Pledge: I will not make any more posts on RPF until......

[jmdrake]

I make 50 phone calls or 10 door knocks for a liberty candidate. I may do some of this for Peter Schiff, but I also have a local middle Tennessee liberty candidate to help out. If you have a post directed at me and you don't see me respond in the next day or so, that's why. Schiff said he's got 100,000 to call, so if 1,000 people do this twice he's got everybody cover. :D. (And yeah. I know there are people who've already done a lot more than 50. I'm just saying what I'll do.)

[AuH2O]

If you want people to pledge as well, you're going to have trouble getting answers, logically-speaking.

[Anti Federalist]

I wonder about the effectiveness of this.

I hang up on "cold callers" or holler at them if they interrupt me in something important.

[specialkornflake]

If you want people to pledge as well, you're going to have trouble getting answers, logically-speaking.

It seems to me like they would post on this thread with their pledge and do no further posts from that point.


I wonder about the effectiveness of this.

I hang up on "cold callers" or holler at them if they interrupt me in something important.

In the realm of political action "cold calls" is widely known as an effective tool along with mailings, door-to-door, media etc. Only when used in conjunction with other avenues is any tool effective.

[ronpaulhawaii]

I wonder about the effectiveness of this.

I hang up on "cold callers" or holler at them if they interrupt me in something important.

It is a numbers game and the positive effects usually outweigh the negatives by wide margins. Conventional wisdom says that a campaign needs to "touch" voters at least 7 times before getting on the radar of the typical voters. Calling is one of the avenues for a "touch"

[libertybrewcity]

It is a numbers game and the positive effects usually outweigh the negatives by wide margins. Conventional wisdom says that a campaign needs to "touch" voters at least 7 times before getting on the radar of the typical voters. Calling is one of the avenues for a "touch"

yes, if we can get to the voters twice from calling, he is that much closer. Schiff only needs about 40 percent of the voters to win. McMahon is killing the state and her chances with mailings and ads, giving more voters to Schiff. Money does not guarantee a win!!

[jmdrake]

If you want people to pledge as well, you're going to have trouble getting answers, logically-speaking.

Who said I want other people to pledge? That would be a form of grassroots collectivism as opposed to grassroots activism. I've seen a lot of grassroots collectivism here lately. Even to the point of someone admitting he wasn't calling because the didn't have a phone, but trying to guilt trip others into calling because "we asked Schiff to run". I don't know who this collective "we" is as I've never had any contact with Schiff whatsoever. I do appreciate that he set up a cool phonebanking system and I plan to check it out if for not reason than to learn how it works for furture use. And if you don't have a phone, go do a yard sale, raise 20 bucks and get yourself a prepay cell. Or spend the 20 bucks to buy a MagicJack and used Voip.

But I'm digressing. This was kind of like me saying "I pledge not to do X until I loose 10 lbs". (I actually could stand to loose 10 lbs). If others join in great! If not, I've still benefitted. I did the whole pledgebank.com thing of "I pleged to do X if 10 others will do Y" back in 2008. It didn't work. I may have done some more grassroots collectivism since then, but I think the best ideas come from spontenaity. People do what they want ultimately.

Oh...I almost forgot to mention what I did. I made 11 door knocks last night and talked to 10 real people. Everyone was receptive and some were very receptive. All I had to say was "My name is John and I'm campaining for X and he's running in the republican primary for Y. Early voting starts tomorrow and he'd love to have your vote". With that I'd hand them a "slim jim" and move on to the next house.

[SilentBull]

Who said I want other people to pledge? That would be a form of grassroots collectivism as opposed to grassroots activism. I've seen a lot of grassroots collectivism here lately. Even to the point of someone admitting he wasn't calling because the didn't have a phone, but trying to guilt trip others into calling because "we asked Schiff to run". I don't know who this collective "we" is as I've never had any contact with Schiff whatsoever. I do appreciate that he set up a cool phonebanking system and I plan to check it out if for not reason than to learn how it works for furture use. And if you don't have a phone, go do a yard sale, raise 20 bucks and get yourself a prepay cell. Or spend the 20 bucks to buy a MagicJack and used Voip.

But I'm digressing. This was kind of like me saying "I pledge not to do X until I loose 10 lbs". (I actually could stand to loose 10 lbs). If others join in great! If not, I've still benefitted. I did the whole pledgebank.com thing of "I pleged to do X if 10 others will do Y" back in 2008. It didn't work. I may have done some more grassroots collectivism since then, but I think the best ideas come from spontenaity. People do what they want ultimately.

Oh...I almost forgot to mention what I did. I made 11 door knocks last night and talked to 10 real people. Everyone was receptive and some were very receptive. All I had to say was "My name is John and I'm campaining for X and he's running in the republican primary for Y. Early voting starts tomorrow and he'd love to have your vote". With that I'd hand them a "slim jim" and move on to the next house.

What is on the slim jim? Does it mention his endorsements from tea parties and that he predicted the economic crisis? I haven't seen them. I'm just curious. These are the two things that I thought caught people's attention the most when I was phonebanking yesterday.

[jmdrake]

I wonder about the effectiveness of this.

I hang up on "cold callers" or holler at them if they interrupt me in something important.

The last time I was cold calling I mostly got answering machines so most people couldn't hang up on or holler at me. ;) But more important than that is that the realization that posts here at RPF by themselves have zero effectiveness at moving the liberty ball forward. If a post inspires someone to actually get out and do something great. But the arguments back an forth about how many founding fathers can dance on the head of a pin, or attempts to "convert" others to our own "sub sects" of the liberty movement don't actually enlarge the movement.

Anyway, I usually don't get live campaign calls. Once in a while I've gotten RNC "please donate" calls, but I think they've finally taken me off the list after I fully explain with I'd never give a dime to anything John Cornyn was heading up. (He heads up the RNC senate election committee and as you know voted for the bailout and also unethically backed Rand's opponent in the primary. The RNC is supposed to stay neutral until the general election). But I do get "robocalls". Sometimes I hang up on them. Sometimes I erase them on the answering machine before they finish. And sometimes I listen to them. I'm beginning to wonder if robocalls are as effective as live in person calls. Certainly robocalls could be used for GOTV efforts. I doubt anyone on record for supporting Ron Paul would hang up if they message from him that said "Tomorrow is the big primary in (fill-in-the-blank-state). Please don't forget to vote for candidate X. This is an important election."

[jmdrake]

What is on the slim jim? Does it mention his endorsements from tea parties and that he predicted the economic crisis? I haven't seen them. I'm just curious. These are the two things that I thought caught people's attention the most when I was phonebanking yesterday.

This wasn't for Schiff. As I mentioned in the OP I'm also helping another local liberty candidate. That's who I was doorknocking for. And that's something else everyone should remember this election cycle. There are plenty of liberty candidates to help. As long as someone is out doing something they are moving the ball forward even if they aren't helping your favorite liberty candidate.

That said, this slimjim was pretty generic. It talked about how he wanted smaller Tennsesee government (this is a state senate race), wanted to protect our children's future ect. We can win a lot of elections like this if we just get out there. I lot of people don't even know who's running in these local elections. You don't have to try to "explain away" some position on foreign policy, because that's not even an issue.

I do plan to do some work for Schiff, but again I want to test out the calling system works. This will be vital going into 2012.

[jmdrake]

It is a numbers game and the positive effects usually outweigh the negatives by wide margins. Conventional wisdom says that a campaign needs to "touch" voters at least 7 times before getting on the radar of the typical voters. Calling is one of the avenues for a "touch"

Exactly! While it might be difficult to "touch" some voters by cold calling, it's impossible to touch them by posts on RPF. ;)