After a shopping trip, Kou’s wife discovered a hole in the van’s rear window that looked like it had been caused by the force of a baseball bat. The epicenter of the smashed glass began at the Ron Paul sticker and spider-veined out into thousands of little pieces in the protective web of shatterproof glass.

Along with the sticker on the family van, two Ron Paul signs sit on Kou’s front lawn. Over the past few months, the signs have been saved from the depths of snow drifts multiple times but have not been the cause of any vandalism.

Ron Paul’s economics-focused campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has excited passionate support. The media has shown bits and pieces of the enthusiasm Paul has stimulated but has not identified the cause or spent much time looking at this corner of the 2008 presidential primaries.

"The media is not covering him period," Kou said. "He has to resort to different means. In many ways, the ‘Ron Paul Revolution’ is the Internet revolution. It shows people’s voices are being heard despite the media. I think this is a glimpse of the days coming when the mainstream media will inevitably lose the edge."

Kou first discovered Ron Paul when he ran across the candidate’s Website. "I saw his positions and said, ‘This is amazing! There is no candidate being so frank about where he stands, sees how the issues are connected and knows what the White House should do.’"

Paul’s Internet campaigning has especially touched college students. He has propelled many young people into political and economic involvement. Of Kou’s four sons, the three eligible voters have gotten caught up in the "Ron Paul Revolution" by participating in Facebook groups, discussion boards and prearranged "money bombs" like the Dec. 16 fund-raiser which garnered a record $6.4 million for the candidate in 24 hours.

Kou was drawn to Paul because he holds similar perspectives on federal policies. Both believe that the war, economy, health care and immigration are interrelated. Different, independent policies cannot be created for each issue. An overall policy must be developed to address a number of issues that all affect each other. Both also think that policy should be grounded in history.

"There is no such thing as truth that is isolated and completely separated from history," Kou said. "There is always a historical context for everything and that’s what Ron Paul is bringing out. There is a historical context for the Federal Reserve Bank, the war and the economy. Our future policy must be consistent with historical reality. Otherwise, you have nothing but dreams.

"I think Obama paints a nice picture of dreams but has yet to define what he means by change and hope," he continued. "We know exactly what change will take shape and what hope is with Ron Paul. He’s concrete and consistent. That’s why people who know what he is saying are wild about supporting him."

Kou’s political perspective also cannot be separated from his personal history.

"I’ve seen a lot, traveled a lot," he said. "I think my perspective is a little different than some Americans."

He explained why he believes the issue of war cannot be separated from the issue of the economy.

The United States cannot have programs that are not supported economically. He noted that because wars require so much financial support, empires and nations have risen and fallen because of overextended finances due to military expenditures.

"The military is probably the most expensive thing in the economy," Kou said. "That’s why a nation’s future is dictated by what that nation does with the military. If you look at the international presence, currency and trade that have dominated the international scene over the centuries, you will see that they all started borrowing money to finance the wars before they collapsed. This includes the Roman Empire, France under Napoleon and the British Empire.

"There is a lesson you learn. America is on the very edge of collapsing because war has to be supported and America does not have money. The treasure chests have been opened one at a time and we look into them and see nothing. Social Security funds were always supposedly the most secure funds in the government. Now, we recognize Social Security has dried up and we have nothing."

In response to financing a war, Kou said that governments do three primary things; they can inflate the economy, borrow money or raise taxes. Right now, the United States needs billions of dollars every day from foreign countries to keep afloat. Chunks of the United States, in the form of foreign investments, are being sold to the United Arab Emirates and China.

Kou said that he was against the United States going to war with Saddam Hussein and now the only way to keep the United States safe from attacks by radical fundamentalist Islam is to pull out American troops.

"They attack us because we are there," Kou said. "They will not tolerate foreigners occupying their land and we are helping al-Qaeda convert too many people into radicals."

He believes Paul has a comprehensive program that recognizes if we rebuild our nation, bring the troops back, and bring the economy back, Iran will never be able to attack us.

