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The libertarians are coming! But don't let a Republican explain it to you. Instead, crazy fun local lefties the San Francisco Bay Guardian report on the Ron Paul phenomenon. I've culled some easily-absorbed bullet points from the lengthy article.

  • It's rare to see GOP campaign signs in Mission District windows and beat-up old cars, or crowds of enthusiastic supporters flooding the city's streets.
  • Paul's frank assessment of the United States as an overreaching empire [remember, this is the Bay Guardian] got his campaign rolling.
  • Paul's libertarian platform is attracting support from lifelong members of the National Rifle Association to medical marijuana activists to disenchanted college students.
  • One unifying theme among all Paul supporters is their absolute belief in their candidate's integrity. "My gut tells me Ron Paul is different." "Ron Paul's not trying to sell you on himself; he's just selling you the message of freedom." "He is the only Republican nominee who would not steal the election."
  • Paul's Dec. 16 fundraising push raised more than $6 million in a 24-hour period, breaking the record for funds raised in one day held by the John Kerry 2004 campaign.
  • Most of the donations to the Paul campaign are small contributions from committed individuals. The average size of each donation is around $100.
  • There is no political mystery to Paul; he has been articulating the same message — one of limited constitutional government, low taxes (if any), and free markets — since he was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1976 from his home state of Texas.
  • Paul is a self-proclaimed noninterventionist and has opposed the war in Iraq from the start. He is by no means liberal or progressive; he's more a classic conservative who opposes government regulation.
  • He sees the USA Patriot Act as a breech [sic — Guardian] of civil liberties; wants to stop US involvement in the World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and other free trade agreements; and supports bringing American troops home from Iraq posthaste.
  • He is also staunchly antichoice, introduced legislation in 2004 to repeal bans on assault weapons, and wants to beef up the US's borders.
  • There are more than 80,000 Ron Paul online meet-up members around the country — 452 in the San Francisco group as of the writing of this article — and most of them find themselves in complete agreement with Paul's perspectives. "We're right where Kerry was in 2004 going into the primaries, when Dean had already been crowned winner by the media."

(Photo by Anarchyware)