Why is Ron Paul Attracting Young Voters?—How the Internet and Social Media is Changing the Landscape of World Politics

Social Media, the Youth Vote, and the Internet as a Platform for Competing Ideas

I've posted a lot of videos showing how the mainstream media and proponents of the establishment are ignoring and marginalizing Ron Paul—many times even pretending he doesn't exist. It's not a conspiracy theory at all. For someone who's been following Ron Paul since 2008, I could say that they are blatant at suppressing his unpopular dissent—a showcase of close-mindedness and a mockery of democracy. They'd usually shrug him off as crazy, unelectable, or both.

Many in the mainstream media are baffled by the fact that Ron Paul, the oldest candidate in the race, is getting the support of the youngest voters. This is what would be the envy of all politicians: rockstar treatment and diehard enthusiastic supporters. In one of the recent CNN debates, they referred to him as having "an army of young voters" which I think is an accurate description.

Now if we analyze this, we can say that these young voters are the dominant users of social media whereas older people would usually still get their information from TV or newspapers or even when they do use the internet they would still go to the big mainstream media companies.

The problem with old media like TV or newspapers is that it's a one-way method of communicating or disseminating information. It's very different from new media in the internet where people can comment, debate, compare, reference, and collect data. When politicians or pundits say contradictory statements, for example, anyone can combine the two and expose them by uploading or sharing it to the world. And when people try to do this with Ron Paul, they realize that it's almost impossible because his consistent principled integrity cannot be tarnished.

Again we go back to a FOX news debate in 2008 where he was booed, laughed at, and marginalized for advocating a peaceful non-interventionist foreign policy. This was during the height of the Bush doctrine of "if you're not with us then you are against us". What the neoconservatives didn't know is that their marginalizing of Ron Paul will backfire at them. The ability of Ron Paul to stick to his principles in spite of being booed and laughed at only showcased his integrity. Videos and reactions popped up everywhere on the internet and Ron Paul's campaign for liberty went viral and since then has garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters all over the world including me.

As people learned more about Ron Paul, they realized that for decades, Ron Paul has warned against the recession and the housing bubble; he warned against war propaganda; and the politicians, pundits, and the mainstream media ignored him.

That's why it's no surprise that these establishment politicians are pushing for legislation like SOPA where they'd have control of the internet. It was moving to witness the whole world stand against that kind of tyranny. It was a testament to how US policy and legislation affects the whole world and not just Americans. It is also proof that we must never give any government or group of people such authority for it will only undermine progress, truth, and liberty.

The power of social media makes me hopeful about the political landscape of the world. It makes me optimistic about how maybe one day money and influence will not be the deciding factor of who wins elections. With that being said, I do have to admit that the recent primary and caucus results have been very depressing. Do expect that all I'll be blogging about until November will be Ron Paul.


If you liked this post then you might also like:
1. Hillary Clinton on Ron Paul
2. Why I support Ron Paul and his Relevance to Filipinos
3. Why Jeffrey Sachs is Mistaken about Libertarianism and Ron Paul

2 comments:

  1. Please help my friends get educated on RPaul in the Philippines. PORMAL is the ad hoc group & they're primed for your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Raychristl, how can I contact you? I'm actually a member of that group in Facebook and have posted Ron Paul videos a couple of times. :)

    ReplyDelete

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