Melina Mara/THE WASHINGTON POST - DURHAM, N.H. - JANUARY 6: Christopher Way, a Ron Paul supporter, after a town-hall-style discussion with Paul at the University of New Hampshire.
His wife: He wondered whether his deepening commitment to Paul was making him a better husband or interfering with his commitment to her.
Their finances: He had spent hours thinking about his mortgage situation, which on one hand made him part of a deeply corrupt banking system. On the other hand, precisely because the system was flawed, he might be able to catch a break from one of the mortgage-relief programs.
Ron Paul supporters are often the most vocal and visible on the campaign trail. Many used to call themselves Democrats and some still do.
It was all confusing, so he was waiting for a lawyer to help sort it out. His phone rang.
“Hello?” Way answered, and stepped outside into the parking lot.
The lawyer told him that the bankruptcy could proceed but that it would not save the house. Way’s family would have to leave in a matter of weeks.
Seeing his comrades
“I’m not going to cry in my Cheerios over here,” Way said later, shoring himself up as he drove down the highway toward a bar in Manchester to watch the presidential debate with other Paul supporters.
He had never been to this sort of Ron Paul meeting, and this was a chance to see who his comrades were.
Arriving in Manchester, he drove by the college where the debate would be held; it was a scene of satellite TV trucks and Occupy Wall Street protesters around a jazz ensemble labeled “Leftist Marching Band.” Way rolled down his window.
“We’re fighting for you!” one of the protesters yelled at him as he drove on. Finally he pulled up to the bar, a warehouse-like space in an old converted mill where a band called Golden State was playing. To his surprise, it was packed.
“God,” Way said, wading into a sea of young, white, male faces and Mylar balloons. “It’s all Ron Paul people.”
He passed a guy with blue hair and another in a pinstriped suit. There were people wearing
T-shirts that read “Tyranny Response Team” and “I Am Not a Terrorist,” and here came a few Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“Strange,” Way said, grabbing a beer and sitting down at a table with two young volunteers, both Republicans for Paul.
“Four years ago, it was nothing like this!” Phillip Saxton, 30, yelled over the band. He had come from New York. “So how did you find out about Ron Paul?”
“It grew out of a search, really,” Way shouted back.
“Yeah, that’s right!” said Nathan Warren, 25, who’d come from Texas. “I remember the first time I read Ayn Rand,” he said, referring to the literary heroine of libertarianism.
Way nodded, although he had not yet gotten to Rand.
“Once you see the message, it’s hard to go back,” he yelled, trying to connect.
“When I heard about Ron Paul and liberty, it was like a self-
discovery,” Saxton said, and Way mostly listened as the two talked about their journeys away from an establishment in which they felt powerless and into a world of ideas where they were encouraged to tote guns, stockpile food, take responsibility and reclaim their power as citizens.
Way’s phone rang — his wife. He stepped away, then returned as the faces of the candidates appeared on at least a dozen large-screen TVs around the bar. He watched quietly as others cheered Paul and heckled Mitt Romney with “I don’t want you to lead me!”
Afterward, the band introduced Tom Woods, “a rock star in the libertarian movement.”
“I [expletive] love Tom Woods!” an apparently drunk man yelled toward the stage.
“How many of you can say that Ron Paul changed your way of looking at the world?” Woods yelled into the crowd.
People cheered.
Way yawned.
It was late, and he was exhausted. He was losing his house. His wife was upset. He looked around the room at young men getting drunk, at band members, at a table of chicken fingers. It all reminded him of his 20s, of a frat party he’d outgrown.
“I don’t need to listen to this guy anymore,” he said as Woods went on.
He was happy to see the big crowd for Paul. He was hopeful about Paul’s chances Tuesday and beyond.
“The momentum is definitely there,” he said. “The movement for liberty is growing.”
And Way had become serious about that. He would liberate himself. He left the bar and walked outside. He needed to get home.
Staff polling analyst Scott Clement contributed to this report.
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