"We still have the opportunity to fortify this nation and strengthen the economy and become an international standard again," he said. "Once we are strong economically, no county can touch the United States. Because we are so weak and dependent, we have become totally vulnerable and will lose control of everything. Whoever controls the international currency controls the world."

In 1945, the United States filled the need for an international currency to facilitate international trade. The dollar became the almighty dollar backed with gold and silver. The United States agreed to fix the dollar at $35 per one ounce of gold. Then, the Federal Reserve Bank diluted the dollar. The correlation between the value of gold and the value of the dollar we lost and gold prices mounted against the dollar. France and other nations demanded gold in return for their dollars when they sensed instability.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon stopped the exchange of dollars for gold. According to Kou, Nixon essentially said we have 280 million ounces of gold and we’re not shipping out any more. Once the gold was disconnected from the U.S. dollar, it immediately dropped in value and people lost confidence in it.

"I was born in 1951," Kou said. "Then, the currency exchange was 360 yen to one dollar. In 1970, when I came to the United States, it was 360 yen to one dollar. The dollar was absolutely stable. Everyone trusted the U.S. dollar and it was freely and securely traded in the international market."

European nations came together with currency as the driving force. They wanted a formidable currency to replace the U.S. dollar and to replace the United States as the international standard.

"You can see how there is a shifting of power in the world," Kou said. "The power is up for grabs. As an industrialized nation with technology, resources and people, we have hope. We just have to stop bleeding and bring the troops back. It would strengthen us to no end."

Kou, like Paul, considers the Federal Reserve Bank’s policies to be detrimental to the United States’ economy. The Federal Reserve encourages a credit based economy that essentially encourages borrowing and discourages investment because, over time, inflation evaporates all investments.

"The Federal Reserve Bank has one problem. It exists," he said. "It was created in a top secret environment. No one knows anything going on behind the scenes. Ron Paul suggested that they let Congress know their actions. It’s not right for an unconstitutional institution to have all the power that directly affects people’s savings and investments."

Kou raised the issue of the presidential primary process with a sigh. The whole primary system needs to be changed, said Kou. He sees a need to eliminate the media’s ability to determine the outcome of elections. Also, because the T.V. and the Internet allow news to be instantaneous, he believes that when we are electing the President of the United Stated of America, all voting should take place at once.

"We have already seen the evils of this process; how preferential it can all become," he said.

He continued to discuss the other candidates vying for presidential nomination.

"Nobody knows anything about [Illinois Sen. Barack] Obama," Kou said. "He is not even an appropriate candidate for the United States, not because of his race, but because he is articulating nothing. He gives hope that amounts to no hope…Obama has no track record. The unknown factor is too risky. Don’t commit the future into the hands of someone who gives undefined hope.

"I don’t want to see change for the sake of change. You want to move towards the right direction and standard. With Ron Paul, it’s the Constitution, but today, that’s radical."

Sen. Hillary Clinton, of New York, has a track record, said Kou. He thinks that Bill Clinton did a lot of damage to foreign policy while he was president and that the Clintons will bring more foreign investment to the country. While a free market system is good, government solicited support to keep banks afloat after the sub-prime mortgages disaster is problematic.

"If you lose control of banks, you lose control of the security of the nation," he said.

Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee does not know how to run a war, economy or manage foreign diplomacy, Kou believes. He sees him as a candidate who would inevitably enlarge government.

"We need to shrink government and spend money where it really counts to give strength back to the people so they have incentives and pride," he said.

"[Arizona Sen. John] McCain has no clue of the relationship between the economy and war," Kou said. The United States spends one trillion dollars on the war each year, he explained, yet McCain says the American people wouldn’t mind staying at war for a hundred years.

"[Massachusetts Gov.] Mitt Romney is slick but doesn’t have clear policy," Kou said. "He flip-flops in huge ways. He was pro-choice when that was the thing to be to get elected in Massachusetts. Now, he has to be pro-life to win the Republican nomination. He is opportunistic. He offers about $20 billion of free money to auto workers in Michigan just to get votes. I have no respect for a man like that."

Kou explained why he chose to vote for Ron Paul on Feb. 5.