Ron Paul’s Diverse Base
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Republicans
Wonder why Paul is having problems gaining traction in the GOP while Huckabee is surging?
If Ron Paul’s supporters got together for a family portrait, it would be one of those pictures in which no one seems to resemble anyone else.“You have old-school Republicans, the conservatives who backed Barry Goldwater (in 1964). You have the anti-war crowd who are principled non-interventionists,” said Jim Forsythe, a former Air Force major who’s organized meet-and-greet sessions in New Hampshire for the Texas congressman and Republican presidential candidate.
You also have businessmen tired of government regulation, college students who like his views on holistic medicine and middle-aged folks who don’t see Social Security helping them in a few years. There are people who supported Democrat Howard Dean four years ago and others who backed conservative Republican Pat Buchanan in the 1990s.
What brings them together is a common belief that government is too big, obtrusive and unresponsive.
“It’s a desire to get government out of my life. That’s it,” said Rick Grote, a pharmacist in Hampton, Iowa.
Folks, he’s a message candidate, and as such he’s going to attract a very wide range of people. Hell, even I’m intrigued by his ideas.
You know who also had a diverse base of support?
A detailed analysis of the voting demographics revealed that Perot’s support drew heavily from across the political spectrum, with 20% of his votes coming from self-described liberals, 27% from self-described conservatives, and 53% coming from self-described moderates. Economically, however, the majority of Perot voters (57%) were middle class, earning between $15,000 and $49,000 annually, with the bulk of the remainder drawing from the upper middle class (29% earning over $50,000 annually).
Food for thought…
This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 and is filed under 2008 Election, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 11th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
You’re incorrect.
The reason Huckabee is surging and not Ron Paul is because the media (ie CNN, Fox News, MSNBC) have talked about him non stop in the past 2 weeks.
All you hear every night is Huckabee. Ron Paul is never mentioned. And is even intentionally left out of polls.
ex.
If the polls have Giuliani at 16%, Paul at 8%, and Thompson and Mcain at 7%.
You will see this on Fox news.
Giuliani = 16%
Thompason = 7%
Mccain = 7%
They just completely leave Paul out.
Media bias is the reason huckabee is surging in the senior citizen landline polls.
However, if you look at REAL SUPPORT, Paul is surging through grass roots efforts and the media can’t stop him.