Riding the Constitution Coach

What's the Constitution Coach? It's a donated bus used by some of Ron Paul's young campaigners in Iowa, of course. The New Republic's Eve Fairbanks has an intriguing take on the college students spending their Christmas break campaigning for Ron Paul in the Hawkeye State.

Actually, if the candidates were judged by the quality of their young supporters, I would now be voting for Ron Paul. Beyond just being polite, the Paul volunteers have an incredible passion for the technical mechanics of the American constitution and body of laws. As I spend time with them, I start to think: I wouldn't want a repairman working on my car who didn't know how it was put together, so why not the same with people who work on my government? (Assuming, that is, that the Paul adults mirror the Paul youth.)...

It's not about personality worship for the volunteers, the fetishization of a person's capacity to shine in public or persuade. It's about questions like the purpose of our Federal Reserve, which really piques these volunteers' interest, and which just so happens to get a Texas congressman named Ron Paul going, too. When Nickel muses, "I think centrists are the most extremist, because they don't believe in anything but people," it suddenly seems to make a lot of sense.

I just hope that Paul's volunteers are as effective and persuasive as Fairbanks finds them.