Perhaps Our Biggest Problem

[billv]

Perhaps, in fact I'm sure, our biggest problem is the lack of understanding of United States civics. People don't understand the foundation of our country anymore. They don't understand the principles of limited, Constitutional government. All most people have ever known is welfare/warfare/big government Federalism and to them it seems completely natural. So of course, Ron Paul comes along and challenges those deeply ingrained beliefs and they react with hostility. We seriously need to work on educating people in classic American civics. Perhaps we need to do this more than even promoting RP. Without an acceptance of limited, Constitutional government, Ron Paul's will seem dangerous and scary because it is a massive departure from the status quo.

[dude58677]

Ron Paul is doing that. He is a like a professor teaching the American people about limited government as though the American people are his political science college class.

[Bob Cochran]

billv,

I think you're right. If Ron Paul does not get very far, it will be because too many people don't understand the great value of a politician like him, and the ideas he supports.

Many do "get" Ron Paul, but will we be enough? We don't have much time to educate people...I sincerely hope it's not too late.

[billv]

If it is too late, at least we have a lot of momentum to build upon in order to restore the US to a true Constitutional Republic. Thanks to Congressman Paul and the work of others before him, I believe we are seeing a great resurgance of classical American political thought.

[MsDoodahs]

A stupid population is much easier to control than a smart one.

The "dumbing down" has been going on for a lot of years, and it's been very effective.

Dr. Paul is not just running :) for office - he's TEACHING the people.

:)

[Captain Shays]

The issue of Health Care is aperfect example of modern misunderstanding. So many people think that its a right to have free health care from the government and they use the profiteering of "corporations" as a reason why the government is better suited to administer health care for the masses.

What they don't know is that as soon as the government gets their hands deeper into it, the people will lose their choices as to when to get certain treatments, where to go, and how to get treated.
Single payer health care will actually enlarge the pwoer structures of the pharmeceutical industrial complex and expand their profits by a huge margin.

It an issue by issue battle that we face in this campaign.

Abortion is another. Many pro lifers are under the impression that Ron Paul
s position that the federal government has no Constitutional authority to legislate in abortions and that its a states right issue is somehow different than the pro life strick constructionalists that a pro life Bush, or Huckabee or anyone else would appoint to the SC bench. Even Scalia, Roberts, Thomas and Aletto as "pro life" as they seem would revert it back to the state.

We've all grown up with "the government should do this" and "the governenmnt should do that" so each and every Ron Paul vote is going to have to be educated into voting for him. Its an uphill battle and the propaganda machine is already working agaisnt us.

[Quantumystic]

It's great that so many of you are aware and educated regarding these issues. But...

You're over-complicating.

If GW/Rove taught anyone anything, it's that over-simplification works w/ the American Population.

There's not enough time to really fix that. So USE it.

SIMPLIFY.

Dr. Paul is gonna do his "Dr. Paul thing" that WE love. But when WE talk to most people, start out simple and w/ "broad strokes". Joe Average isn't going to grasp a real "debate" mentality. Think soundbites. Intelligent soundbites. Think "Sales".

People are sick of this "war". Of Corruption. Of spending. Of Fascism.

Start your points w/ ONE. "Ron Paul will fix it."

That's ALL you have to say.

Let THEM ask just HOW. When they ask a question, you have their attention. Then you follow up with another short statement.

"Well, he's going to reduce your taxes".

Which is something EVERYONE likes to hear. Anyone intelligent will ask another question... "How does that fix this problem?"

Which means now you've really got their attention, and can say more than ONE sentence. Try not to say more than 3.

Dr. Paul is attracting ALOT of intellectual people. Which is great. Except the UN-intellectual get to vote too. And sadly, there's alot more of them than us. So to truly be effective, we have to be master communicators in effect, if not in "intellect".

Got it?

[billv]

Very true. My brother was saying the same thing the other day. Being a bit on the intellectual side, I tend to forget that much of the country likes 30 second sound bytes more than a good, intellectually honest argument.

[Quantumystic]

Yes.

When you go from working in Physics, to having to "sell" people on the benefits of something... you experience an epiphany.

What is obvious to YOU, suddenly becomes this horror story of geting people to THINK and UNDERSTAND. Which is usually the LAST thing they want to do. So you have to make it easy for them.

Questioning is a form of being "engaged". Get people to ask questions. It's harder to seem intrusive when you're answering someone's own question. Briefly.

