I think my whole experience with Ron Paul started in sophomore year of high school. Back then I was pretty much a Republican, owing to the influence of my parents. I would characterize myself as a bit of a contrarian, however, and I always believed some of the socially conservative and foreign policy views of the Republican Party were somewhat at odds with what I personally accepted. However, the real trouble started (I'll never forget it) when I was in tenth grade and we finally started talking about the modern era in American politics. I noticed right away when the Republicans were infiltrated by the "war hawks" as I knew them (neoconservative became part of my vocabulary much later) and their outlooks on foreign policy changed. I had always found the atomic bombings of Japan appalling, and I noticed that once we started taking a more active role in war and adopted "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" mantra, our country seemed to go downhill.
But I was significantly more... leftist (I hate using terms like that) at first. I remember totally loving the idea of
agrarianism, because I wrongly assumed that all forms of capitalism were what led to wars. Eventually a while spent on Wikipedia turned up the name of a book "Atlas Shrugged". The name really sounded intriguing to me and I had heard of Ayn Rand before without knowing anything about her, so I picked it up and read through it. That really turned me on to the idea that government officials were doing a lot of the "mooching" and "looting", not necessarily your average Judge Judy deadbeat. Then a little while after that I found out about Murray Rothbard. I read his Wikipedia page (yay for my intense research here!), particularly the part detailing his feud with Rand, and then I realized that he was correct on a lot more issues than Ayn Rand, especially in his condemnations of foreign policy and corporatism. For whatever reason, his works were what really plunged me over the edge. When I found a few articles on LewRockwell.com dealing with Ron Paul (whom I probably knew all along was the best candidate), I really started getting behind Paul.
I would say I'm not strictly Rothbardian/ancap now... I haven't lost all faith in the political system and I recognize Ron Paul and a return to honest constitutionalism is the best shot we've got right now. My name is probably a little inaccurate for that reason. It's been a long, strange journey and I would say I'm a little more leftist than some in this movement, but I think we can all set aside our differences and work towards getting this man elected.
Sorry for the huge post. It's so much fun detailing your political history!
edit: I just noticed this topic was supposed to be useful for conversion strategies... I think if we target people who at least have a basic working knowledge of American history, and a desire to think outside the box, we will do fine. It's just such a damn shame those people are in short supply nowadays.
