Ron Paul: A political force, a Republican blasting war

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul speaks at the SeaTac Double Tree hotel on Thursday February 16, 2012 during an energetic campaign rally. An overflow crowd turned out for the candidate. Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul speaks at the SeaTac Double Tree hotel on Thursday February 16, 2012 during an energetic campaign rally. An overflow crowd turned out for the candidate. Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Ron Paul: A political force, a Republican blasting war 1 / 27 Back to Gallery

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, preaching ploughshares as fellow GOP candidates brandish sabres, quoted returning military personnel describing the Afghanistan War as a "fake and a fraud" when his packed house SeaTac rally broke into a chant seldom heard at Republican gatherings:

"BRING THEM HOME! BRING THEM HOME!"

"Somebody asked me the other day, 'When should we bring them home?' I replied, 'As soon as we can get the ships over there," Paul declared, and the audience of more than 1,300 was on its feet again.

The 76-year-old Texas congressman is like no other presidential candidate. He preaches a drastic reduction of the federal government, an end to the Federal Reserve, abolition of five cabinet department -- yet with a foreign policy to the left of his rivals in both parties.

Racially provocative and homophobic newsletters were sent out over his name in the 1970's and 1980's, yet today Paul draws crowds of anti-war young and college students. He preaches legalization of drugs. No candidate is Paul's equal at blasting big government's assaults on civil liberties.

"The military can arrest any American citizen," he declared. "They can be put in a secret prison -- indefinitely."

The Paul campaign came to Washington on Thursday with rallies in Vancouver and SeaTac, and proceeds to Pasco Friday.

Paul told seattlepi.com that he has "a very good chance" of winning in this state's March 3 precinct caucuses. Will it be his first victory of the 2012 Republican presidential season? "We have to see whether some of the caucuses already held, we've won," he replied.

Paul was referring to last weekend's Republican caucuses in Maine. Mitt Romney was pronounced the winner by a margin of fewer than 200 votes. Yet, one large county put off its caucuses -- a snowstorm was predicted -- while inaccurately pro-Romney returns in another county have not been corrected.

Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy. Joel Connelly has been a staff columnist for more than 30 years. He comments regularly on politics and public policy.

In both places where the state Republican Party has messed up caucus vote counts -- Iowa and Maine -- the mistakes have favored Mitt Romney.

As evidence by turnout at the Doubletree on Thursday night, Paul's following has grown since 2008. It is just that, an intense and devoted following -- but a following with a ceiling. The flinty Texan wins over voters gradually with his attacks on the Federal Reserve and evocations of individualism. Other candidates have surged and fallen back. Paul has slowly built.

But the foundations are solid. "I never got in politics, never cared until Ron Paul," said Nicholas Vandering, who runs a small auto recycling business.

Vaughn Merritt, a student at Central Washington University, added: "It's not the guy so much as the message. If you tell the truth, people will understand. It's not an everyday thing to hear the truth, and that is why I came here."

More Information An earlier version of this story reported the wrong number for the margin of victory in the Maine caucuses.

The meeting even drew a few disaffected former Obama supporters. "I supported the single payer option on health care and Rahm Emanuel (ex-White House chief of staff) left it off the table," said Mark Early, a retired software engineer.

Paul has drawn few "name" endorsements in the state. One is Eltopia, Wash., farmer and ex-Washington Redskin Clint Didier, a Tea Party-backed U.S. Senate candidate in 2010. Another is ex-Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders, who shared the dais with Paul.

"I hope to see him (Sanders) back on the court," said Paul.

Paul speeches are laden with references to "they" -- taken broadly to mean the people who run things in Washington, D.C., and on Wall Street, and in the economy, and in the United Nations.

Speaking about property rights -- he is a critic of land use laws and environmental regulations -- Paul argued: "THEY tell us when we can use it and not use it."

He went on to blast the federal income tax, adding: "THEY tell you how much you can keep. The basis of the income tax is anti-liberty."

Speaking broadly of social change in America Paul declared: "The lobbyists came in and THEY run the show and the redistribution of wealth."

Paul has trouble with the robust presidency and reforms (e.g. the income tax, creation of the Federal Reserve) that grew up under the progressive presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson in the early 20th Century.

"For 100 years now we have allowed the Federal Reserve to exist and look what they have given us," he said. "Who is it they take care of? Is it Wall Street and Goldman Sachs and all the banks and the military industrial complex."

"END THE FED! END THE FED!" chanted the crowd.

Later, preaching individual liberties and a free marketplace, Paul said: "It's picking up the ideas where we left off 70, 80 and 90 years ago."

Seattle is a city receptive to peace themes, and at times Paul's calls sounded like language from a 1970's-era Seattle anti-Vietnam War rally or anti-Afghanistan War protests down in Olympia.

"War is a negative, it is always a negative," Paul argued. He noted that it took less than four years to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan in World War II. "Up until World War II we declared war," he said. "Since World War II, we have not declared one war and (yet) wars have been continuous."

For all of America's good intentions in intervening overseas, added Paul, "We have more enemies." He asked: "What would happen if we treated other nations the way we want to be treated?'

Jeffrey Bascom, an Everett Community College student, was in full agreement. "We don't need to prove we have the big stick like (Theodore) Roosevelt," he said. Like many Paul supporters, he had hair of a length not often seen at Republican rallies.