The Movement After Ron Paul

[rrt82]

One way or another, the grassroots movement has to begin thinking beyond Ron Paul. Best case scenario, he is a one-term President. Worst case scenario, out before March. Regardless of best or worst, we need to keep this fight for our freedoms just as organized as it is now.

I hope that after Ron Paul's campaign is finished, I can still come to this forum and see a few hundred people signed in. We must remember we are fighting for the principals of Paul, not the man himself. In 2010 we will have local elections to think about, and in 2012 if our nation makes it that far we will have that election to work on too.

Needless to say because of this grassroots movement for freedom, I still have some hope for this great nation. I would really hate to see what we have accomplished disappear when it's over. Regardless of a Paul victory or defeat, the grassroots movement has accomplished way more than even some of the most optimistic early supporters could of ever dreamed. It's amazing, lets begin organizing to ensure we make some noise every single election.

My ideas:

- Become involved with the Libertarian Party. I've never cared for the party because they seem highly disorganized, but if we could do for the LP what we have did for Paul, we the grassroots could really make a positive difference for the LP on so many levels.

- A centralized freedom based website or forum. I love this website, I'm just scared that once the election is finished people will begin to drop. Perhaps the admins if this site could purchase another domain name and point it here, after the election of course.

- Focus on running some candidates in some very pro-freedom areas of the nation. Use the grassroots to write letters, fundraise, etc. In 2010 there are 34 US Senate seats open. According to Wikipedia, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg might retire, we could target that senate race since the state of NH is very libertarian in nature. Tancredo is retiring his Congressional district, we could focus running a pro-liberty candidate there too. I believe the 6th district in Colorado would be very receptive to a pro-liberty candidate.

[JordanL]

Best case scenario, he is a one-term President.

Care to explain?

[rrt82]

Care to explain?

Though he is very healthy, I don't see him running a second term should he win because of his age. Ok .. very best case scenario, he is a two-term President. :)

[eldeeder]

I do think, were he to be elected, in 300 years, they'd remember him the same way we remember jefferson.

[winston_blade]

My ideas:

- Become involved with the Libertarian Party. I've never cared for the party because they seem highly disorganized, but if we could do for the LP what we have did for Paul, we the grassroots could really make a positive difference for the LP on so many levels.

Please, don't encourage people to waste their time. I'm all for libertarianism, but the Republican party is already in place. It has already been validated. There will be a lot of unnecessary and impossible work to do just to get validation of the LP. We've already registered tons of people to the republican party, why not just continue on the progress we've made rather than starting over.

[nate895]

One way or another, the grassroots movement has to begin thinking beyond Ron Paul. Best case scenario, he is a one-term President. Worst case scenario, out before March. Regardless of best or worst, we need to keep this fight for our freedoms just as organized as it is now.

I hope that after Ron Paul's campaign is finished, I can still come to this forum and see a few hundred people signed in. We must remember we are fighting for the principals of Paul, not the man himself. In 2010 we will have local elections to think about, and in 2012 if our nation makes it that far we will have that election to work on too.

Needless to say because of this grassroots movement for freedom, I still have some hope for this great nation. I would really hate to see what we have accomplished disappear when it's over. Regardless of a Paul victory or defeat, the grassroots movement has accomplished way more than even some of the most optimistic early supporters could of ever dreamed. It's amazing, lets begin organizing to ensure we make some noise every single election.

My ideas:

- Become involved with the Libertarian Party. I've never cared for the party because they seem highly disorganized, but if we could do for the LP what we have did for Paul, we the grassroots could really make a positive difference for the LP on so many levels.

- A centralized freedom based website or forum. I love this website, I'm just scared that once the election is finished people will begin to drop. Perhaps the admins if this site could purchase another domain name and point it here, after the election of course.

- Focus on running some candidates in some very pro-freedom areas of the nation. Use the grassroots to write letters, fundraise, etc. In 2010 there are 34 US Senate seats open. According to Wikipedia, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg might retire, we could target that senate race since the state of NH is very libertarian in nature. Tancredo is retiring his Congressional district, we could focus running a pro-liberty candidate there too. I believe the 6th district in Colorado would be very receptive to a pro-liberty candidate.

I don't like the Libertarian Party on a state-level, in the Federal Government, I love them. It would probably be better to overthrow the GOP establishment, which we will do if RP is elected to be President. Why do I say that? because the charge of the RNC is to either support the policy of the GOP President, or oppose everything the Democrat President does (officially for the second one, they don't always follow through on that one).

