The US Federal Election Commission has released the Selected Presidential Reports for the 2007 July Quarterly, and there are a few surprises. No surprise, of course, is that people in the armed services and veterans overwhelmingly support the Republican Party. However, after digging through individual candidates’ contributions by employers, we find an elating (or disturbing, if you’re rooting for Rudy McRomney) trend. The breakdown? Here you go.
| Army | Navy | USAF | USMC | VET | TOTAL |
| Ron Paul | 6975 | 7765 | 4650 | 1500 | 1250 | 22140 |
| McCain | 6225 | 6480 | 1570 | 1600 | 800 | 16675 |
| Romney | 2051 | 0 | 1500 | 0 | 1000 | 4551 |
| Giuliani | 1450 | 370 | 250 | 0 | 250 | 2320 |
| Hunter | 0 | 1000 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1000 |
| Richardson | 50 | 750 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 800 |
| Huckabee | 250 | 0 | 500 | 0 | 0 | 750 |
| Tancredo | 350 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 350 |
| Brownback | 71 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 71 |
| Thompson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
This table expresses in dollars the total campaign contributions that each candidate has received from individuals who marked “Air Force,” “US Marines,” “USMC,” “Army,” “Navy,” or some other such permutation of letters as their employer that gives the appearance that they are a member of the armed services. The “veteran” column was derived by looking for “retired ______,” “______ retired,” or anything containing the word veteran, with the exception of Veterans’ Affairs (or the like).
What conclusions can be drawn from this surprising, exciting information? One might jump to the conclusion that the troops are tired and demoralized and angry to be fighting in the desert sand, and willing to leap on the only Republican candidate who wants an immediate end to the war. But that’s an insufficient explanation, since veterans favor Ron Paul as well.
Our military forces have a strong tradition of valorization and an implicit belief that they have served to protect the freedom of private citizens in the United States. So profound is this belief that it ranks as the #1 reason that veterans and active duty say they joined (even though education ranks as the #1 reason prior to enlistment).
This culture of pride in service particularly to safeguard American liberties and freedoms — regardless of whether it is true or not — disinclines those in service to contribute to candidates like Romney and Giuliani who want to expand Executive power and increase spying on Americans. This is why Ron Paul and John McCain are the clearest front-runners in terms of contributions. Well, that and the fact that McCain was a Captain in the Navy and Ron Paul was a flight surgeon.
Or … (one final thought) … does it run in the other direction? Does the military favor Paul and McCain because they were military, or do Ron Paul and John McCain have a favorable set of values for military servicemen and women because they themselves have served?
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Also, a recent Ron Paul campaign letter stated this:
I talked about all our ideas: marching out of Iraq just as we marched in; no more meddling in the Middle East; bringing the troops home, from hundreds of expensive bases all over the world, so that we could have the money we need for the transition to freedom in social programs, and to abolish the personal income tax and the IRS. They are not compatible with a free society.
In a Ron Paul administration, we would also repeal the Patriot Act and the Military Commissions Act, restore habeas corpus and stop the spying on Americans. No more eavesdropping on our emails and bank accounts, our phone calls, home and businesses. No national ID -- just the bracing freedom of the Constitution.
We must have sound money, and not a giant counterfeiting machine called the Federal Reserve that causes recessions and inflation. We must have private property rights, with no pollution or other attacks on property. We should enforce the Second Amendment, and all the Bill of Rights. We can have privacy for us, not secrecy for a corrupt bureaucracy.
It is all within our grasp, the restoration of the republic and our sovereignty-no UN, no North American Union, no Nafta, no WTO, no World Bank, no IMF. Just federalism, free enterprise, peace, prosperity, and the kind of future we all want for our families, ourselves, and our fellow Americans.
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More Breaking here:
From NBC's Mark Murray
Our friends at Hotline made this excellent point: We all know by now that
Paul has more cash on hand than
McCain. But he also has more cash on hand than seven other presidential hopefuls combined (
Tancredo,
Brownback,
Huckabee,
Kucinich,
Hunter,
T. Thompson, and
Gravel).
Other interesting facts about Ron Paul:
1. Ron Paul has almost as much net cash on hand as Mitt Romney (to get that number, you deduct the $9 million of debt that the Romney campaign owes).
2. Ron Paul has been the number one most searched person on the entire blogosphere for the last three months straight per
http://www.technorati.com3. Ron Paul has more than 4 times as many volunteers as Obama, 22 times more volunteers than Hillary, and hundreds of times more volunteers than Giuliani or Romney, per Meetup.com. In addition, new Ron Paul volunteers is growing at a rate of 36 times faster than Obama, and 96 times faster than Hillary as documented at:
http://www.meetup.com/topics/polact/cand/pres/4. Liberty is popular and honesty is popular. Ron Paul leads in polls of people who have heard him speak. And it is still 5 months before the primaries, so there is still plenty of time for people who haven’t yet heard Ron Paul's message to hear it.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/haman1.htmlGo Ron Paul!
http://www.RonPaul2008.com
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