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Treacherous Telling Tales of the Texas Twenty-Third |
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It looked for a brief moment as if Representative Ron Paul would lose Texas’23rd to challenger Chris Peden, who had a vocal opposition in a district upset with Paul’s neglect of the district during his long-shot run for the Republican presidential nomination
That, and many Republicans had begun to become informed about what the congressman actually believed. Throughout the campaign, Paul’s fanatical supporters have played up the more popular libertarian elements of his issue positions: disengagement from Iraq, decriminalization of marijuana, and destruction of the Internal Revenue Service. Those tactics that work very well amongst previously-apathetic, laissez-faire twentysomethings, but aren’t in line with mainstream Texas conservatism. When campaigning in the Lone Star State, Paul fires up his alter ego—the one that’s a religious zealot against any corporate regulation and who brings home the pork despite espousing otherwise.
And the resistance turned out to be overblown. Like a number of expectations in Texas last night, it was not to be. Representative Paul defeated the self-financed businessman by more than a 2 to 1 margin, and will be unopposed in November.
Edward VanBogaert studies Government and Economics Economics education at Purdue University, and is the host of WCCR-Purdue’s “A Metric Hour”, Sunday Nights at 10pm (ishgnurecords.com/ametrichour).
