Norm Ornstein makes some good points but when he says that Ron Paul currently represents almost a third of the GOP, he goes way too far. One way of looking at this question is to ask how many Republicans in Congress share Ron Paul’s views on foreign policy, the war on drugs, the Federal Reserve, torture, or anything else that truly distinguishes Paul from the other presidential contenders. The answer to that question is that, other than his son, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ron Paul pretty much stands alone. He doesn’t even have a small handful of fellow travelers.
Another way of looking at the question is to poll the Republican electorate on the issues. Here, Ron Paul does better. But I don’t think you can honestly say that anywhere near a third of the GOP base agrees with Ron Paul on his distinguishing issues.
Finally, you can look at a slightly different question, which is to ask what percentage of votes Ron Paul gets in competitive primaries. In Iowa, he just won the support of slightly more than a fifth of caucusers, and the bulk of those were independents, Democrats, and/or first-time participants. He might be able to expand the Republican base, but he has not yet come close to winning the support of 33% of the voters. Perhaps when the field is winnowed a bit he will be able to accomplish that task, but even then, just because someone prefers Paul to Romney doesn’t mean that they are truly represented by Paul.
I’d like to see the Republicans take some of Ron Paul’s ideas more seriously. If a third of Republicans thought we ought to end the drug war, I’d be pretty excited about that. But, that’s not even close to be being the case right now. The Republicans are experiencing some signs of disunity, but they’re still pretty much united in their dedication to being greedhead assholes. Everything else is just details.
