Ron Paul’s supporters are diligent in their support of him.
Unfortunately, a lot of that support is what is known in the software
industry as vaporware. In other words it is phony to non-existent.
Right now, for example, I have a bunch of emails flooding my inbox
telling me why I should support Ron Paul from droves of supposedly
enthusiastic Paulbots. The problem however is that 98% of those emails
are from obviously hastily registered email addresses at any number of
free email service providers. In email after email the message is the
same, word for droning word. Checking the IP Addresses in the email
headers shows that many of these messages are being sent from the same
computer under different emails. One enthusiastic Paulbot sent me the
same message, under different Gmail addresses, thirty-seven times within
the span of three hours. He even forgot to change his signature every
time he sent it. So, “B. Anderson”, and I know you are reading this,
try to at least be a little less obvious next time ok? And you folks
honestly wonder why I make fun of you?
What is sad though is that sometimes Paulbots are able to fool enough
people and parlay this phony sense of support into actual results. See
the final vote count of the Iowa Caucuses where Mr. Paul netted more
than 21% of the vote.
Now, Ron Paul has some good ideas. He is right that the federal
government spends too much money and does far too many things that it
should not be doing. But of course his actual belief in such rhetoric
on this important issue has to be questioned since it is a fact that he
has helped bring back a plethora of earmarks for unconstitutional
spending to his district in Texas. He spins this by saying that the
money was going to be spent anyway so he was just doing what he should
do and help out his constituency and that is how the game is played. To
that I say you either believe in the Constitution or you do not. And
these actions show me that Mr. Paul does not, absolutely, believe in the
Constitution.
But there is one Big Lie that Mr. Paul’s supporters like to throw out
there that really gets my dander up. It gets my dander up because it
annoys so many people who are bravely defending this country day in and
day out while standing on a wall and in the line of enemy fire.
Something that few people, even ravenous Paulbots, have the courage to
do. I hear it every day because the election is upon us. The Paulbot
emails me and says, “Ron Paul has more support from the military than
any other candidate!” Military personnel email me every day telling me
that on base there is at best one Ron Paul supporter and how frustrated
they are that the Paulbots are telling this Big Lie.
See, members of the military do not like Mr. Paul all that much
because they have heard him denigrate America and its military as the
source of evil in the world. While I have yet to meet a member of the
American military who does not, in general, agree with Congressman Paul
that the U.S. military is used too freely, too often and is too diluted
around the world. I have also met very few members of the military who
do not think that Ron Paul is a dangerous isolationist and worse,
someone who cannot be trusted to stand up to evil when it rears its ugly
head.
So I thought I would break it down in a manner so simple that we can
put the issue of Ron Paul’s military support to rest once and for all
and do so using the same standard that Paulbots use to tout how great
and mighty this support really is. That method is to look at campaign
donations by members of the military. The common refrain from Paulbots
is that Ron Paul has more donations from military personnel than any
other candidate. Ergo he has the most support. So let’s look at that
shall we?
According to the numbers available on January 6th, 2012[1], Ron Paul
has received $24,503, $23,335 and $17,432 from people who declared
themselves as working for the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S.
Navy respectively. The total is $65,270. They are the top three
donors listed.
Now, let’s assume that this $65,270 donated to Mr. Paul’s campaign by
members of the military all came in one dollar increments. The average
donation was in fact higher. But bear with me as we make the number
that follows as big, and as unrealistic, as possible to give the
Paulbots as much of an advantage as possible ok?
So, $65,270 made in one dollar increments would mean 65,270 members
of the military donated to Ron Paul. In September 2011[2] there were
1,468,364 total active duty military personnel in the United States.
Divide the inflated number of Paul donors by the total active members of
the military and you get 4.4%. Hardly an outpouring of support if you
ask me. This leaves over 95% of the military that do not, but the
Paulbots’ own flawed methodology, that do not support Ron Paul.
Now assume that the average donation by declared military personnel
to Ron Paul is ten dollars instead of one dollar. The percentage of
active duty personnel that support Paul dips to a pathetic 0.44%.
Again, using the argument of Ron Paul’s supporters who like to tout that
we look only at the dollar amounts of the donations by members of the
military to him that is.
If the average donation was one hundred dollars? Well, that makes the percentage just 0.044%.


When you look at other candidates, it is true that you do not see
anywhere near these numbers for these military professions if you even
see them at all. There are however reasons for this. First, active
duty personnel stationed overseas will often have their spouses make
donation for their household to candidates. These donations are then
listed under the spouse’s information which is often times not military
related. Secondly is that members of the military, from my personal
experience, hate to be used as political pawns and when they donate to
political candidates they often do not list their military service as
their profession. Thirdly, military personnel, as I have been told by
military personnel themselves, generally really hate to be used for
political purposes thus they again do not like to list their service on
donations made to military candidates so that their donations cannot be
used in this manner. And fourthly is that there is a concerted effort
by Ron Paul supporters in the military to make sure that their donations
are listed as coming from military personnel in order to perpetuate
this talking point for political gain. But let’s ignore all that.
Let’s ignore it because Ron Paul’s supporters use simply the dollar
numbers as the end all and be all of the proof to support their supposed
claims.
When you look at the numbers alone and apply a little logic you see
that less than 5% of active duty military personnel support Ron Paul at
best. In reality however the number is less than half a percent.
Again, using the “logic” of the Paulbots of course. Not the numbers
they want to paint. But the numbers they are forcing us to accept if
they want us to accept their initial premise.Now I am emptying out my email inbox. I have to. Because over the
next month I am going to have to field all the angry emails from Ron
Paul supporters because I dared to once again bust their little bubble.
[1] http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?cycle=2012&;id=N00005906

[2] http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004598.htmlhttp://www.libertyreborn.com/2012/01/06/ron-pauls-support-among-military-4-4-at-best/


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