Pennsylvania II

I visited the Lancaster County Ron Paul Meetup Group on the night before the Pennsylvania primary. I was impressed by how many people did show up (more than fifty) and by the diversity of the group. This was definitely not just a couple of spammers (young white male, tech savvy) such as a common stereotype likes to paint Ron Paul supporters. Many older people, parents with their kids, younger people, both sexes were all well representated. I'd suggest that these were in good part rank and file Republicans, the part of the base that wants something different than what the current Republican Party stands for (big government, big war).

I also was impressed by how focused and well organised they were. I mean, I've seen the kind of chaos that a group of only a few people can create. All the logistics for the next day (covering the polls, distributing campaign materials, promoting Ron Paul delegates) were well in place. And people really worked hard, some of them driving all night and getting signs in place for the final push.

In the end the effort paid off. Ron Paul got 22% in Lancaster County. Together with the neighbouring counties, in some of which Ron Paul did even slightly better, this seems to constitute the highest concentration of Paul supporters, based on primary results, in the whole country.

On the day of the primary I talked to Shawn House, organizer of this Meetup group, while driving to different polling places in the county. You can read the interview on my new blog called The Free Lunch - American Encounters.

-- Johannes from NYC