to be young and in love (with Ron Paul)

From the Washington Post, excerpts from a cute article by Libby Copeland entitled, "To be young and in love with Ron Paul". It's a little dated now, but still provides insights into the passion of Ron Paul's followers-- and the zeal with which they'll work for him.

One of the unlikeliest stories...is the young men who have flocked to the long-shot candidacy of Paul. He seems an unusual icon for them. He is 72 and a great-grandfather. He has been married half a century. He adores his tomato plants and is generally mild-mannered when not calling for the abolition of the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Education...

The Paul brigade has come to Iowa as part of a student outreach effort the campaign calls "Ron Paul's Christmas Vacation," which makes the whole thing sound madcap, like a Chevy Chase movie. And it is a little like that. There are nearly 300 young people staying at camps across the state. The ones nearest Des Moines spend their days hopping on and off a 1980s school bus that's been painted red, white and blue and dubbed the Constitution Coach....

The Constitution Coach has been loaned to the Paul campaign by a pro-Paul home-schooling family of nine (with one more on the way). It has slogans written on the outside: "NO AMNESTY," "NO PATRIOT ACT," "NO NAFTA," "NO NATIONAL I.D." This is fitting because in the House, the Texas congressman is known as Dr. No for his opposition to nearly everything. Paul sees the oppressive hand of Big Government everywhere. He doesn't like the Iraq war or the United Nations. He didn't approve of sending aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina. He doesn't like the CIA, the Federal Reserve or federal drug laws....

They seem to like Paul as much for his style as for his stances. They seem drawn to his radicalism, to the fact that he says he would end the war and stabilize the nation's currency, and to the fact that he seems so authentic, so straight-talking, so . . . not like a politician.