A voice in the wilderness no more

At CPAC, Ron Paul's critique of the monetary system and the Republican party is surprisingly more popular than ever


David Weigel guardian.co.uk,
Sunday 1 March 2009 00.30 GMT

"The worst president in American history is Abraham Lincoln, who slaughtered 700,000 Americans!"

A hot, sticky crowd, overflowing from a room meant for 478 people, whoops it up when Andrew Napolitano makes that claim. They are here for the Liberty Forum, an unofficial offshoot of the 36th annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. All of them are supporters of Ron Paul.

The persistent popularity of Paul, the 72-year-old libertarian congressman who raised $35m in a quixotic Republican presidential bid, is one of the head-turning shocks of CPAC. Walk into the Omni Shoreham Hotel, the site of the conference, and a smiling volunteer for the Campaign for Liberty – Paul's new organisation – will hand you a flyer for one of their meetings. They're everywhere.

"We've got 140 volunteers," said a smiling Jesse Benton, the Campaign for Liberty's communications director, at a Wednesday happy hour sponsored by libertarian Reason magazine, the de facto CPAC pre-party. After a month and a week of the Obama presidency, the group has raised $300,000.

One of the volunteers is Jeff Frazee, who turned 26 years old this month and could pass for 18. He heads up Young Americans for Liberty, a collegiate companion to the CFL that held its own student conference last weekend, with the aim of starting 100 chapters by the end of the year. They've launched Young American Revolution, a magazine featuring articles from students and writers for conservative publications like the American Spectator and Pat Buchanan-founded American Conservative. The cover story, illustrated by a painting of Ron Paul rolling up his sleeves to box with Barack Obama, is about how Paul is inspiring young people. An interview with Paul ranges from his plans for 2012 to his investments in precious metals.

"I never had to use my gold coins," says Paul. "But it didn't hurt me [to have them]."

Fifteen thousand copies of the magazine are being distributed at the conference, many at the YAL booth, next to a wall of balloons that attendees can puncture with darts to win either paper money – "fiat money" – or candy. It's an educational tool to teach students why paper money is worthless compared to gold.

"Everyone gets it," says Frazee. "The idea of printing up money doesn't work. There's a value in candy, and there's no value in paper money."

In previous years, Paul found a sea of critics at CPAC. George Bush was president, the Iraq war was being

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... ican-party