Don’t tread on me.

Recently, something’s been amiss in the mainstream media when discussing Ron Paul’s candidacy. As the Texas congressman’s support has surged to 15 percent nationally in the latest Washington Post poll, the “Very Serious Republicans” who write columns and give their opinions on TV and radio shows have changed their tune. They aren’t as confident, as cocky or as arrogant as they used to be when predicting the 2012 presidential election.

Now, they sound scared; they sound nervous; they sound shaken. But most important, they sound resolute that they, and not their audience, represent the opinions of mainstream America. They are wrong, and their gamble will be costly.

In the absence of facts to support the Establishment candidates, the media have turned to personal insults, childish mockery, and deliberate misinterpretation of Dr. Paul’s lessons. Their goal, quite shamefully, is to convince Ron Paul supporters that the candidate that they believe in has no chance of winning the nomination, let alone the general election. Here are some recent headlines from around the web:

“Huckabee slams Ron Paul, says he has ‘no chance’ to win Republican nomination”— The Hill

“Ron Paul can’t be allowed to win Iowa” — Daily Caller

“Why Ron Paul Can’t Win” — Wall Street Journal

“If Ron Paul wins Iowa, does that make the state irrelevant?”— Christian Science Monitor

This type of overt pressure from our media to change your vote because “your candidate can’t win” constitutes a form of disenfranchisement. Despite Paul’s rise to the front of the pack in Iowa, the media still ignore that his national support from Republicans has risen from 9 percent to 15 percent in a month (Washington Post/ABC poll, Dec. 18). They refuse to report the fact that he would lose only by 49-44 in a hypothetical race against Obama, down from 52-42 just one month ago.

They will never tell us that 21 percent of Americans polled chose to vote for Ron Paul as a third party candidate over the hypothetical choices of President Obama or Romney/Gingrich.

This last statistic leads me to my main point: if the GOP nominates anyone besides Ron Paul, Barack Obama will win the 2012 election.

Why?

Currently, Establishment Republicans are issuing an obvious warning to Paul’s base: vote for Romney, or the Democrats will win in November. Clearly, they hope this ominous bit of advice also reaches the millions of Americans who are still learning about Ron Paul’s views. Well, Dr. Paul’s supporters have a retort: we don’t give a damn.

There are worse things than having a Democrat in the White House, and disenfranchisement is among them. We will not vote for whom we are told. We will not vote for a candidate who espouses a policy of preemptive war. We will not vote for the continuation of a flawed, costly, discriminatory drug war. We will not vote for the circumnavigation of the U.S. Constitution. We will not vote for a candidate (Romney) who has received just 10 percent of his campaign donations from actual people (from opensecrets.org). And we will not feel remorse for a Republican Party that has abandoned us.

I am a registered Republican, but when I listen to my so-called party leaders, I become infuriated and despondent. When did preemptive war become our national defense? When did the desire to police the world become so mainstream that we forgot that our nation was birthed from a repugnance to imperialism? When did we concede that the federal government has the right to regulate our lives to the point of quiet despotism?

And most important, when did we become convinced that our votes and voices only matter if we support the perceived frontrunner?

As an advocate of liberty, I will vote on principle over party, every time. If the Republican Party took the time to educate its members on the issues, rather than simply bullying them into submission, their party wouldn’t be so splintered right now, and perhaps Dr. Paul would have a unified force behind him heading into November. Instead, GOP leaders seem committed to promoting the status quo, to increasing their own power and influence, and to keeping the support of moneyed interests.

If the GOP Establishment is successful in convincing Republicans to nominate Romney instead of Paul, and Paul does indeed run as an independent, Obama will win with 45 percent of the vote, and the GOP will have no one to blame but themselves.

Colin McIntosh, a resident of Fort Lauderdale and graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, is a senior at Emory University in Atlanta and will graduate this spring with bachelor degrees in economics and business administration.