Photo by Tom Berry
This sign at an abandoned used auto lot on the corner of Cushman and Airport was hand-painted by union painters in the fall.

There are no honks. Forests of sign-waving supporters no longer cull enthusiasm from the -40 degree air. Only a sign emblazoned “Ron Paul 2008,” painted by union painters breaking ranks last fall, pleads to passing traffic on Airport Way. It stands faded and alone, less a statement now and more just urban scenery chaperoning the bars and cut rate liquor stores off Cushman.

Ron Paul mania in Fairbanks has surely ebbed since his 14 point loss to Mitt Romney in the Alaska primary two months ago, but just as Ron Paul signs around town weathered the winter, his ideas may well survive the political storm to influence Fairbanks for some time to come, though perhaps in softer shades.

While Paul, once thought capable of winning Alaska, came out of the primaries with only five of 26 possible delegates to the Republican National Convention, a cadre of young, mostly first-time activists seek daily to transform these small gains into tangible, long lasting reforms.

One avenue to spread the Paul campaign’s thematic message arrived two weeks ago at the Alaskan Republican Convention.

“I was ecstatic to go to Convention and actually change the party platform on constitutional rights,” said Ron Warner, a UAF-bound 18-year-old who is set to represent North Pole’s District 10 at the Republican National Convention this summer.

Warner and the Ron Paul delegation managed to add verbiage to the party platform guaranteeing Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights and demand the repeal of the Patriot Act and Real ID Act as unconstitutional infringements on privacy.

These changes to the mainstream Alaskan Republican platforms may well be a coup for libertarians whose strict constitutional interpretations often fall on deaf ears within the conservative establishment, but they in themselves may not translate into foreseeable change in a political status quo driven more by local elections than party doctrine. Cementing Paul’s campaign ideals into local Fairbanks politics is a major goal for Warner and his fellow activists.

Schaefer Cox, 25-year-old informal head of the online-based activist cell to which Warner belongs, described the Paul delegation’s participation in the convention as “having counteracted the typical ‘nut job label’ surrounding Ron Paul supporters…revealing the new generation of political participants who realize the Republican party has strayed from its core values.”

Cox, contends these awakened voices, stratified mostly between older constituents who can recall days of governmental restraint in economics and constitutional primacy as well as younger players who are simply fed up with what they feel is a broken political establishment, can affect elections throughout Alaska.

“Ron Paul is not a man, he’s an idea. If he goes away, the ideas of objective moral law as contained in the constitution still remain,” Cox said.

As evidence of the growing awareness of Paul’s ideas, Cox says that Dave Cuddy, opponent to Sen. Ted Stevens’s reelection, has sought his endorsement. Additionally, Cox is mounting his own run for District 7 State House seat largely on the contacts he has built working for Paul’s campaign.

Other activists in the group strive simply to stimulate debate on campus and other forums to convince people that regardless of political convention, Paul’s highly developed economic libertarianism has a place in government.

“Through the election I’ve talked to a number of political science students who found it a novel idea that someone would actually make decision strictly based on conformity to constitutional values,” said Joe Nickels, UAF student and Paul supporter.

Nickels is emphatic that despite the virtual non-electability of Paul, he would gladly cast his vote for Paul in November. As with many Paul supporters, ideals often resound over pragmatism. In some cases, for the most ardent supporters, even garnering enough votes to win a national campaign is ultimately not what they seek.

“Our goal is not to change world, but to have a clear conscience to the end. I can only keep a clear conscience with that goal,” said Cox.

As the interview winds down and Cox gets up to leave, a man who had been listening tugs on his shirt asking how to get involved in the Paul campaign. A fledgling political tradition gained another member, giving activists hope that their efforts will resound in Fairbanks long after “Ron Paul 2008” is a sun-faded memory.