I think America needs to have a serious debate about basic standards and expectations. The Ron Paul phenomenon points to the destruction of those standards and expectations, and all too few seem to notice.
Think about it. Here we have a candidate whose overall ideology (with important exceptions) is truly repellent, disqualifying him for political office in a sane society, and he's hero to hundreds of thousands!
And why? Because part of his platform is to say no to war, torture, state surveillance, the drug war, etc. etc. As in, the very least, the very minimum standards of decency and common sense ANY government should be forced to hold dear and practice. Ron Paul, in those instances, is simply advocating for what should have been considered the norm all along.
As in, his key selling points -- his only selling points, from a left-perspective -- shouldn't be anything at all unusual. They should be long settled law, policy and philosophy that Americans agreed to decades, even centuries ago. Every single candidate, from either party (it should be assumed), would agree with those very basic, humane and decent concepts -- if we had any standards and common sense expectations to being with.
But because in our all too sick era of endless warmongering, increasingly dangerous civil liberties abuse, and the unconscionable overreach of corporate, state and federal power, Ron Paul's advocacy appears shockingly unique. That gives him incredible rhetorical weapons that simply should not exist -- if America were sane to begin with.
They shouldn't be available to him, because Obama, every Dem, every other GOP candidate, should already be operating under those premises!!
In short, Ron Paul has legions of fans for advocating what every other politician should be advocating. As the norm. As the baseline. In a sane nation -- which we don't have -- one with actual standards of basic decency and a bar that rises above the gutter, voters would concentrate on his entire agenda. They don't, because America's political environment has fallen into a swamp.
A quick analogy:
Let's say we have a society wherein it is unusual for any public figure to say it's wrong to beat the hell out of your children. Just one candidate comes out and says that it is wrong, and millions think he's a hero, courageous, saintly for doing so.
They forget to look at the fact that this candidate also favors letting the local warlords do anything they please, exploit workers, rob consumers, pollute everything in sight, etc. etc. They forget to look at his various bills attempting to open up the possibility of theocracy, one state at a time. They forget to look at the likely effects of the rest of his agenda!
They have seen a beautiful, shiny light (in relative terms), and are blinded by it.
But, because he's the only one in sight saying it's wrong to beat the hell out of your children, he's adored by millions.