul’s message of Freedom, Liberty, and the constitution is very popular, especially in the light of our lack of same.

   I’m sorry socialism doesn’t sell well in the U.S.A. but that’s just not our way. Go out and earn it for yourself and keep your hand out of my pocket. You might get shot. 🙂

7. I’m afraid your numbers are a bit too old proletariat, there have been around 160,000 more donors during this quarter than Q3. We can better examine those kinds of statistics in a few weeks when Q4 becomes public.

   -Upper-lower-class Hispanic Ron Paul donor

8. To Fred C.: I’m not sure what socialism (which I didn’t even mention) either “selling well” or “not selling well” in the USA has to do with liberals and progressives supporting a man who has been referred to as “Ronald Reagan on steroids,” which is politically irrational.

   Having said that, if by “socialism” you mean free health care for senior citizens and the indigent (Medicare & Medicaid); financial institutions owned and operated by & for their customers and employees instead of for profit (credit unions); a progressive income tax structure; cooperatively managed & operated agriculture (local food co-ops); nationalized, publically owned parks and forests; and free, community-operated education (public schools), just to name a few things that already exist here, then yes, I think socialism does “sell well” in the USA, it is supported by the vast majority of Americans, and it is what I support and why I haven’t been a libertarian for many years.

   You can be convinced of anything of which you choose to be convinced, I suppose, but please cite any available studies, polls, or statistics that show that Ron Paul’s support comes from a wide variety of Americans and all income levels. Is there a large contingent of people of color within the Ron Paul Revolution?

   I can’t say for certain, but I have a vague feeling that the majority of people in this country would not be in favor of abolishing Social Security, abolishing Medicare, abolishing the Federal Reserve, abolishing the Food & Drug Administration, etc. etc. ad nauseum, as Ron Paul is, and as the Libertarian Party is, according to its platform, unless they’ve given Milton Friedman & Murray Rothbard the heave-ho when I wasn’t looking. And that’s not a way of looking at things that the poorest, least powerful segments of society (to quote myself) would be likely to support. This is why I think anyone who fits into that category who claims to support Ron Paul is either only superficially familiar with his philosophy, only interested in the Iraq war issue, or is simply casting a protest vote.

9. I’m not familiar with any studies, polls, or statistics concerning Ron Paul supporters at all. If they are being conducted, they haven’t crossed into my field of vision yet. I don’t believe you have access to any supporting your own assessment either, or you would cite them rather than basing your assessment on the composition of libertarian meetings you were part of 20+ years ago. Meanwhile, Ron Paul’s donor base is close to rivaling the number of registered Libertarians, and judging from the controversy within that party concerning the candidate it seems unlikely to me that his support is as “libertarian to the core” as you surmise. I’ve seen people of all races at Ron Paul events, and am aware of others through the internet, but the only sources I can reference to you are an October Rasmussen Reports poll that had Dr. Paul outperforming all other Republican candidates in general election matchups among African-Americans.

   I’m not sure how you construed from my earlier note that going off Q.3 donor reports was too unrepresentative that I was making a judgment on socialism “selling well” in this country. I believe the vote-totals socialists and leftists in this country have gotten for themselves in recent memory illustrate that point just fine. I agree that a great number of Ron Paul supporters are in it for his foreign policy, and given the situation in the world today, that’s a perfectly valid first priority.

   As for the examples of socialism you mention, I can only go by my experience. Seeing a relative of mine rendered disabled by Medicaid doctors, I’m not impressed. Seeing her ignored by social security after the fact by their own standards of disability left me even more unimpressed. Discussing current events in public high school with classmates that weren’t familiar with the word “civilian” left me pretty cool towards free, community-operated schools. I appreciate the arguments in favor of all positions, but have learned that one cannot expect governments that demonstrate their incompetence time and again on a myriad of matters to take the helm regarding my health, education, the value of my work or the way in which I choose to spend my free time. And given the fact that it’s a pain in the neck for me to make rent every month while my state sends more money to DC than it gets back, so that centralized educational agencies like the federal and state DOEs can keep students testing for months out of every year in school instead of actually studying material, funding perpetual warfare, putting people in jail for becoming intoxicated in the manner of their choosing and advancing fiscal policies that leave whatever paltry sums I can save more and more worthless, I can support much more of Ron Paul’s philosophy than a superficial familiarity could provide.

