I put a medium-sized Ron Paul sticker on my laptop during primary season. Had I supported a more well-known candidate, I would not have done that. Given the fact that most people didn’t have a clue who Ron Paul was, and that he was being largely ignored by the media and seriously picked on at debates (even being banned from some, and with people starting campaigns petitioning to ban him from all further debates simply because he had talked about blowback), I decided it was my responsibility to increase his exposure a little bit and to make myself available to answer questions about him.
Anyway, point is: if I supported one of the media-sanctioned candidates, I wouldn’t bother. More trouble than it’s worth, and no point really, since everyone knows who they are anyway. Given my minority position, I displayed a sticker in hopes that people would ask who he was.
As for the sticker’s extended usefulness: every once in a while (in my room, or while watching a debate in a public place) a fellow Ron Paul supporter will see my sticker come up and identify themselves as such. It’s refreshing, and it’s nice to know who the other Ron Paul people are on my campus. And it’s nice to talk with them about how screwed we are this election, and to discuss how we plan on voting given that Ron Paul didn’t get the nomination.
I’m perfectly comfortable with telling people that I like Ron Paul. Being in the minority, I feel like I can’t just sit back and trust that someone else will speak for his ideas. Sure, some people just act like I’m an idiot. Some even seem to think that I’m a traitor, or a “bad Christian” for “wasting” my vote by not using it against that “baby-killer” Obama and voting for McCain. Whatever. But when people ask how I’m going to vote, all I can say at this point is, “well, not for either of the main-party candidates, that’s for sure.”