It’s not that Ron Paul supporters are a fearsome army in raw numbers. I don’t worry about them taking over the party. They couldn’t manage 5% of the vote in most states, and are violently opposed by the other 95% when they care enough to show up.

It’s that last part that worries me. If they care enough to show up. In primaries and generals they do. At county conventions, where the party’s identity at the local level is forged, they don’t. Ron Paul supporters are the only ones motivated to organize a bloc of people to take over local Republican Parties across the country. That matters.