10. If current trends continue 80% of his money come from men. Of that money 80 to 90% came from donors giving between $1,000 and $4,000. As has been stated he doubled his money this quarter, but I really see no reason why the current pattern of contributions would change.

    I actually think Ron Paul has some broad support. I have heard many socialists and greens speak rather positively. Even some very pro- Chavez sites putting a Ron Paul revolution banner up. As I said he is right on many issues that would cause someone like me to support him over a Hillobama, although I detest the philosophy behind it. As a populist told me he is right on the issues for the wrong reasons, but still right on the issues.

    Here is my point, the article is right, and I suspect it will be right in the third quarter. I think middle to upper middle-class is correct, wealthy less so (too subjective). That fact really says nothing about his broad issue based support. I do hope he will run in the general as a Lib, it will at minimum give a voice to at least one part (of many) of America that is ignored by the duopoly.

11. Right on what issues? Abolishing everything? No more taxes? No more regulation? No more United Nations? Bringing back the (don’t laugh) gold standard? What are people on the left thinking when they pat Ron Paul on the back so vigorously? The Iraq war and civil liberties are not the only issues on the table, but you would think that they were given the enthusiasm for Ron Paul among some elements of the left. Have any of these people actually looked into Ron Paul’s philosophy and political history? Hey, I voted for the guy in 1988, but I was a libertarian then and knew what I was voting for. If you’re a free market capitalist, support Ron Paul & do so with a clear conscience. If unregulated, free market capitalism repels you, why would you support Ron Paul?

    BTW my comment/response above was to have been addressed to David Johnson, not Fred C., and I tried posting a correction but apparently it never went through.

    In any event, back in the day (1980’s) there were actually several studies done, albeit small ones, of Libertarian Party activists and convention attendees, and the results were not exactly favorable to people who think that libertarianism attracts a wide variety of people of all backgrounds and economic circumstances.

    This is a bizarre election year in that much of Ron Paul’s support seems to be based on general disgust with the status quo, and specific disgust with the war in Iraq. As a Green, I can tell you that this is why people on the far left are (irrationally, in my opinion) supporting him who would otherwise be with someone like Dennis Kucinich or Mike Gravel. This goes back to 2006 and Kevin Zeese’s so-called unity campaign for the US Senate in Maryland, where he got both the Libertarian and Green parties, incredibly, to endorse him. But there was precious little diversity there.

    Ron Paul is not going to win the Republican nomination, and after Romney, McCain, Huckabee, or Giuliani does, the Ron Paul Revolution fanatics will have nowhere to go except the LP. And people on the left who think Ron Paul walks on water should read the LP platform (which Ron Paul supports virtually down the line) very, very carefully.

12. Why is it that Ron Paul’s opponents can do nothing better than ridicule him?

    For instance, nobody has explained why we should prefer the Federal Reserve Bank, which has practically destroyed the value of the dollar, to the gold standard, which served very well for over 100 years to preserve the value. The only argument against the Gold Standard is that “it can’t be practical.” Odd thing, it was quite practical for a very long period of time. The Gold Standard was abolished because it restricted the ability of the government to fund programs via the printing press; it was an inconvenient restriction on government spending.

    Am I an upper-income white male? Yes, guilty as charged. But I was not always upper-income; some years, not that far back, my earnings were less than $10k. Nonetheless, it is my belief that a government which restricts our liberty less and taxes us less would leave all of us better off than not. I grew up in Pittsburgh, where anyone can tell you that the political system shifts wealth from poor people to wealthy white people.

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