We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

How many divisions has Pope Ron Paul got?

“The Pope? How many divisions has he got?” Joseph Stalin is reported to have said dismissively. And we all know how that turned out.

Ron Paul, the “Dr No” of US politics for his habit of being the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against some measure to increase federal government spending, debt or power, could witness the repeat of such a peaceful realignment.

Tim Evans, writing on the Cobden Centre’s blog, has found that a Google search for “Ron Paul” will find over 28.8 million entries, whereas one for “Karl Marx” will generate a mere 6.26 million. As he concludes: “it is true that these things take a long time to play through, but as a sociologist I am excited by the long-term cultural, political and economic impact of these sorts of numbers” for the cause of a free world.

Presumably, a rise in online interest about Ron Paul, relative to Karl Marx, should translate into tangible results at some point. The election of Scott Brown the Republican challenger in the recent Massachusetts special election to replace Senator Edward Kennedy, was also preceded by a similar gap between the Google ratings of the various political parties’ candidates.

The battle over Google and Bing search engines

Google – Scott Brown has been mentioned 53,200,000 times on Google, while Martha Coakley has been mentioned 50,600 times on Google, the appointed Senator Paul Kirk has more mentions than the current Democrat candidate for that seat!

Bing – Scott Brown has been mentioned 52,800,000 times on Bing, while Martha Coakley has been mentioned 219,000 times on Bing…

It seems that Congressman Paul could put together more divisions than the cause of Marxism. Seems like a cheerful note to end the week.

7 comments to How many divisions has Pope Ron Paul got?

  • Steven Rockwell

    Ron Paul, the “Dr No” of US politics for his habit of being the only member of the House of Representatives to vote against some measure to increase federal government spending, debt or power, could witness the repeat of such a peaceful realignment.

    That may be factually true, but Paul is not above slipping pork into spending bills he knows will pass anyways when his district gets the cash. He justifies it as getting some of their tax dollars back, but it seems to me like he’s playing the system to get the best of both worlds: he gets Federal porjects for the folks back home, all the while showing how he A) got them some of their money back or B) didn’t vote for this horribly unconstitutional bill.

    Don’t get me wrong, I think Ron Paul is correct on many domestic issues (batshit crazy of a whole lot of international ones though), but he’s still a politician that’s trying to have his cake and eat it too…and he’s succeeding at it.

  • Don’t get me wrong, I think Ron Paul is correct on many domestic issues (batshit crazy of a whole lot of international ones though), but he’s still a politician that’s trying to have his cake and eat it too…and he’s succeeding at it.

    Really? To me, his foreign policy views are nothing more than very sensible.

  • Z

    I have to question the google results as evidence. Ron Paul and Scott Brown are both much more common names than Karl Marx or Martha Coakley, so its very tough to say how much of these numbers are actually references to the politicians, as opposed to others with the same names.

  • Paul Marks

    Ron Paul is not the only Republican to vote against XYZ things – actually there is a hard core group who tend to vote against all these things.

    Even in the Republican LEADERSHIP in the House I can think of two good men straight away – Congressman Pence and Congressman Ryan.

    However, to resist powerful forces of collectivism (and they are powerful – statist ideolgy controls the schools, the universities, the msm, many corporations, even many churches…..) one must have a very strong sense of self. This can easily slip over into “I stand alone against the tide of evil” type thinking (yes “it takes one to know one” – I sometimes think exactly like this myself).

    For example, Glenn Beck sometimes says “only this show says…..” when (in his calmer and more thoughtful moments) he knows that, even if we are just talking about Fox News, Sean Hannity has been making similar warnings about Comrade Barack Obama for almost two years.

    It is NOT a “lie” – it is a matter of slipping into the unspoken state of mind that says (without formally using the words) “it is just me standing between the innocent and helpless people and the great tide of evil that plans to sweep them to Hell”.

    When Glenn Beck (or Ron Paul) thinks about it for a second or so they remember that there are MILLIONS of people who are wide awake and know what the danger is.

    Indeed if it were not for these MILLIONS of pro liberty people the cause of freedom would indeed be hopeless.

    For example, Ron Paul only has to look to his own family – Rand Paul (running for the U.S. Senate in Kentucky) is just as much a constitutional pro liberty person as his father.

    And Rand Paul has a many (very many) supporters.

    At least in the United States the cause of liberty is far from dead – Ron Paul is (as he himself would admit – given a second or two to think) part of a movement of millions of people.

    No “leader” is perfect and Ron Paul (like everyone else) makes mistakes. That is why it is important that he is NOT an isolated individual.

    In this context all a “leader” really is, is someone who both gives warning (sounds the alarm) and acts as way of getting to ideas.

    Someone who points at books and people – to teach people more about the history and reasoning on which our belief in liberty rests.

    When the people know what questions to ask they will ask them – and politicians who do not give pro freedom replies and vote (not just talk) in a way to roll back government, will lose support.

  • I’m not sure it makes sense to compare google numbers for someone who ran for president last year against someone who’s been dead since 1883. Or for the winner of an election against the loser. How many hits does Tiger Woods get?

  • Unfortunately “marx -brothers” has 20 million mentions, and “republican ron paul” only 3 million.

  • Simon:

    Those 20 million hits are obviously references to Richard Marx

    [ducking]