(ThyBlackMan.com) How can Ron Paul, who counts among his supporters a sizable group of people who hope that his first act as president will be to reveal that the 9/11 attacks were an inside job, continue to draw significant poll numbers among Republican primary voters? American conservatives evade this question at their peril, because, while he probably cannot win the Republican nomination, Congressman Ron Paul does absorb the support of many genuine conservatives, who might, if properly engaged, be drawn to other candidates.
Ron Paul’s position in the race is unique in that he is the only person running whose presence makes everyone else in the process uncomfortable — candidates, voters, and media alike. As a result, when he is mentioned at all, it is generally to dismiss him, rather than to discuss his ideas. His supporters, therefore, feel marginalized, and understandably so. One can agree with 
Romney’s or Cain’s position on X or Y without worrying about being perceived as a Romney or Cain supporter. No one, on the other hand, wants to take the risk of being deemed an aPaulogist — that is to say, a radical, drugged out 9/11 truther who went to see Atlas Shrugged five times.
The other thing that is striking about the true a Paulogists — as opposed to some old-line conservatives (e.g., John Derbyshire at National Review) who simply appreciate Ron Paul’s constitutionalist views on the role of the federal government — is that, unlike the supporters of other candidates, they will have no truck with the civility of declaring their willingness, in the end, to support any Republican nominee against President Obama. They are for Paul — and only Paul. There is a general perception that the aPaulogists think of their man as the only elected official standing between them and the black helicopters. In other words, they vaguely sense — or, in some cases, explicitly state — that all the other Republican candidates are Trilateral Commission plants, and hence that accepting any of them as one’s eventual representative would mean voluntarily boarding the FEMA Camp Express. Paul’s appeal with such voters cannot be denied, nor can it be thoroughly detached from his policy positions, since part of any honest analysis of his campaign must include his deliberate cultivation of this part of his support base. On the other hand, the assumption that his voters en masse represent a lunatic fringe, and hence that his appeal with them constitutes de facto evidence against him, is more politically expedient than it is rational.
So it is time to come out of the tall grass on the issue of Ron Paul and to assess him and his ideas exactly as one would judge any other candidate. This serves two purposes: by establishing a good-faith relationship to his campaign, one is less easily dismissed by his thoughtful supporters as just another defender of the Washington establishment, and by approaching his shortcomings from a collegial position, it might be possible to engage his honorable supporters in a reasoning process that will lead them to reconsider their rejection of other conservative candidates.
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