Did Putin Astroturf the Libertarian Ron Paul Revolution?

[Celerity]

Ron Paul’s campaign manager was recently convicted of funneling Russian money to Trump. Russia has long had an interest in Paul’s political movement.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/louis-anslow-asks-did-russia-putin-and-jesse-benton-astroturf-the-libertarian-ron-paul-revolution



On March 12, 2007, an obscure congressman from Texas announced his run for the Presidency of the United States. He was a fringe candidate running on the Republican ticket with little hope of winning a primary, let alone the nomination. Then—suddenly—Ron Paul was everywhere. Within a few months, Paul landed a spot on Real Time with Bill Maher, thanks to unprecedented online momentum that would capture the attention of the mainstream press.

Wired magazine detailed how Paul was taking over the web. The Washington Post ran the numbers, noting he was more popular on Facebook than his GOP primary rival John McCain, had more friends on MySpace than Mitt Romney, and garnered almost as many views on YouTube as Barack Obama (while also noting Paul’s low polling numbers.) Other outlets also highlighted the mismatch between real world and online popularity—such as the NBC News story, “An also-ran in GOP polls, Paul is huge on Web.”



When it came to online polls, however, Paul would win consistently and by a large margin—something that came to be known as the “Ron Paul Effect.” CNN’s Jack Cafferty observed Paul’s followers “at any given moment can almost overpower the internet,” something that had a Pavlovian effect on editors, who’d try to include his name wherever possible because it guaranteed a flood of traffic. The momentum continued through 2007, driving record online fundraising and eventually leading to Time magazine giving him the moniker “Candidate 2.0.”

The narrative that grew around Paul’s candidacy was that he was the product of the internet and Web 2.0—a presidential hopeful free from the clutches of establishment media gatekeepers. Some, however, had doubts about the authenticity of Paul’s momentum. Users of Reddit and Digg complained that bot activity was pushing Ron Paul stories to the front page, while downvoting anti-Paul comments and submissions (such as reports on his racist newsletters).

snip

[Kid Berwyn]

1. Most divisive, da!

Doing Putin’s work.

[marble falls]

2. Both Pauls felt dirty, and a bit Stalinist.

[JHB]

3. If so, it would be an early test of cloning the "crazy controls" that already existed...

...here and amping it up for Russia's uses rather than for domestic conservatives.

[jcgoldie]

4. You taught me a new word today Celerity

I had never seen astroturf used as a verb and I thought you we’re getting creative… looked it up works perfectly:

verb
1.
cover (an athletic field or other area) with a layer of Astroturf.
"astroturfed tennis courts"
2.
disguise (an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign) in such a way as to present it as having arisen from unsolicited public comments.

Thanks for that small bit of learning on a wednesday morning. Have a great day!

[nuxvomica]

5. The term is a play on "grassroots"

So thinking of astroturfing as phony grassroots, just like on a football field.

[h2ebits]

6. Ah, yes. . . .now Elon Musk is the replacement

[Farmer-Rick]

7. This is how capitalism corrupts democracy

Everything is for sale, so much so that even the enemies of a country can buy politicians to represent their interest. So we've gone from a country fighting a cold war with Russia, to country allowing Russia to pay our politicians for destroying our democratic government.

So, how many politicians do the Saudis own?

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. And one of Paul's former employees has just been convicted of seditious conspiracy

After college, his first political job was supervising interns in Washington, D.C., for Libertarian Ron Paul, then a Republican congressman from Texas. Rhodes subsequently attended Yale Law School, graduating in 2004, and clerked for Arizona Supreme Court Justice Michael D. Ryan. He later volunteered on Paul’s failed 2008 presidential campaign.

Following his experience with the Paul campaign, Rhodes published one of his first political diatribes. Appearing on his blog in January 2008, the post blasted political opponents’ charges that Paul was linked to hate groups and racists. (The congressman’s Ron Paul Report, in fact, did contain many racist statements over the years, but Paul has claimed that he did not write or read them). Using the fevered language that would become his trademark, Rhodes railed against the “full-blown smear campaign.” Calling it a “lame attempt at guilt by association” and “stupid,” he added, “This only tells me that Ron Paul is a real threat to the political establishment, and they are pulling out all the stops in an attempt to stop the Ron Paul Revolution.” Rhodes went on to disclose that his maternal ancestors were Hispanic and “American-Indian,” and made the argument that because he was “mixed-race” and saw no indication of racism, the claims against Paul had no merit.

https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/elmer-stewart-rhodes