It's like a haircut. You can always take more off, but ya can't put too much back on.

[BW4Paul]

"Well, he's going to reduce your taxes".

Which is something EVERYONE likes to hear. Anyone intelligent will ask another question... "How does that fix this problem?"

Which means now you've really got their attention, and can say more than ONE sentence. Try not to say more than 3.


Does anyone have any suggestions for a concise 1-3 sentence answer for this question?

[mikelovesgod]

He's going to cut spending
He's going to stop paying Big Oil Corps
He's going to stop illegal immigrations which costs trillions

That's 3 lines that interest people

[xcalybur]

I totally agree with this and is one reason why I made the Think Different, "Hope for America - Ron Paul" video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRd8pGBtcQg

People, especially the older they get, are moved by symbols and pictures of their past. If you listen to the video, very few people in the United States wouldn't get what the meaning of it is. They might not understand what vilify means, but they get the overall message. When they get that message and then equate it with Ron Paul, that's a powerful thing.

K.I.S.S. is the way to be. I wish it wasn't, because I love a good debate.

[Quantumystic]

Great "ice-breaker" vid! :D

Especially for the demographic you mentioned.

Being 45, that's just a tad ahead of "my" day. LOL

I'm hearing a few people on other threads claiming Dr. Paul isn't getting enough tv time on ads. That's always helpful, but it isn't the solution.

Not everyone is a tv junkie. But everyone does respond to genuine conversation. One on one person interaction.

Dr. Paul is risking his life, and the lives of his family to take a stand against the NeoFascists. WE need to get his back by doing WHATEVER IT TAKES to get every American the chance to hear his message.

This is a Revolution, and it's hard and dangerous.

[Revolution9]

I totally agree with this and is one reason why I made the Think Different, "Hope for America - Ron Paul" video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRd8pGBtcQg

People, especially the older they get, are moved by symbols and pictures of their past. If you listen to the video, very few people in the United States wouldn't get what the meaning of it is. They might not understand what vilify means, but they get the overall message. When they get that message and then equate it with Ron Paul, that's a powerful thing.

K.I.S.S. is the way to be. I wish it wasn't, because I love a good debate.

Great video!! I think Dr Paul is aware of this.. He comes out with some real one line zingeroonis. He charges them with just enough emotion and a down home naturalness that it does not appear to be hard core salemanship like the other Borg clones. He offers choice in all he speaks.. It is up to us.. He is capable and has honed the art of the soundbyte.. just listen to his one and two sentence piledrivers of liberty. Short, concidse and pure genius..not really a Mad-ison Avenue and CFR polished and rehearsed then puppeted one like those other clowns. The MSM is bereft of clues as to how to analyse him. They have not seen the likes of him in their obdurate careers.

Check these Jeffersonian soundbytes that made him a great Historical American as Dr Paul will be rembered. Note the syntax and compaction of ideas of great scope and breadth in simple but precise packets of linformation. What we today know as sounbytes but are rarely treated to historical ones as Dr Paul has had the temerity to utter aloud with mics and cams taking it all in.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” (Quoting Cesare Beccaria)

The beauty of the Second Amendment is that it will not be needed until they try to take it.

The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits.

No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the equal rights of another, and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious. (Back then!)

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.

The god who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time: the hand of force may destroy, but cannot disjoin them.

And the day will come, when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His Father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva, in the brain of Jupiter.

In matters of style, swim with the current;
In matters of principle, stand like a rock.

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all.

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

When wrongs are pressed because it is believed they will be borne, resistance becomes morality.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty.... And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual.

It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million of human beings, collected together, are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.

Liberty is the great parent of science and of virtue; and a nation will be great in both in proportion as it is free.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

In a government bottomed on the will of all, the...liberty of every individual citizen becomes interesting to all.

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

Most bad government has grown out of too much government.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.

I never will, by any word or act, bow to the shrine of intolerance or admit a right of inquiry into the religious opinions of others.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others?

A free people [claim] their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

The right of self-government does not comprehend the government of others.

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest.

It is better to tolerate that rare instance of a parent’s refusing to let his child be educated, than to shock the common feelings by a forcible transportation and education of the infant against the will of his father.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.

The man who reads nothing at all is better than educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.

In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to Liberty.


Best
Randy

[Quantumystic]

Beautiful prose.

Lousy political content.

:D
Nobody talks like that anymore, even if maybe they should.