Ron Paul's Revolution Problem

[Highstreet]

Digg this:

http://digg.com/political_opinion/Ron_Paul_s_Revolution_Problem

Bad title. It is actually a great article over at Lew Rockwell detailing the direction the campaign and Paul's words need to move. More common sense reasons that he will be a Bold Leader and take us in the New Direction we all want, but are not receiving from any other candidate.

Should be called "Ron Paul's Revolution Solutions"

[ThomasJ]

There is a few problems with this article.
The long tail problem assumes normal levels of apathy in politics.
Normal apathy means that the elderly will be the defining factor in an election.
Historicly Primaries have very low turn out in the 7-10% range.
I have posted about this before and even the MSM have picked up on it though they viewed it in a different way.
Ron Paul's supporters are fervent.
We may have 10%-20% of the Republican base. Even if we do it does not effect the end result.
I would estimate Ron Paul's voter turn out in the primary's at 80% or more. That is the problem with the graph they have. If we have 80% turn out and everyone else has 10% turn out we win by a landslide.

The other factor is Ron Paul Republicans, there is a large group of people who do not call themselves Republicans because of the nature of the party the last ten years or so. These are Democratic Party members who have changed party for the Primary, Libertarian party members who have changed party etc...
These people will not show up in the MSM polls. A good indication of that is the recent Caucuses, Straw polls. This goes back to the support being a mile deep. Our supporters are standing out in blizzard conditions to wave signs you really think they are going to miss voting?

As for the random groupings of people. Ron Paul says we should stop looking at people as groups. Start treating people as individuals.

Freedom brings people together from all social or economic groups. In my meetup group I have a few Multi-Millionaires and dead broke poor people (me).

It doesn't matter who you are everyone can support Dr. Paul because he stands for the Constitution. If you can't support that you really should move to another country.

Anyways I really don't see a problem with the Long tail issue because of the depth of our support. On the other hand we need to get as many people welcomed to the Revolution as possible. The bigger the landslide in the Primary the less weasel room the Back roomers will have.

[Proemio]

That is an excellent analysis - well done - except it won't work in the way proposed.

The problem with it is right here:

He needs to make better use of his product placement and get more casual buyers to pick up "Ron Paul’s Greatest Hits" off the rack. The CD needs some slicker packaging. It needs some 5-star reviews smacked on the cover. And the listening station needs to feature some catchy choruses and snappy melodies, not spacey jams.

Ron Paul is not just some other, 'acceptable' SKU of a politician. The 5-star reviews will never be without some back-spin to promote the negatives; that is, if there ever are any '5-star' reviews at all. The listening stations won't play ball either. Not even Payola will do the trick, because it's not an ordinary situation where simply greasing the right palms would do. Neither theCampaign nor Ron Paul can effectively control "product placement".

The suggestion that Ron Paul should 'tailor' his message - i.e. pandering, no matter what fancy word is used - is a bit offensive when talking about the good doctor, and would not work for the reasons stated above. It would however lose him most of the "yellow tail".

The option left is the "Wag the Dog" scenario, which is of course precisely what is playing out.

Sure, theCampaign should concentrate on the mainstream avenues - that's their sole reason for being - but those avenues are closed until the tail has cleared them for open traffic.

The message is not the issue as everyone conveying that message to the unaware knows - it's infectious - the problem is the closed avenues. They are being forced open as we speak - by the tail - on the ground and in the air...

Bottom line: there is no problem.
TheCampaign should focus on their thing and (try to) do their level best.
We should focus on our thing and continue growing that tail into the green part of the graph.

Any 'tailoring' of message would be fatal...

[RPinSEAZ]

I agree, making Ron Paul more mainstream (pandering) will not increase his visibility, it will just make him blend into the rest of the pack and may even lose some of his support.

[Wingman]

article is not authoritative and doesn't tie in tail to actual statistics