“I’ve always hated the small government mentality— that whole, not being concerned for the welfare of the citizen, but then I heard about Ron Paul,” Max Isaacs said.

Born in South Korea, 19-year-old Max was adopted by an American couple as a five-month-old. He grew up in Goshen, New York, and attended New Paltz for one semester before transferring to Purchase College. It was during his fall semester at Paltz that his ideals— or at least the way they manifested themselves— changed.

“I was at a meeting for Sensible Drug Policy and I started talking to this student. We both hated bureaucracy. We also agreed that the only way to reform government is to limit it. It’s reached an unsustainable point,” he began. “This country’s a billion dollars in debt because of a war we shouldn’t even be fighting, the dollar’s weak, our social security plan’s not working and we owe China so much money,” he continued. “We need to reevaluate our approach to government.”

Ron Paul takes the libertarian and somewhat Ayn Rand-ian Objectivist approach that government should pretty much stay out of everything. Basically, the OBGYN, Pennsylvania-native and Texas congressman maintains an M.O. boiling down to “I’ll mind my own business if you mind yours.” That means leaving abortion to state jurisdiction, severely restricting foreign intervention and abolishing the income tax, among other things.

“In the past month, I’ve become solidly committed to Ron Paul. I used to think he was a wacko but then I read some more. I agree with him that nothing’s wrong with a large government, but, as I’ve said, this federal government is some kind of monster, and it’s crossing the line on people’s liberties.”

So will Max be casting the vote for Mr. Paul on this Super Tuesday?

“I would… but I never changed the way I was registered for the last election, which was as a Democrat. I wasn’t positive whether or not I supported Ron Paul until recently. I considered Dennis Kucinich. He and Ron Paul are friends… I heard Kucinich would even have had Paul as his running mate. Funny, huh?”

Tags: california, independents, ron paul, super tuesday