Ru Paul

Ru Paul
Originally uploaded by annus mirabilis

This was attached to my doorknob with a rubber band a while back. A voter registration application for Oklahoma, a Ron Paul flyer, and a strip of paper that instructed me that "In order to vote for Ron Paul, you have to register as a Republican."

Oklahoma, it turns out, is a hotbed of Ron Paul agitation. How do I know? Well, I don't, really. But it's hard to tell, because the Ron Paul volume here in Oklahoma is turned up to eleven, making an accurate head count nigh on impossible.

There're yard signs, some glossy, some handmade out of old sheets and spray paint. There are the now-ubiquitous sheets of butcher paper hanging over the highway overpasses. Someone actually duct-taped some laserprinted sheets of paper with "Google Ron Paul" onto a retaining wall that faces 15th St. near our house.

One of the local forums I go to has been spammed by the blank-faced attack-bots of the "Movement," dive bombing any attempt at online slander. Or fair discussion about the good doctor. I'm half thinking I'll attract one myself, simply for titling my post "Ru Paul."

In any event, it's fair to say that there's a strong undercurrent of libertarian politics here, if not so much a fuck-you to collective action, then at least a virulent sort of get-off-my-lawnism. It's enough of an undercurrent to embolden the Paulites to think that, if they can sign someone up, they'll be happy to fill in the R on the back. Because an undecided voter in Oklahoma, don't ya know, is really just a Republican who hasn't thought it all the way through yet.

I filled out the registration card, indicated my affiliation with a big D on the back, and slipped it into the mailbox. Let's just say February 5 will be a super Tuesday indeed. My first one as a registered Oklahoman!

And a Democrat.