How do we "win the crowd" ?

[CableNewsJunkie]

"Win the crowd - and you will win your freedom."


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5imVfYx0T0
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsqJFIJ5lLs&feature=related

Yea, yea, so it's just a movie.

But how do we win the crowd? What more could we be doing in terms of public relations?

I just saw this posted at the Daily Paul - http://www.dailypaul.com/188893/ron-paul-campaign-collects-nearly-400-pounds-of-food-for-iowa-food-bank
http://urbandale.patch.com/articles/paul-campaign-collects-400-pounds-of-food-for-iowa-food-bank

[Xelaetaks]

Doing good in Iowa and educating everyone we know. If every Paul supporter got one or two people on Ron Paul's side our numbers would technically double.

[wistfulthinker]

Love those clips.

And perhaps they are handy categories to brainstorm PR ideas.

The first: Win the crowd and you'll win your freedom.

The food bank drive idea fits this category marvelously. It's a shoe-in for media coverage and it showcases Paul's volunteerism. Who isn't won over by folks who give to the hungry.

If we're still in this spring, road highway garbage pick-up crews all in Paul t-shirts with Paul signs staked at each end. Especially if we did this all over the country the same weekend and let local newspapers know. Again, winning the crowd by doing something the crowd appreciates/admires.

So many ways to show folks what it looks like when we are free from thinking that caring for the less fortunate or for the environment is entirely the government's job. I think we could organize local, state, and national volunteerism actions that both give people warm fuzzies about Paul and his supporters AND helps them envision what volunteerism would look like under a more reserved government system.

And I think Xel is right. Personal PR is most powerful. We win one person at a time, by listening not just talking, by discourse not just telling, by being interested and involved with folks where they are at.

The second category is both potentially more powerful and much tougher. Are you not here to be entertained?

The gladiator is accusing the crowd on one level. On the next, he's calling them to examination. (Is that not why you are here?)

In some ways, I think Paul has the crowd. People do love him on a personal level. I've listened to pundits say things like, "If Republican voters get fed up with the pack, they may just go with their hearts. They may just go with Paul." Paul's been throwing the sword at the emperor for a while, but I think the crowd is caught holding its breath, caught between gauging the reaction of the emperor and the gladiator, and, most importantly, the folks sitting around them. Right? Because the real danger always lies in the crowd, in the folks sitting around us.

In PR terms, I think we can bolster the message that Paul isn't going re-do America on Day One in office. If one were to just listen to sound bites, you'd get the notion that Paul would change everything, all landmarks expunged, his first day at the desk. But when you listen to his longer interviews and speeches, that just ain't even possible, let alone what he thinks will be best for the nation. I mean the man hates the Fed, BUT he is not proposing tearing down the edifice. He wants to bring all the troops home -- except the ones on submarines, I guess -- but he'd START with the leftover WWII bases. He wants the federal government to get out of drug and abortion and marriage debates, BUT he wants individuals to have more say in legislating these questions by bringing the debates closer to where their voices matter -- the states, their churches.

I keep wishing Paul would cast these visions better, but I get that this question is about how supporters can do PR.

So, certainly, on the personal PR level, as Xel says, we can allay folks' fears about Paul. I've been telling my unconverted friends and family that Paul as President doesn't mean everything changes. Paul is offering himself as the guy to help us make that threshold step toward a different sort of political world. He can't change everything. He doesn't even want to. He just wants to be the guy who helps us take the first step.

We can stress this point in our communications with reporters and in the videos and so forth we make. We can come up with slogans geared toward getting folks off the fear-of-change wagon and onto the we-can-take-one-step wagon.

I'm babbling now. I better check if anyone else is brainstorming on this thread. My storms work better when they're slipping up on other people's storms.

[CableNewsJunkie]

In some ways, I think Paul has the crowd. People do love him on a personal level. I've listened to pundits say things like, "If Republican voters get fed up with the pack, they may just go with their hearts. They may just go with Paul." Paul's been throwing the sword at the emperor for a while, but I think the crowd is caught holding its breath, caught between gauging the reaction of the emperor and the gladiator, and, most importantly, the folks sitting around them. Right? Because the real danger always lies in the crowd, in the folks sitting around us.

Yes.

Calling out Wolfowitz the other night in his house with his people is a perfect example of 'throwing the sword at the emperor.' That moment will be one for the ages - and probably earned Paul some massive RESPECT among the fence-sitters.

[Aigik]

You win the crowd by convincing them that if we cut military spending, we're not all going to die of terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, that's nearly impossible with most of these people. I was debating with a friend today about this, and he's convinced that if we aren't over there, our country is going to be very vulnerable. Nothing I said could convince him otherwise. I think that most of these people have this idea so engrained into their ideas that it's going to be nearly impossible to change their minds.

[A_Silent_Majority_Member]

Tap their emotions through their hearts not just tap their logic (or lack there of) through their brains. I have said it multiple times and very few want to listen... you have to reach out to how people FEEL not just simply keep trying to convert how they THINK. Bring out the family.. show emotion. reach out to the masses on a personal level.. thats really all there is to it.

[Xelaetaks]

You win the crowd by convincing them that if we cut military spending, we're not all going to die of terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, that's nearly impossible with most of these people. I was debating with a friend today about this, and he's convinced that if we aren't over there, our country is going to be very vulnerable. Nothing I said could convince him otherwise. I think that most of these people have this idea so engrained into their ideas that it's going to be nearly impossible to change their minds.

I've said this before but it would really help the campaign to make an in depth section on their site about foreign policy and how we can protect our borders without being overseas. I think this is key issue and a something that can make a big difference. They can talk about high tech submarines, satellites, missile programs, etc.......... as alternatives to spending billions overseas.