Call it the revenge of the Ron Paul community. As John Gizzi described here on the Michigan View, there’s been a changing of the guard within the Michigan Republican Party. Both of the state’s representatives to the Republican National Committee were booted from office at the recently concluded state convention.
Why? Terri Lynn Land, one of the new officers, cited Ron Paul supporters and unspecified “other groups.”
The role of the Paul faction is even more prominent in the fact that long-time party pol Saul Anuzis lost his position. Says Gizzi, “Ron Paul supporters had never forgiven him for denouncing their hero” in 2007.
That’s similar to what I’ve heard here in Minnesota, where the Paulites swept aside old-guard leaders within party offices. There’s still some bitterness among Paulites about how they were treated by party officials in 2008.
Paulites have enjoyed similar success in other states, including Iowa and Colorado.
Non-Paulites look at this development with alarm, both on style (Paulites ran as an organized slate, not disparate individuals) and substance (Paul famously breaks with the Republican culture in his denunciation of sending the American military across the globe).
But I give this to the Paulites: They were prepared, and the showed up. Not surprising, they won.
What have they won? In the case of Minnesota, perhaps the answer is “not much.” Due in part to mistakes of the old regime, the party is deeply in debt. Not only has had to endure mocking scorn (“party of fiscal responsibility? ha ha ha ha ha!”), but it was nearly evicted from its headquarters for being so far in arrears in rent.
Furthermore, holding office within a party is not the same as holding an office in government. Nor does organizing your ideological colleagues to take over a party guarantee that you’re going to shift public opinion, or public policy.
In an age of social media, advertising, and a growing number of people who claim no party affiliation, it’s not clear, at least to me, what the long-term effects of the Ron Paul campaign will be.