Congressman Ron Paul won the meaningless Conservative Political Action (CPAC) straw poll vote on Saturday but lost his position as a member of Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) National Advisory board on the same day.

Paul whose supporters have turned out in droves in the last two years at CPAC easily won the straw poll by capturing 30% of the vote to second place finisher Mitt Romney’s 23% and leaving other contenders in the dust.

For YAF though Paul’s continued opposition to the United States’ foreign policy stance and his connection to anti-war zealots was the last straw.

“It is a sad day in American history when a one-time conservative-libertarian stalwart has fallen more out of touch with America’s needs for national security than the current feeble and appeasing administration,” said YAF’s Senior National Director Jordan Marks.

According to the YAF press release Paul served on the YAF Advisory Board for more than two decades and was once awarded with YAF’s highest honor, the Guardian of Freedom award and even praised the Sharon Statement on the House floor just a decade ago calling it “a great document explicating the philosophy of freedom.”

But over time Paul has shifted course and away from the tenets of the Sharon Statement.

“Rep. Paul’s refusal to support our nation’s military and national security interests border on treason, aside from his failure to uphold his oath to the United States Constitution and defend our country and citizens against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” Marks continued.

“Rep. Paul has strayed to the left of Obama and allied himself with the radical anti-war left by laying the blame on America for the unprovoked attacks of Sept. 11th. Additionally, Rep. Paul has not condemned the 9/11 “Truther” conspiracy theorists that support him, and he has repeatedly insisted, that the United States not bring justice to those who have murdered thousands of our civilians and soldiers at home and abroad. This is simply unacceptable. Clearly Rep. Paul cares more about a doomed presidential run than he does our country,” Marks added.

In addition to Marks, YAF National Chairman Michael Jones issued the following statement:

“The United States is in a time of economic crisis, but this is no excuse to abandon the principles that have built this great country and spread its ideals to the darkest recesses of the planet. The United States is the world’s leader–a beacon of light for the wretched and the oppressed. God has blessed the United States with liberty and the strength and heart to spread that liberty to all of his children. Rep. Paul has abandoned this mission, abandoned the United States’ citizens, and abandoned the citizens of the world in their quest for their God-given natural rights.”

Paul will probably not lose any sleep over the purge from the YAF advisory board but it does show how far he has drifted from the core conservative principles that initially gained him a wide following when he was first elected to Congress.

The media loves Ron Paul especially when he attacks conservatives and Republicans for their support of our war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and touted his victory a evidence of a growing rift within the conservative movement.

But the fact of the matter is that less than 40% of the attendees voted,  Paul supporters attended and voted in large numbers and a lot of social conservatives stayed away over the inclusion of GOProud all leading to a distortion of the true sentiment towards potential presidential candidates in 2012.

My question though is since Paul has been espousing his anti-war views for years what took YAF so long to purge him?

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About the author

Don Irvine
Don Irvine is Chairman of Accuracy in Media. He is active on Facebook and Twitter. You can follow him @donirvine to read his latest thoughts.

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4 Comments for Ron Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll, Loses YAF Board Post

Matthew

I believe their announcement was retaliatory in the wake of Paul’s straw poll victory. Untimely, yes. Inappropriate, no.

Only three times in the history of CPAC has the straw poll predicted the correct nominee: 1980 and 1984 with Ronald Reagan, and again in 2000 with George W. Bush.

I know for a fact that Paul’s auxiliary organizations (Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty) heavily subsidized student ticket prices (it’s where I bought mine). When I showed up Saturday to pick up my badge (because I have a real job and couldn’t make it Thurs/Fri), they informed me that they had already given my name tag to someone else, so they could vote for Paul.

I supported Paul in 2008 for President, but increasingly his own followers and his dedication to a naive foreign policy viewpoint have driven me away from him.

BobNJ1

It is important to note that the attendance at CPAC this year was, as usual, heavily favoring the youth. Registrants 25yrs old and under made up 51% of the attendees (see Straw Poll presentation on the website (http://www.conservative.org/cpac/). This alone explains the continual Ron Paul victory year after year – something that I have not heard from any media source.

Matthew

Prior to the creation of Campaign for Liberty and Young Americans for Liberty, Paul didn’t garner more than 13% of the vote.

So, the “youth” vote garnered by Paul is what he imported with heavily subsidized ticket prices and ballot-stuffing.

Nice try.

A SomeOne

Nice lie? It seems either he is generally liked by all ages or that it was merely last election cycle that he had alot of youth on his side. May you find a nice liberal spender in Romney, Newt, Perry, or Bachmann.