How Rand Paul Could Ride the Maharishi Effect to Victory

[jct74]

How Rand Paul Could Ride the Maharishi Effect to Victory
The candidate has a ready-made base at Iowa’s Maharishi University.

by David Weigel
Jul 8, 2015 6:00 AM EDT

At Earth & Water, a teahouse in downtown Fairfield, Iowa, patrons sit cross-legged on mats as they down cups of oolong or puerh. Shoes are optional, if not discouraged. On a typical afternoon, it’s crowded with students from the Maharishi University of Management, which opened in 1974 to teach a curriculum inspired by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the progenitor of Transcendental Meditation.

Fairfield, the center of Transcendental Meditation in the U.S., is a hotbed of support for Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul. Earth & Water regulars Jeff Shipley and Roger Leahy helped turn it and surrounding Jefferson County into a stronghold for Paul’s father, Ron, the Texas congressman who came in a close third in the 2012 Iowa caucuses. Now they’re using Earth & Water as a base to help Rand get all the way to the White House. “There’s a self-reliant attitude here,” says Shipley. “The people who want to end the wars and end NSA spying are the same people who want to be able to sell raw milk.”

In 2011, Ron Paul fans made converts and won volunteers among Fairfield’s devotees by canvassing the city’s monthly art festival and its health food stores. “I’ve been supporting the peace movement since Nixon bombed Haiphong harbor,” says Leahy, who moved to Fairfield in 1974 to be close to other practitioners. “When we organized in 2012, downtown, the office had a silhouette of Ron Paul that said underneath it: I’m voting for peace. Ron Paul’s attitude was that many of the problems we’re getting into around the world could stop if we practiced peace.”

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read more:
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/a...ul-could-ride-the-maharishi-effect-to-victory

 

[phill4paul]

TIL they are practicing transcendental meditation and sipping oolong tea in America's heartland.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Well there's a flashback to the 70's.

 

[timosman]

Well there's a flashback to the 70's.

Western hippies getting stoned in India while searching for the spiritual enlightenment. Locals are amused, decide to export stretching classes under the disguise of spirituality. The yoga industry is born.

 

[Ronin Truth]

Western hippies getting stoned in India while searching for the spiritual enlightenment. Locals are amused, decide to export stretching classes under the disguise of spirituality. The yoga industry is born.

I took the class back then, and even still do my TM once in a while. No cosmic consciousness yet. <shrug!> Well, maybe not.

 

[Inkblots]

What an interesting place the world is.

And I certainly hope that gentleman's desire to get 75% of the Jefferson County (auspicious name, that) vote for Rand comes to fruition!

 

[Uriah]

What an interesting place the world is.

And I certainly hope that gentleman's desire to get 75% of the Jefferson County (auspicious name, that) vote for Rand comes to fruition!

Roger can be overly optimistic. ;P Although, his enthusiasm is energizing!

Rand will win Jefferson county. I'm certain of that but I think the margin will be less than we hope for. Bernie will peel many independents into the democratic caucus and the multitude of GOP candidates will splinter off Rand's weaker supporters and thus Rand won't do as well.

David Weigel gave me a couple calls but I never returned them... oh, well.