Ron Paul is gunning for us!

Someone posted this on a Ron Paul bulletin board. I’ve highlighted particularly funny bits.

Patrick Henry College (www.phc.edu, in Purcellville, VA) is a private school, and someone not from the college passing out literature would be trespassing and would give the Ron Paul campaign a black eye. Don’t even think about trying it without permission. (They are so “private” that they won’t even take government money in the form of Federally insured student loans, because it might interfere with the religious mission of the college.)

That said, I think that if Ron Paul’s message of liberty is properly presented, you would find some fiercely passionate Ron Paul supporters there. Here are my suggestions:

1) Reach out to the PHC College Republicans (a large group) and the PHC College Libertarians (a small group) and see whether one or both groups will invite a Ron Paul supporter to come speak. Outside of a venue where you have been invited in, the students themselves will be the better spokespeople for Ron Paul. Convince just a few to be active, and let them spread the message on campus.

2) Take the opportunity to read about Patrick Henry College before you go. You don’t have to agree with their religious convictions, but if you don’t seriously *respect* them, then let someone else go.

3) Respect the culture and norms of the community that you are going to visit. Students chose to require a dress code that specifies business casual (or better!) for going to class in. Crude language, tobacco, expressions of gay pride, visible tattoos/piercings, rebellious hairstyles or clothing, etc would distract from Ron Paul’s message of liberty. This is their campus and their home! If you aren’t comfortable with that kind of environment, let someone else represent Ron Paul.

4) Realize that parts of the message will resonate much more than others, and that this is not a typical college campus. Ending the War on Drugs won’t be a big selling point. When they are intellectually honest with themselves, I think that many of them will come to agree with Ron Paul on the WOD, but this isn’t the place to start. Unchecked government expansion, the effect of way too much government on families, and the trampling of liberties (particularly religious liberties) are more likely to get their attention and notice.

5) The main building on campus is called Founder’s Hall. Ask for a tour of the reproduction paintings of America’s Founding Fathers while you are there. If you know your constitutional history there will be an opportunity to connect through discussion of the paintings.

LOL

6) Expect many of the students there to have a better grasp of Constitutional theory than your average Congressman. (OK, not a very high bar, I know… but I did mean it as a compliment.) Expect some of them to debate the issues with you, and be good at it. Many homeschoolers train in debate, and the PHC debate team regularly beats Oxford!

7) If you want to discuss the War, be prepared to talk about it in terms of Ron Paul’s statements where he addressed the rejection of the “Just War Theory” of Christianity, that has been replaced by Preemptive War. You won’t convince very many of them that the enemy is not “evil”, or that they didn’t “deserve it”. That’s won’t be the point to them. But if you can help them to see that we have been the aggressors in Iraq, that will start to get their attention. If what we did to Iraq had been done to us, almost every young man on that campus would be engaged in fighting the enemy in any way possible. To some of them, that will resonate.

8 ) The motto of the college translated from Latin means “For Christ and Liberty”, but not all of them will see things the way that we do. The founder and chancellor of the college has endorsed the Huckabee campaign, but he recognizes the destructiveness of the IRS and the current tax code. I doubt you will find many (any?) Hillary lovers, Guilliani lovers, or Romney lovers. You are more likely to find people dissatisfied with the current Republican slate, or who are behind Huckabee, Tancredo, Thompson, and maybe McCain.

9) The UN, and especially the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, is fair game to attack. Many PHC students come from religiously motivated homeschooling families and are concerned about its effect on parental rights and the rights of homeschoolers.