Whatever happened to the Ron Paul Revolution?

[AltWorlder]

So his son's run this year fizzled out. The primary field was overcrowded, and the antiestablishmentarian fire was stolen by Trump, and to some degree by Ted Cruz. But my question is also ideological: was Ron Paul's libertarianism specific only to him in the GOP? Rand Paul differed with his dad on several issues, and in some ways seemed slightly more of a conventional Republican. And the rise of the Tea Party basically created a hard-right anti-government, anti-tax movement that stole many of the Ron Paul Revolution's ideas anyway. And it seems like most "conventional" libertarians are in the Libertarian Party.

The Ron Paul Revolution was never going to sweep the GOP, but I'm curious if it could ever be a force again in future elections like it did in 2008. Or maybe it was a one time thing, like Perot in '92. If a Republican doesn't win this year, Rand Paul could run in 2020, but I'm imagining he'd probably get even less support than he does now.

[Ljube]

It has become the TRUMP REVOLUTION.

[IceSpear]

I don't think it can be understated how much support Ron Paul got solely for being the "anti-establishment, stick it to the man" choice. Bernie and Trump did that much better, and thus the Rand campaign died.

[Asian Nazi]

All of the Pautards are supporting Sanders this time.  The real libertarians are supporting their fellow libertarian Donald TRUMP.

[standwrand]

The way that Bernie was able to get support this election leads me to believe that Ron Paul probably could have run again and did about as well as before, or maybe better. The only reason he didn't run was because Rand wanted to run. But to answer your question, I don't believe his supporters could be united again. For example, most Bernie supporters say their second choice is Hillary, so it's not like they're some monolithic group that would actually do anything crazy, like vote LP, if their first choice wasn't there. Ron Paul's support goes right to whatever neocon republican is popular this cycle

[Maxwell]

The "libertarianism" wasn't really as a large a factor as the pundits thought it was.

[Ljube]

Ron Paul's support goes right to whatever neocon republican is popular this cycle

You, obviously, don't understand libertarians.

[AltWorlder]

So am I wrong in suggesting that there's any significant overlap between Ron Paul supporters, this year's Rand Paul's supporters, and the Tea Party? It sounds like while the TP is in favor of some of the policy ideas that's on the same road to libertarianism (starve the beast, cut taxes, government out of many places), the people supporting Rand Paul and the people supporting Ted Cruz have little to no overlap at all.

[This account no longer in use.]

The Ron Paul supporters were split between Rand Paul, Cruz, TRUMP, and Sanders this year.

[standwrand]

Ron Paul's support goes right to whatever neocon republican is popular this cycle

You, obviously, don't understand libertarians.

Ron Paul's support was not all libertarians

[standwrand]

So am I wrong in suggesting that there's any significant overlap between Ron Paul supporters, this year's Rand Paul's supporters, and the Tea Party? It sounds like while the TP is in favor of some of the policy ideas that's on the same road to libertarianism (starve the beast, cut taxes, government out of many places), the people supporting Rand Paul and the people supporting Ted Cruz have little to no overlap at all.

It seems in most of the polls, Trump gets the majority of Tea Partiers

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

It was always drastically overstated.

[pho]

The pro-weed, anti-war college kids became Sanders voters. The gold bug, anti-IRS libertarians became Cruz voters. The truthers and other assorted goons became Trump voters.

[Badger]

It was always drastically overstated.

Understatement of the decade.

[Darthpi – Anti-Florida Activist]

It was always drastically overstated.

Understatement of the decade.

Yep. He never won a single state, and in only three states did he even come within 5% of winning: the Washington caucuses in 2008 and the Iowa and Maine caucuses in 2012. His supporters were passionate and did at least influence the debate on some issues, like the NSA stuff, but that is the most you can say about it.