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View Full Version : Beautifully-written comment about the Ron Paul grassroots Revolution




Zydeco
10-03-2007, 05:36 PM
This was written by one "B Reyes" in the comments section of Marc Ambinder's Atlantic Monthly blog today. It sums up what we are all about in a beautiful way, and I'm copying it here in full. I think it is accurate and inspirational.

For ease of reading, I've italicized comments written by Ambinder that Reyes cut and pasted.

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There must be, within the Republican Party, a vein of anti-war libertarian sentiment. It is longer and deeper than many of us had suspected.

That's because for all your time covering this stuff, you guys are horribly out of touch.

He's the only candidate that has a complete and consistent philsophy, as well as a near perfect 20 year voting record-- which practically none of the media report.

This is what makes him attractive.

He is the only one that is bringing in new voters to the party. And he is the only one that is reviving the old school small government types. He is the candidate for true peace and freedom.

Look at the county and state straw polls. He has more wins and top 3 finishes than any other candidate. Sometimes he wins by landslide. This is never reported on national TV by MSNBC, CNN, CBS or ABC. It's always about what Giuliani or Hillary did that day.

I've heard some excuse that they never report on him because of gallup and rassmussen polls or whatever. Those polls are completely flawed and their results are wrong.

They are based on land line telephones and previous primary voters. But most of his supporters are young and have only cell phones, and pollers do not call cell phones. And if they do have a land line, some are young enough to have never voted in a primary so again they aren't going to be called. On top of that, the questions asked are flawed. I spoke to one woman polled that said that Ron Paul wasn't even given as an option.

Does that mean everyone knows him and he's amazingly popular? No. But his numbers are a lot higher than the 3-4%. If I had to guess, I'd say he's more like 10-15%-- but I have no data to back this up.

The point his, he's not small time and he's gaining ground day by day.

Is it clearly active in ways that most of us haven't adequately understood?

Again, that's because you are out of touch.

The old media are part of the problem. Sure, they have political science degrees or journalism degrees, but they are so short on reality it's both funny and sad. The very idea of all these talking heads trying to tell us who are our candidates are has made people sour. I remember Jon Stewart joked once that most news today just seems like noise. He was making a joke, but what he said is true. Why is it that a comedian has to point out the obvious?

Ron Paul's campaign is actually 2 separate campaigns. There is the "official" campaign. And then there's the unofficial "guerilla army" campaign.

The unofficial people have never previously met each other. They were all perfect strangers to each other. There was no previous connection at all. But now there is a connection: his name is Ron Paul.

Nationwide, they don't coordinate efforts. Nobody controls them. They all act independently, exercising their rights as citizens. They don't have any contact with the official campaign. In fact, many of them have balked at the very idea of linking up with the official campaign. It's like the free market in action, they make decisions and can do it better and faster than waiting for somebody in high office to give the orders. They have a very strong presence and initiative. If they see something the campaign isn't doing, they go and do it themselves.

They create their own campaign materials. Homemade shirts, stickers, flyers, pamphlets, signs. They set up their own campaign booths at county fairs, set up their own donation drives in their neighborhoods, create their own newspaper ads, create their own campaign videos and create their own websites. They drive hundreds of miles just to see him speak. If word gets out Dr Paul is going to be somewhere speaking, somewhere between 500-1000 people show up.

I heard someone saying once that Ron Paul's followers have probably put in near $10 million in their own campaign for him. I doubt the number is near that high, but without a doubt very large amounts of money are being spent by people independent of the campaign.

Sometimes it is almost like they have co-opted Ron Paul and he is just part of their own little revolution. He's jokingly said this himself a few times. I assure you he has no control over anything the people are doing. It is just a large number of individuals inspired by his message going out and trying to make it happen. It's a movement that's going on and none of you guys is reporting this. This loses you what little credibility you have.

If there is any news, it is inacurrate or skewed. You say he's "fringe" or an "isolationist" or "crazy" or the number one favorite, "He can't win." (As if the electoral process is about voting for someone who can win as opposed to voting what you believe. That's incredibly stupid nonsense. If you aren't going to vote for what you believe in, why vote at all?)

The amount of either non-reporting or mis-reporting on Ron Paul is astounding. Sometimes there are straight out hit pieces that get aired or printed and one wonders what kind of journalistic integrity these people have.

The talking heads on TV and the newspaper writers that get paid so much really know so little. I remember a time when I felt news wasn't about opinion and editorial like it is now.

If you guys want to save yourselves from the embarrassment of a possible "Dewey defeats Truman" you should get on the ball and report more on Ron Paul. (Without the smear attacks and inacurracies, please.)

hard@work
10-03-2007, 05:39 PM
Very nice. :)

Chibioz
10-03-2007, 05:44 PM
That sums it up very well

Buggan
10-03-2007, 05:45 PM
That was great! It almost brought tears to my eyes, and the last time that happened it was becuase of a yoyo accident :/

giskard
10-03-2007, 07:07 PM
Linky?