I believe a lot of Ron Paul’s support is cynical (follow the money). Young people “looking forward” to no jobs in the Obama depression, or working on degrees in areas where government money could fund a study, a program (their professors have sucked on this tit for decades) — instead of being “wasted” to support the “evil” military and “misguided” war on drugs — which also ties into what they’ve been taught in many institutions of higher education — so many useless degrees and “green” thinkers believing that Ron Paul is the Rx for what ails the country. So they’re leaving support for Barack “hope and change” Obama at the school house/no job market door and flocking to Ron Paul which has the sweetener of hurting those evil “rich” conservatives who are destroying the planet and are ready to “bomb” the world.
The problem for them is — they never will get the money; it always finds another home. With the debt and deficit ballooned out of sight, that money isn’t heading in their direction. The naturally productive ones will eventually “grow up” and realize the truth about living in a safe, free market society but many will hang fast to the hope (libertarians for sure) that once the “war on drugs” and the “evil military complex” have their wings clipped, some of those trillions of “wasted” dollars will certainly flow to them. It won’t and their lot will be worse. We have for too long been building “me-me-itis” generations, whose values and goals are nurtured and fanned by teachings of socialist professors spawned in the Sixties who have multiplied themselves with our youth.
So Ron Paul is their cup of tea. They’re only one step away from OWS (most likely have a foot in both camps already). If Ron Paul definitively said, “I will not run third Party,” much of his support would evaporate today. Which is precisely why he has not ruled it out.
I think that you have it partly right, although not for the same reasons.
I think that a huge part of Ron Paul's support is generational. The generations younger than the Baby Boomers have woken up to the reality that their own futures are being horse-traded by cynical politicians and global corporations in the Halls of Congress, and if they don't stand up an reclaim their futures, they are going to be sold into debt slavery for the rest of their lives. It may surprise you but I think that young people really were listening to the Tea Party a few years ago when it was screaming that "Our kids' futures are being mortgaged to finance the Stimulus & the Bailouts". They see both Parties complicit in this and are motivated to stop it to save their lives.
These younger people and other voters have "followed the money" and found the guy that they think is the least corrupted and corruptible. They want someone who is going to overturn this DC corruption and give them their futures & their freedom back, someone who speaks plainly and believes what he says even if he occasionally says something stupid or stumbles. They love the guy because they trust that whatever he is, he's for real.
As much as everyone would like to call Ron Paul followers "a cult", in many ways, he's got the opposite of a cult because he DOESN'T make it about him. He explains the history and the economics of issues from the Federal Reserve to Iran, the Constitutionality of his position, etc and how they are going to lose their liberty and their Constitution if they don't fight for it. It's just that he's the only one saying it and who has stood up for it. If the Republicans had someone twenty years younger with the same message, who was willing to educate and support the same or similar positions -- a "Ron Paul" lite -- they'd vote for him, but we don't. Instead we have mostly political re-treads running -- Gingrich, Romney -- and even Rick Perry whose resemblance to GW is not unnoticed and has the same following. Newt may rock the world of the Baby Boomers, but to anyone younger, he just looks like an insider that helped create the mess we are in now.
By comparison, on issues of war, corporatism, civil liberties, and the DC boondoggle that is stealing money from taxpayers, Gingrich, Romney -- and even Obama -- look more alike than different to them when compared to Ron Paul.
I know that no one wants to hear it, but the fact is that for many voters -- and especially for younger voters -- they are far more afraid of losing our freedoms and going broke than they are afraid of Islamic terrorism and terrorists. Rightly or wrongly, right now, it's banks and DC who are destroying their homes and dreams of the future, not al Qaeda. That Republican McCain & Graham championed NDAA bill last week that brought WOT to our doorsteps and allowed indefinite detention of American citizens on American soil, did not change that picture of Republicans for them
You mention an OWS affiliation of connection -- young people, Democrats, etc. I was just looking at an article on the demographics of OWS yesterday and it surprised me. We've all got a picture in our heads of Obama-loving Democrats and "clueless college students" in our heads when it comes to OWS, but a study by Baruch College paints a different picture. One third are over 35, only 10% are full time students (wi 1/4 taking classes), most of them identify themselves as Independents & not Democrats. It was obvious that Democrats tried to win over OWS when they sent in Michael Moore and the Unions, but they didn't succeed. I will give you that most of OWS IS totally clueless and there are likely many Leftists, but they aren't that young (av age 33) or poor. They are just a bunch of pissed off people who have no idea how or why they got screwed, and have no idea how to fix it. That is NOT the core of Ron Paul's support, but because their understanding of how it all happened and what to do about it, is so muddled, it doesn't mean that they wouldn't be open to someone who explained it to them -- which Peter Schiff and some RP supporters tried to do.
The more that the media & the GOP establishment tries to insult, humiliate and marginalize Ron Paul and Ron Paul supporters, the more that Ron Paul winds up looking like a martyr -- the heroic, downtrodden little guy trying to do the right thing, fighting the DC machine-- "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington". Deep-down, America still loves an honest underdog, trying to do the right thing. With so many who have lost their jobs and their homes, Ron Paul is successfully getting the message across that "Ron Paul is them" -- insulted, humiliated, marginalized and get screwed over by the System -- so they open their wallets and give their time, sure that THEY are the only ones who own Ron Paul, not the establishment, not the corporations. The more that the media tells Iowans that "If you vote for Ron Paul, Iowa won't matter anymore" as a nominee predictor, the more Iowans want to vote for him because they resent being told what to do. I don't blame them. I think that all this is the precise opposite of what anyone planned -- the media and the GOP elite has always been sure that they could intimidate people into supporting their choices, but it doesn't seem to be working out that way.
You can argue whether this faith in Ron Paul is warranted, but it is his appeal and it is why he is climbing in the polls and IMHO will likely continue to do so.