DATELINE: Chicago, Illinois

Allan Stevo is a dedicated man. A Chicagoan originally, he has returned from five years in Slovakia, specifically to campaign for a ’second tier’ candidate called Ron Paul. If you’ve spent much time on YouTube lately (on the political videos, rather than ‘two girls one cup’ clips), you might have seen the comments fill up with people pointing you towards the Republican Congressman for Texas. Without the institutional support and financial backing of the leading Republican candidates, grass-roots fundraising and internet meet-ups have taken over, as they did for Howard Dean in 2004.

We bump into Allan in Millennium Park, where he has gathered at 10am with a few other like-minded souls (Howard Dean had ‘Deaniacs’; these must be ‘Pauliacs’ right?), and a pile of banners, for one of a series of simultaneous nationwide marches – there’s even been one in London. A uniformed park official comes over, just to check things aren’t going to get too vocally partisan in such a prominent tourist spot: “Good morning gentlemen. Just wanted to see what you guys were planning on doing, and to remind you that there’s a designated free speech area over there.”

My brain sumersaults a few times trying to comprehend the implications of the phrase ‘designated free speech area’, but Allan and friends are good-humoured: “well, was anyone planning on making a speech?”, he asks them. The young men and women snicker shyly into their morning coffees and shake their heads. Allan turns to the official and smiles: “no, you don’t need to worry, we’re just assembling here before we march around the city.”

As the crowd slowly grows from five towards 50, my attention is drawn to a cool-looking emo guy with ear-plugs (not the sound-blocking kind, the drill-a-sizable-hole-in-your-earlobe-kind). He does NOT look like a typical Republican.

“Yeah, well I was a registered Democrat before I saw a Ron Paul video on the internet, and I was converted”, says emo guy, also known as John the microbiologist, originally from Boston. “I had to go down to the Town Hall to register as a Republican, so I could vote for Ron Paul in the Republican Primary. This wasn’t easy for me to do, as a Democrat from Massachussets”, he laughs. “The woman in the Town Hall kept looking out the window to see if a pig was flying past.”

Eventually we set off, and chants of “Ron Paul revolution! Reinstate the constitution!” fill the wintry air, earning a mix of confused looks from tourists and irritable I’m-too-important-for-this-nonsense glares from businessmen – a mix that is familiar to me from marches back home.

Of course there are hecklers. ‘Obama! Obama!’ shouts a woman passing the three-wide march as it progresses Chicago’s downtown streets, which isn’t overly surprising – we are marching right through the Illinois Senator’s back yard. More cuttingly, the simple retort of ‘who IS he??’ comes sailing over from a middle-aged woman swaddled in fur. But it’s a pertinent question – and one that reveals the core of Paul’s challenge – most people don’t know who he is. His supporters bemoan a media bias towards the establishment candidates like Giuliani and Huckabee (candidates who also lead the polls, to be fair). “They like to frame Ron Paul as a kook”, someone laments.

The march snakes towards the local ABC station, where the news team broadcast as if in a shop window, in a glassed studio looking directly onto the pavement. The marchers line up facing the newsreaders, still chanting Paul slogans and waving signs. The newsreader looks undisturbed (he’s either very professional or the glass is one-way), and very quickly a security guard appears and the shutters come down – an apt metaphor as far as Paul’s supporters are concerned.

As they line-up defiantly chanting for liberty at a row of closed shutters, it’s suddenly striking how young the Pauliacs all are. The average age is about 24. How so? Miranda, an English and Sociology major native to Chicago – and another marcher who’d be a Democrat in normal circumstances – has an idea:

“It’s because it’s our generation that’s going to suffer when everyone realises there’s no social security and the country’s massively in debt. The financial burden is going to be on us.”

This youthful exuberance is reflected in the mechanisms used to mobilise his supporters – ‘Google Ron Paul’ declaims a homemade sign belonging to a fresh faced guy who is obviously young enough to have grown up with the internet. The marchers hand out ol’-fashioned policy flyers, but they hand out DVDs too – Tom manages to acquire four different Ron Paul DVDs from the evangelical hawkers.

As we round the Chicago Board of Trade. new chants ring out:

‘Ron Paul for liberty! Ron Paul for peace!’ and ‘Bring home the troops!’

It’s not just the ex-Democrats-turned-Pauliacs and emo-libertarians joining in with these bold statements, but also two guys who look like they’ve always been cut from Republican cloth. Both are wearing leather jackets – one has USA in massive red, white and blue letters on the back, the other a stars and stripes flag as broad and bold as his shoulders. Two belt-and-braces patriots, calling for the troops to come home and chanting for peace. Ron Paul obviously isn’t any ordinary Republican candidate.

“Yeah well,” says the ‘USA’ guy, “Ron Paul’s the only candidate who’s a true conservative.”

What makes someone a true conservative then?

“Putting American interests first. And that means bringing the troops home.”

Not sure whether this candidate is a kook or a saviour? Well, you could always Google Ron Paul.