So I just started this week at a new Job with CNN, and whereas it has been an interesting start, I have kind of had to do a roll-your-own training schedule that has left me with lots of time to check out the site and keep up with the daily news, even down to a granular level.
So today I am looking and I see this story about Ron Paul being a racist, or about some old remarks attributed to him, or some other sort of thing.
The story didn’t startle me as much as it may have others. I do believe Paul when he says he did not write the things that are being attributed to him, but they apparently were written under the banner of a political newsletter bearing his name. Regardless of whether he wrote it or not, he should have protected his “brand” (his name) a little better.
But all of that is neither here nor there, the real question is whether or not the Internet will shut down if Ron Paul does not receive the Republican nomination for president?
An acquaintance of mine recently boldly stated that the Internet would indeed shut down if Paul does not get the nomination at his house one night after he had imbibed at least a couple of pints of Irish Whiskey.
I do not know this person or his political views very well. I do know that he is smallish, has a tendency toward a Napoleon complex at times, and that if he has an opinion at all about something, it is a STRONG opinion.
I really didn’t engage him in a debate about the merits, or not, of Ron Paul but I did ask him why he thought Paul’s failure to get nominated would cause the Information Superhighway to come to a screeching halt.
(The following is cleaned up for clarity and because this is a family establishment and because my writing skills are not sharp enough to adequately do justice to the drunken blathering my ears heard.)
“Have you seen Slashdot? The programmers and web developers are going f%$*king crazy over Ron Paul. He’s the best f%$*king candidate out there. He’s f%$*king incredible. F%$*k Hillary. I will kick her in her f%$*king teeth. If he doesn’t get the f%$*king nomination, and get elected president, the f%$*king web people will revolt and the f%$*king Internet will shut down. I f%$*king mean it.”
Or something about like that.
I didn’t really engage after that. I know, and knew, so little about Paul other than his belief that all currencies should be legal and viable in the US which doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense to me, but I am just a web designer, not a developer, so obviously I cannot understand the higher points, indeed the internal logic, of the Paul-ian platform. I just politely waited for the right moment when I could escape from the porch to back in the house.
I didn’t really think about much, but as the weeks have gone on it seems more and more people are drinking Paul’s Kool-Aid. They are coming out of the “f%$*king” woodwork. There are on the corner of Moreland and Freedom Parkway on the weekends. Homemade stickers and grafitti tags are popping up on city buses. I hear stories about campaign staffers surveying land in Ghana in case the election doesn’t work out so all of the web developers will have somewhere to take the Internet when they shut it down.
After reading the article about the racist remarks today, I started thinking about Mr. Paul again. It may me think of Lyndon Johnson wanting to perpetrate a rumor that his opponent had sexual congress with barnyard animals just so the opponent would have to publicly deny it. Once a rumor is released to the major press, whether it is true or false, the damage is usually done. Or is it in this case?
Since the Internet is apparently nearly totally run by Paul supporters, don’t they have the means of quashing this rumor before it gets out of hand? Can they not easily spread rumors just as bad or worse about his opponents? I f they have the power to shut down the Internet if he does not get the nomination, then the least they could do for their leader is help a brother out in a time of need.
So I decided to do a search of the FEC campaign contribution database at washingtonpost.com. I inserted “programmer” for the “occupation” and chose different candidates from the “candidate” dropdown menu. Whereas I realize this is less than scientific as there can be other “programmers” than “computer programmers, (I am sure that Paul’s supporters could provide a much better algorithm and statistical model for determining this info) scanning the list seemed to reassure me that most programmers were the ones that my drunk, angry friend seemed to be referring to.
Close scrutiny and a little basic math showed led to some frightening observations. Indeed, my little, napoleonic, angry, drunk friend might be right. Paul far outdoes his other Republican candidates when it comes to geek contributions. He even far outdoes the Democrats except Obama who he is still beating by a decent margin. See the chart below for the actual numbers I found.
I am amazed that a drunken, off-the-cuff comment seems to be backed up by freely available information.
I am also scared though, because if the geeks revolt, and shut down the Internet, where will I get my porn, or send emails to mom, or waste time at work, or watch all of those “must-see” YouTube videos? Not to mention, what will I do for a living?
Maybe run for president?