THE BATTALION - TEXAS A&M NEWSPAPER | Michael Rodriquez | April 17, 2012
support from young voters, a phenomenon that hasn’t gained much attention, but could as the race heats up leading to the Republican National Convention in August.
So what is it that sets the youth buzzing? What makes Paul such an attractive candidate to college-aged voters?
Youth are eager and thirsty for liberty. Young people are just starting out in life and escaping a time when their parents told them what to do, what is right and what is wrong. The last thing we wanted as high schoolers was to have parents limit our lifestyles.
Remember wanting to go to a party and your parents saying, “No?” Or when you wanted an increase in your allowance and were rejected?
“I’m always asked why the young people care about [me],” Paul opened his speech Tuesday at Rudder Auditorium. “And I answer, ‘Well, maybe the young people care about liberty.’”
We hate that our lives can be controlled in every possible way. The same idea can be found in Paul’s platform.
Paul said our government should follow the Constitution, as written by the founders and amended since. How is he going to accomplish this? It begins by reducing the budget by a trillion dollars. After all, in Paul’s words, “Who will know how to spend the money better than you?”
Paul wants to take money from the federal bureaucracy and give it back to the people, where it belongs. Or, more properly, he wants to prevent the federal bureaucracy from ever getting the peoples’ money.
People love this idea because the bureaucracy has created more obstacles for business operations and regulations, resulting in more headaches. As college students at a large public university, I think we can sympathize on a personal level. After all, we attend a gigantic bureaucratic institution.
Bureaucracy dictates graduation requirements, parking regulations, student fee allocations, dining options and health care costs and availability. In one way or another, the great bureaucratic arm reaches into nearly every collegiate experience we have at A&M. So when Paul preaches bureaucratic reduction, students listen.
Foreign policy also plays a major part in U.S. society. Paul said the U.S. has issues to worry about here at home and should stay out of everyone else’s business. People rally
behind this ideal because too many aspects of our foreign policy have turned into a game of politics. They are decisions made by men behind closed doors with motives we can’t know. The young feel the consequences of these decisions, whether they impact the country’s economic outlook for graduates entering the work force or reach directly into the lives of friends or loved ones in the military.
Paul wants the U.S. to be independent once again. He sees us as a society that boasts of freedom, but is at the same time deprived of freedom. American youth are eager to show that no challenge is too difficult as long as government does not interfere or overcomplicate matters.
Paul is a man of honesty, and carries the same voting track record today as he did 30 years ago. So when he delivers a message of liberty and government reduction, his voice strikes a chord.
It’s not the same malarkey that mainstream politicians try to brainwash us with. Paul is a viable candidate to be the next president. While it may be an uphill battle before chants of “President Paul” echo across the land, his message is loud and clear with young voters standing behind it.
It’s the same message that resonated in Rudder last week.
“Restore America Now.”
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