Ron Paul and America's Youth

The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University has a Washington program that serves as a sort of training bureau for young political correspondents.

One of those correspondents, Alex Sherman, filed a story yesterday about young people who support Congressman Ron Paul for the Republican presidential nomination. Sherman writes:

So why is Ron Paul, R-Texas, a hit with young voters?

"That's the question," says 29-year-old Moshe Starkman. He is running for Congress in Maryland as a Republican who espouses Paul’s libertarian values. “It’s striking particularly with kids who historically have no interest in politics. They seem to be invigorated.”

Starkman and 25-year-old Aaron Biterman, who created a Facebook group supporting Paul that now has more than 47,000 members, credit Paul’s ideological consistency and his contrarian political views for his popularity among college-age voters.

“I think that our generation, the younger generation, is sort of a rebellious group,” Biterman says. “For some, their entire adult lives have consisted of George W. Bush in office. They want something different.”

Sherman's report, which also includes a video component that complements his text, quotes one Washington-area college student who compares Dr. Paul to an icon of American cinema:

“All people need to do is hear the message,” says 20-year-old campaign volunteer Jay Bui. “I think there’s going to be a real movement, and this is just the beginning of it.

“Ron Paul is the Jimmy Stewart, Mr. Smith, of our generation.”

Ron Paul puts the "trans" in transgenerational.