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View Full Version : A plan for the movement. Tell me what you think.




Neil Kiernan Stephenson
09-28-2008, 01:28 PM
I have been very saddened by the way things are going in the movement. Our efforts on a national scale are scattered and unorganized. I personally feel that our obsession with the Presidential campaign has focused our efforts that are quickly fading with time, are wasting resources that should be focused elsewhere.

I am a candidate for Congress in Michigan's 10th district. Recently I attended a debate where I was able to exchange ideas with the voters in my district. It was invigorating, because I actually saw my results first hand. I convinced a lot of people to investigate the Federal Reserve. I convinced a lot of people that we had to cut taxes to bring jobs back to Michigan and America. I informed many voters about all the And I got to see the look in their eyes when the realization of the whole picture started to take hold in their minds.

I have watched as our third party candidates for President are struggling to get any recognition. And their efforts only seem to make us look small. And that's because we are small. We are a minority. And we will not grow in these efforts. It was local grassroots efforts that I did personally that I saw make a real difference.

People are obviously not willing to donate the kind of money that they used to. And I understand why. We are not seeing a return for our investment. I have realized now in my own campaign, that we cannot continue to throw money at this problem. The kind of people who pay attention to political ads are going to vote for the mainstream anyway for the most part. Our message is not easily communicated in sound bites and short ads. We need to get out and talk to people. And we need to run for office.

That means local office. Get on your city council and fight against wasteful spending and taxes in your own city. Maybe your own county (including Sheriff). Maybe your own state, or maybe even run for Congress or the Senate.

If you don't feel you can run for office, then get behind people who are. I don't just mean donating money. We need to take this fight to the streets. We need to take it DIRECTLY to the people we are trying to save. Sign waving while noble achieves almost nothing. We have to come out of our shells and be willing to go door to door. If you are not a good talker, then take literature that is written by good writers with you and do your talking that way.

One of my mentors said something that I agree with. Senator Mike Gravel said that our current governmental system maintains the people in "civic adolescence". We vote for people on election day so that someone else can govern for us. His answer was adding a democratic referendum system to our government. Many people in the movement can't get behind that and I understand people are afraid of democracy. But if you want the republic to work then you cannot just stand by and watch as it is taken over. The responsibility is YOURS. And if you don't like the system you have to get out and take part in it.

Stop complaining about how much you don't like your local police intervening in your lives, run for Sheriff, or get behind someone who is. Or encourage one of your freedom minded friends with the knowledge from being a police officer to do so, and fight beside them.

Stop complaining about the judges in your area and how unfair they are. Elect judges who will protect freedom. Or become a judge yourself.

In many cases the reason we maintain the status quo is because our voters have no other choices. And that means that we either become the other choice, or fight for someone else who is.

Money is sometimes needed, but I think we need to look at how to spend it. Spending money to print fliers with our ideals and then getting out and distributing those fliers in person to give a personal edge to the presentation of it is FAR more useful then TV ads that most people are ignoring. For the price of most ads we could reach maybe hundreds if not thousands of more people.

Get over your fears of public speaking, attend city council meetings. Attend events for local candidates.

We need to take responsibility for our own city blocks. This will be much more effective then donating money to national campaigns that are clearly not working.

I think we have topped out at this point. I enjoy my radio show, but I spend two hours a week preaching to the choir. We need to get to the people who don't use the internet. We need to get to the people who ignore political ads. We need to get to people who may not agree with us 100%, but can at least support Ron Paul's four point platform.

My suggestion is this.

Stick to what you can prove. And encourage people to investigate themselves. Feel out what people will believe before you say it. Not everyone is going to buy into a 911 conspiracy theory for example, but if you SHOW them the patriot act and the parts of it that are easy to understand and downright scary. SHOW them the legislation that allows them to violate our privacy. I have an article on my website under Issues called "Neil vs Candice" where I point out several pieces of legislation that they can investigate themselves that are very damning of our Congress. (Yes, my opponent voted for all of them.) Research the local neo-cons in your area and make people aware of what the establishment candidates in YOUR area voted for.

Direct them to where they can look at it on the White house website. It's all there.

Don't just give them theories about free market, give them examples of where low taxation and regulation has improved the lives of the people where it is implemented. I have two great articles on my campaign website you can show them. http://www.nks2008.com under economy.

Make them aware of these problems. But do so in a way that you can solidly prove. You have to remember that we are also fighting the perception that we are nuts.

But the biggest crux of all of this, is that the fight is not on your computer anymore. It's out on your street. On YOUR street. It's in voting for candidates and supporting them in YOUR district and in YOUR neighborhood.

The Presidential race has been over for us since the New Hampshire primary. Any further Presidential efforts need to be restricted in my opinion to being a commercial for our ideals. The real effort needs to go into electing local candidates. Once we make our ideas mainstream on the local level, then we can talk about the national level. If you can get someone to elect you or someone else to City Council based on our principles, you are laying the groundwork for voters to eventually make these issues priority in future Presidential elections.

Get out of your house, attend local events. Make a REAL difference.

One of my biggest worries about the movement at this point, is we are putting all our "motivation eggs" into one basket. The Presidential race. When that basket gets overturned this election cycle by Obama or McCain, I am concerned that people will go back to their lives and apathy will kill us. The Ron Paul meet up directors I talk to report dwindling membership, and dwindling interest.

I accomplished more at Voter Polooza talking to people locally then I probably have in months in my internet efforts.


Take the fight to YOUR street. You will win some. You will lose some. But at least you will know where your efforts are. And you will see first hand your results.

Thank you.

Neil Kiernan Stephenson
Candidate for Congress, Michigan's 10th district.
http://www.nks2008.com

Kotin
09-28-2008, 01:30 PM
very well stated. thank you!

great to hear your in the race! if theres anything I can do let me know.

Neil Kiernan Stephenson
09-28-2008, 01:36 PM
very well stated. thank you!

great to hear your in the race! if theres anything I can do let me know.

Well if you live in my district in Michigan, it includes everything north of Hall road in Macomb county, Sanilac County, St. Clair County, and Huron County. Obviously you could vote for me.

If not, you could donate to me, but I would prefer that you find someone locally and help them, as that is far more effective. You could send money to my campaign and I will certainly put it to good use, but as far as the OVER ALL effort, I would be more happy if you went out and ran for City council, or got behind someone who is. Research your local candidates. There is bound to be someone who needs your help.

Neil Kiernan Stephenson
09-28-2008, 01:55 PM
Anyone else?

tmaddox
09-28-2008, 02:51 PM
I agree. We must support our local candidates. I have found that true also on meeting with the people. Most all of my support has come from getting out there and meeting people, not the internet.

Roxi
09-28-2008, 03:48 PM
and if for whatever reason your not able to run for anything yourself, at least find out who is a liberty candidate in your area and support, and help them out

Neil Kiernan Stephenson
09-28-2008, 04:35 PM
Exactly. I wish this idea was more popular. This is so much more practical then what we have done up to this point.

Try it, trust me it was my local efforts that saved my motivation.

Kotin
09-28-2008, 04:36 PM
I have a liberty congressman(endorsed by RP) to vote for and a city councilwoman

kathy88
09-28-2008, 04:37 PM
Excellent note. GOOD LUCK with yoru campaign, and let us know what we can do to help.

Neil Kiernan Stephenson
09-28-2008, 05:12 PM
Thank you. But what I should be asking is what can I do to help YOUR campaigns. :)