No one can deny Ron Paul’s support and presence online is pretty amazing. How can a guy be so huge in the online community, yet still considered an outsider in the mainstream conversation? I’ve written before about the issues that mainstream media has dealing with the Paul campaign, but it is frustrating to be on the pro-Paul side of the argument and see him basically shut out of serious debate in the broad media. Probably the most frustrating are the accusations that the online support for Dr. Paul is actually very small and being perpetuated by a few puppet masters who are using their technical expertise to generate hype.
The fact is, Ron Paul’s support in the blogosphere and in other online arenas is very real and very large. While it may seem unlikely or unbelievable to the mainstream, there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for the online community’s sudden interest and large support of a single candidate where none has existed before. For the most part, the web is still driven by computer geeks and engineering types–LOGICAL THINKERS, FACT SEEKERS, AND PROBLEM SOLVERS–The Technoclass.
The ideas Ron Paul presents in debates and interview strike a chord with the technoclass for a few simple reasons. While most candiates base their platform on party loyalty, emotion, or poll results, Dr. Paul’s platform is based on logic, facts, structure, and actually addressing the issues. Ron Paul’s ideas follow the same line of thinking that we engage in every day–Identify the problem (issue), determine the factors that contribute to the problem (events that lead to the issue), determine the limitations of possible solutions (the Constitution), implement the best solution.
So why hasn’t the technoclass chosen a candidate for widespread support before this election cycle? Well, there’s a reasonable explanation for that as well. Never before, at least since the web has become widely popular, has a candidate taken the approach of presenting reasonable arguments and solutions to problems. For the technoclass, often the most reasonable course of action when no feasible solution to a problem has been presented is to do nothing.
That’s exactly what the technoclass has chosen to do, until now.
**UPDATE**
Of course, I could be wrong…dopplegangr has an alternate explanation.
