Paulville, Texas
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
organization as well as the site and planned community
Planned community
A planned community, or planned city, is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion. Land use conflicts are less frequent in planned communities since...
under its development in the salt flats of north Hudspeth County, intended to consist exclusively of "freedom and liberty lovers". The Paulville community idea was named after U.S. Congressman and 2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
, and the utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
n cooperative is modeled on his often libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
ideas. The New York Times says, "For now, the town is little more than an idea and a title deed," but considers it to be evidence that Paul's "campaign appears to be growing into something beyond a conventional protest campaign," also echoing the concept expressed by others that "the Ron Paul revolution has increasingly less to do with Ron Paul".
Location
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...
Dell City, Texas
Dell City, Texas
Dell City is a city in Hudspeth County, Texas, United States. The population was 413 at the 2000 census.It was incorporated in 1948 shortly after the discovery of an underground water supply by oil prospectors, which attracted farmers to the area...
(population 413 in 2000), north of U.S. Route 180
U.S. Route 180
U.S. Route 180 is an east–west United States highway. Like many three-digit routes, US 180 no longer meets its "parent", US 80. US 80 was decommissioned west of Mesquite, Texas, and was replaced in Texas by Interstate 20 and Interstate 10. The highway's eastern terminus is in Hudson Oaks,...
, and an hour east of El Paso
El Paso
El Paso, a city in the U.S. state of Texas, on the border with Mexico.El Paso may also refer to:-Geography:Colombia:* El Paso, CesarSpain:*El Paso, Santa Cruz de TenerifeUnited States:...
. It is also 770 miles (1,239.2 km) from Paul's East Texas office of Lake Jackson
Lake Jackson
Lake Jackson may refer to:Lakes in the United States:* Lake Jackson * Lake Jackson * Lake Jackson ** Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park* Lake Jackson...
. The organizers say 50 acres (20.2 ha) have been purchased to date. Photos reveal the range of the Guadalupe Mountains
Guadalupe Mountains
The Guadalupe Mountains are a mountain range located in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. The range includes the highest summit in Texas, Guadalupe Peak, , and the "signature peak" of West Texas, El Capitan, both located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park, as well as Carlsbad Caverns...
15 miles (24.1 km) east, and the local area has occasional deer and tumbleweed
Tumbleweed
A tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, disengages from the root and tumbles away in the wind. Usually, the tumbleweed is the entire plant apart from the roots, but in a few species it is a flower cluster. The tumbleweed habit is most common in steppe and desert...
s. The mountain area is also noted for elk
Elk
The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...
, coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
s, jack rabbits, desert cottontail
Desert Cottontail
The Desert Cottontail , also known as Audubon's Cottontail, is a New World cottontail rabbit, a member of the family Leporidae....
s, ring-tailed ground squirrel
Ring-tailed Ground Squirrel
The ring-tailed ground squirrel is a species of rodent in the Sciuridae family. It is endemic to the Pacific coast region of central Mexico....
s, and gray fox
Gray Fox
The gray fox is a mammal of the order Carnivora ranging throughout most of the southern half of North America from southern Canada to the northern part of South America...
es. Another mountain range looms just west.
The site is located within Texas's 23rd Congressional district and is represented by Democrat
Dems
DEMS may refer to:*Democratic Party *Deepika English Medium School*Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships...
Ciro Rodriguez.
Organization
The property became available to the community when offered for sale on eBayEBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
by its original owner. It is now held by a cooperative
Cooperative
A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...
of shareholders, who held a first organizational meeting in April 2008 and who vote on essentials such as utilities. The cooperative's name in land records for this first purchase is "Jason Ebacher Land Investment Group". Shareholders, who obtain land use rights for a minimum of one homesteaded acre per share, priced at around $500, were described as "planting a flag" and in the process of "packing up and moving to Paulville. No, that's not metaphorical." Members discussed but ruled out secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
from the Union. Membership is open exclusively to "freedom and liberty lovers", or, as a Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
blogger put it, "r3VOLutionaries only".
The cooperative is also called "Paulville.org", after its website, established January 27, 2008, by Ron Paul
Ron Paul
Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul is an American physician, author and United States Congressman who is seeking to be the Republican Party candidate in the 2012 presidential election. Paul represents Texas's 14th congressional district, which covers an area south and southwest of Houston that includes...
meetup organizer Jason Ebacher of Farwell, Minnesota
Farwell, Minnesota
Farwell is a city in Pope County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 51 at the 2010 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....
. Ebacher appears in a one-hour conceptual video, created for Ron Paul Television prior to the purchase; captioned "Television for the revolution", it was carried by the New York Times, which meanwhile chided the website for a libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
"view of the laws of grammar, spelling and punctuation" and noted its lack of contact information. On May 12, 2008, web content formerly at Paulville.org became unavailable for several days, which Politico
The Politico
The Politico is an American political journalism organization based in Arlington, Virginia, that distributes its content via television, the Internet, newspaper, and radio. Its coverage of Washington, D.C., includes the U.S. Congress, lobbying, media and the Presidency...
considered as possibly suggesting "a perilous time for the infant community."
Development
Planners have (at least metaphorically) raised the Paulville town sign and are establishing septic and electrical systems on an opt-out basis reflective of principles of individualismIndividualism
Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy, ideology, or social outlook that stresses "the moral worth of the individual". Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing most external interference upon one's own...
