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View Full Version : How to take over a political party




gpickett00
02-28-2008, 04:50 AM
For the last 12 straight semesters at here at Florida State University a campus political party called "Insight" completely dominated every student government election. Each year new political parties would form to try to take their reign without success. This all ended yesterday. A new party called "Torch" won the election and for the first time in 6 years the student body president will not be a member of Insight. Torch is no less "corrupt" or really any different than Insight, but the leaders were smart in their organization and they now control SGA. Here is what they did:

A few members of Insight decided that they no longer liked the political party. They quit Insight and created a 'values based' party called "Torch." On facebook they created a Torch group and invited everyone they knew. Here is the description of the group you read when you look at their facebook group: skim this, you dont need to read it all


Torch is a Registered Student Organization of the Florida State University.

THE MISSION OF TORCH
The mission of this organization shall be to foster the development of a Seminole community that prides itself on the creation of a well-balanced individual through the pursuit of leadership, wisdom, service, community, fellowship, and heritage.

THE VALUES OF TORCH:
There are six core values of Torch. No value shall be considered more or less important than another. The following values shall define the ethical foundation for the well balanced individual.

Each of the values is defined and has tangible goals and ideas for achieving them. Members of Torch work to improve each value across campus through programming and other initiatives for the Seminole community.

Community – acknowledging the importance of a mutually beneficial relationship between the Florida State University and the Tallahassee/Leon County community

Fellowship – developing a sense of close friendship within the members of Torch and The Florida State University

Heritage – honoring the traditions and historical customs of the Florida State University from its inception in 1851 to the present and applying them to current student life

Leadership - recognizing that the significance of diverse backgrounds, thoughts, and discussions is enhanced by learning whether one should step up or if one should step back

Service – instilling a passion for serving the greater need of society

Wisdom – adhering to the pursuit of a liberal arts education and the understanding of the need to gain knowledge from those more experienced


As you can see, none of that says at all it is a political party challenging Insight. Its based on "values" and "ethics" so people join the group to look cool.

Now, after creating their group they started getting student leaders together to set up a ballot of challengers for the election. As far as I knew, none of this was announced on facebook, and was just spoken about at their meetings. Basically nobody knew that they were an uprising political party, they thought it was just some BS values based club that made them look like a good person.


So all of the sudden yesterday we have our campus elections, everyone knows what Torch is already, and finally realized it is challenging Insight. Now that the student body had been brainwashed via facebook and other marketing, Torch was the "ethical" choice, and when they voted, they voted for Torch.

I think these tactics are very similar to what the "CFR" uses today. If we want this revolution to take hold, we need some kind of central theme or "think tank" to get it going. Calling it Ron Paul political party will not do. In order to infiltrate the system we have to get major political leaders to create a seemingly non-threatening political party.

I think the top few people of Torch knew what they were doing as being past members of the other political party, and as far as I know completed their goal 100%.

Summary: Convince the population that what your group is has the best intentions in mind then at the last minute let them know you are a political party. By the time they get to the polls they will be sufficiently brainwashed that your organization is the ethical and moral choice.

My hope is that someone can subtly create a similar organization and we can destroy our 2 party system. Tell me what you think.

Edit: I just looked at the FAQ for the group and here is how they address the notion that they are a political party.
Are you just starting another political party?
Absolutely not. Torch is not a political party. It is a forum based, open organization to foster growth and involvement in many areas of campus. While some Torch members may be involved in the Student Government Association, SGA is not the focus of Torch.

That is obviously BS and they were successful

Live_Free_Or_Die
02-28-2008, 09:38 AM
nt

gpickett00
02-28-2008, 02:41 PM
Im glad there is something out there already. Ill look into it.

nf7mate
02-28-2008, 02:46 PM
Summary: Convince the population that what your group is has the best intentions in mind then at the last minute let them know you are a political party. By the time they get to the polls they will be sufficiently brainwashed that your organization is the ethical and moral choice.

<<shudders>>

CountryboyRonPaul
02-28-2008, 02:56 PM
I was thinking about something similair to this earlier, We would need to start a private organization, I was thinking along the lines a lobbying group, unaffiliated with Ron Paul in any way as to not draw suspicion from the enemy.

Have private meetings, charge membership fees, monthly newsletters, etc. etc. spend a few years (at least) growing into a major lobbying organization, getting recognition from the media and the political establishment to put our(Paul's/America's) message out there. And then run another Ron Paul Republican, or third party on the same platform as our group, back him for president with the group.

In addition I'm sure there are ways to bribe people from the NRA, AARP, etc. to back the right candidate. ;)

My only concern is that the group would get taken over by the wrong people, like the NRA has.

LibertyLu
02-28-2008, 03:27 PM
Infiltrate the halls of power?

Meetings?

Membership?

Enter Freedom Force International, (http://www.freedomforceinternational.org) a non-partisan "club" dedicated to advancing the principles of liberty all over the world. It's like the CFR's evil twin ;)


The Freedom Force strategy can be summarized as:
Don't fight city hall when you can BE city hall.

gpickett00
02-28-2008, 09:24 PM
Even the name freedom force sounds like it could be something political in nature. I think it is pretty important to have the intentions of the organization something other than 'freedom' or restoring the constitution