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As someone mentioned in another thread, it takes a long time to turn an ocean liner around, all the more so if you're a renegade within your own party. If Ron Paul were to become President, I doubt very much whether we would see any substantive changes anytime soon. In fact, the only likely changes would be precisely in the direction of greater social control, since in a Ron Paul presidency the only areas where all three branches of government were on the same page would line up pretty closely with the Bush/religious-right agenda. For example, he's never gonna get pot legalized; he's not in favor of pot, he's in favor of an ideology that happens to grandfather pot in. He probably couldn't/wouldn't even pull the troops out of Iraq, since a hundred Ron Pauls can be President but the multinationals and the MI-complex still run the country. But he's a declared opponent of abortion rights, sympathetic to big bidniss, and carries a lot of other conservative baggage, and in those areas he could easily find support in Congress. And if the religious-right's wish list is the only thing where the president and Congress see eye to eye, the only area where they can appear to be doing something, well...connect the dots.

The value of a Ron Paul victory would be in breaking the hegemony enjoyed by the two entrenched parties, in poking a sharp stick in the eye of the political establishment. It would be a starting point. It would not be likely in and of itself to produce tangible results. If he insists on doing what he thinks is right, they'll just give him the Jimmy Carter treatment, freeze him out, malfease deliberately at the crucial moments and leave him twisting in the wind, looking like a fool. If he plays ball, i.e. shuts up and doesn't make any sudden moves, then they'll give him the Bill Clinton treatment, throw him a few dinners and honorariums, send him out to do fundraising, etc.

As for indio's post being great: I've agreed with indio on more than one occasion here, and I certainly have no problem with anyone who thinks the government is run by chimps or worse. But calling Woodrow Wilson and FDR "traitors" relegates this post, IMO, to hyperbole. There are surely ways to make the same point that do not invite the reader to laugh dismissively and turn the page.