: citizens are not required to use the cooperative's water and energy supplies and may choose to live off-grid. Members say they chose the West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....
plot for its high amount of sunshine, favoring off-grid solar panels. Buying in and homesteading the land from scratch is expected to take significant work, which the organizers warn is "not for the faint of heart". In his conceptual video, Ebacher has described the ease of raising sheep and chickens, and the relative merits of energy from solar power, wind, water, and biodiesel
Biodiesel
Biodiesel refers to a vegetable oil- or animal fat-based diesel fuel consisting of long-chain alkyl esters. Biodiesel is typically made by chemically reacting lipids with an alcohol....
fuels. Members also discuss alternatives for conveniences like cell phones, internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
connections, and Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
.
A gated community unhindered by planning regulations is eventually intended, followed by additional communities in sites like New Hampshire, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alaska, or Montana; the paradigm of a liberty-minded community with gates has been questioned. Members' beliefs that ideologically like-minded individuals can form a detached, thriving community have been echoed by experiments such as the Free State Project
Free State Project
The Free State Project is a political movement, founded in 2001, to recruit at least 20,000 libertarian-leaning people to move to New Hampshire in order to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas....
in New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, New Australia
New Australia
New Australia was a utopian socialist settlement in Paraguay founded by the Australian New Australian Movement. The colony was officially founded on 28 September 1893 as Colonia Nueva Australia and comprised 238 adults and children.-History:...
in Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, the Findhorn Foundation
Findhorn Foundation
The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain....
community in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and Celebration
Celebration, Florida
Celebration is a census-designated place and a master-planned community in Osceola County, Florida, United States, located near Walt Disney World Resort and originally developed by The Walt Disney Company...
and Ave Maria
Ave Maria, Florida
Ave Maria, Florida, United States is a planned college town currently under development in Collier County, near Immokalee and Naples. It is an unincorporated community, founded in 2005 by a partnership consisting of the Barron Collier Cos., a large diversified private company, and the Ave Maria...
in Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. Paulville has also been compared to the contemporaneously newsworthy YFZ Ranch
YFZ Ranch
The YFZ Ranch, also known as the Yearning for Zion Ranch, is a community which housed as many as 700 people just outside of Eldorado in Schleicher County, Texas, United States. It is owned by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints . It is about southwest of San Angelo and ...
near Eldorado, Texas
Eldorado, Texas
Eldorado is a city in and the county seat of Schleicher County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,951 at the 2000 census, but dropped to 1,800 according to a July 2009 estimate.Eldorado is located on U.S...
, a Mormon fundamentalist community that was controversially raided by state authorities in April 2008 on child abuse
Child abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
allegations. Ideology-based communities have ranged from communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
to environmentalism
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
. Jonathan Dawson, an educator based at Findhorn
Findhorn
Findhorn is a village in Moray, Scotland. It is located on the eastern shore of Findhorn Bay and immediately south of the Moray Firth. Findhorn is 3 miles northwest of Kinloss, and about 5 miles by road from Forres....
, questions the point of inward-facing micro-communities, but talks about "providing an example" to others: "It's not useful to retreat just for the sake of it."
Reaction
The site was chosen by and for the large market of "100% Ron Paul supporters and or people that live by the ideals of freedom and liberty"; motivated followers of Paul have been estimated to number several hundred thousand, have had fundraising history that suggests "seemingly bottomless bank accounts", and appear not to be giving up in pursuing his campaignRon Paul presidential campaign, 2008
Ron Paul was a Republican Party primary candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election.Initial opinion polls during the first three quarters of 2007 showed Ron Paul consistently receiving support from 3% or less of those polled...
goals. Paulville has attracted mixed reviews. The alternative Seattle Stranger found it suitable for those who have "the covenant of freedom espoused by Ron Paul guiding their every decision". The Houston-based Lone Star Times referred to founding members as "Paulvillains" and as creating "an insane asylum", and presented diverse posts from forum members, while Philly.com and Reason
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
anticipated other "dusty exurbs" named after presidential candidates, both citing "Biden
Joe Biden
Joseph Robinette "Joe" Biden, Jr. is the 47th and current Vice President of the United States, serving under President Barack Obama...
town" as an imaginary example. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
expects shareholders to be interested in libertarian
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
views like "the right to wield semi-automatic weapons and the abolition of income tax", and the Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
wonders whether the new town constitutes "a framework for utopia, or just a hilarious catastrophe".
Paul himself has been ambivalent about Paulville: "You want to spread out and be as pervasive as possible .... I don’t see [Paulville] as a solution, but it can't hurt anything either." He believes that "it shows how desperate people are for freedom." He finds the prospects for additional communities entertaining, but says, "I don't know how much [Paulvilles] would do."
Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Sullivan
Andrew Michael Sullivan is an English author, editor, political commentator and blogger. He describes himself as a political conservative. He has focused on American political life....
of the Atlantic said, "Who wants to live around people who agree with you on everything? Not my kind of libertarian"; he was echoed by Jesse Walker
Jesse Walker
Jesse Walker is managing editor of Reason magazine. The University of Michigan alumnus has written the book Rebels on the Air: An Alternative History of Radio in America and maintains a blog called The Perpetual Three-Dot Column...
of Reason
Reason (magazine)
Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...
. The Libertarian Party of Texas
Libertarian Party of Texas
The Libertarian Party of Texas is the state affiliate of the Libertarian Party in Texas, USA. The state chair is Patrick Dixon.- Overview :In 1971, Texas was one of the 13 original founding state parties at the first LP convention in Denver, Colorado...
believes Paulville has potential for demonstrating practical libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarianism, in the strictest sense, is the political philosophy that holds individual liberty as the basic moral principle of society. In the broadest sense, it is any political philosophy which approximates this view...
in action.