[Adam Smith]

I have thought about this already, I don't know if someone has talked about it or not here on the forums.

We have already proven as a grassroots campaign that we are highly effective at fundraising. That in itself is a very valuable asset to any politician. We could leverage that fundraising ability in incredible ways.

For example, right now, here in my congressional district in Georgia, I have a local guy running as the Republican candidate. He just today sent out a letter to local GOP members asking us to become a part of his "team" by:

1) forwarding his request to as many people as possible
2) donating personally to his campaign

I could, with the help of a "Ron Paul Grassroots Coalition" - or whatever else we called it- go to this candidate and tell him that if he pledged to support X, Y, and Z of our goals we would help get him elected.

We could also pick people from our 'coalition' to support in the House and Senate elections and basically replace all the old members with new, Ron Paul versions.

I think we should work to do this. If we had enough people agree to move on this, I would take whatever actions necessary to formalize it, start a website or whatever.

[apropos]

For at least the mid-range future (the next 25 years) we might be most successful by infiltrating the Republican and Democratic parties. The Libertarian and Constitutional parties are great, but the deck remains stacked against them for the present. I think a valid strategy would be for ours to join the major parties and through them throw open the doors to third, fourth, fifth parties. At this point, it will be much easier to change the system from the inside than to change it from the outside (where your voice doesn't count as much).

We need to get our people into office. Advertising oneself as a 'Ron Paul Republican' is a good way to get attention to the currently existing grassroots movement.

Another interesting strategy might be for this Ron Paul movement to splinter (after the election). Perhaps we can apply the New Left's inadvertant strategy consciously to our movement and achieve much more success as a result. The New Left was a movement in the 60s that wanted sweeping social changes (most of which are anathema to the Ron Paul movement). American society by and large rejected their ideas and political projects. Eventually, the New Left succumbed to infighting and splintered into one-issue groups: feminism, radical environmentalism, racial identity groups like the Black Panthers, mainstreaming the counterculture, varying strains of Marxism, and the like. Since the split, these groups have been more successful fighting within their individual arenas than they have fighting as one monolithic group.

We can apply the same idea to our movement. Anti-Federal Reserve types take on the Fed, anti-income tax people tackle IRS issues, privacy issues and censorship issues are tackled by their own supporters...you get the idea.

By modifying the curriculums at grade schools and universities, we can turn out entire crops of people who understand the fundamental precepts of this country.

Finally, I read an interesting psychological study - Prisoner's dillema-related perhaps - about how political parties would achieve much more for themselves if they never compromised. Perhaps google will show something about this, but the idea is that you don't dilute your movement by giving in and compromising on key issues. Something to keep in mind as we start on our way.

[Bryan]

- A centralized freedom based website or forum. I love this website, I'm just scared that once the election is finished people will begin to drop. Perhaps the admins if this site could purchase another domain name and point it here, after the election of course.
We are totally committed to the movement in general, it doesn't just stop with this campaign. RonPaulForums will certainly be around as long as demanded (my current guess is for a long time based on campaign developments) but we do have another domain, LibertyForest.com - see here:
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=51014

We're open to ideas and more, it's all about the message. :)

[Bryan]

I have thought about this already, I don't know if someone has talked about it or not here on the forums.

We have already proven as a grassroots campaign that we are highly effective at fundraising. That in itself is a very valuable asset to any politician. We could leverage that fundraising ability in incredible ways.

For example, right now, here in my congressional district in Georgia, I have a local guy running as the Republican candidate. He just today sent out a letter to local GOP members asking us to become a part of his "team" by:

1) forwarding his request to as many people as possible
2) donating personally to his campaign

I could, with the help of a "Ron Paul Grassroots Coalition" - or whatever else we called it- go to this candidate and tell him that if he pledged to support X, Y, and Z of our goals we would help get him elected.

We could also pick people from our 'coalition' to support in the House and Senate elections and basically replace all the old members with new, Ron Paul versions.

I think we should work to do this. If we had enough people agree to move on this, I would take whatever actions necessary to formalize it, start a website or whatever.

Here's what I know is in place now:

http://ronpaulsacrossamerica.com
http://www.LibertyCongress.org

Liberty Candidates
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=230

[Feenix566]

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. The Ron Paul movement has proven to all of us that there is more pro-liberty sentiment in America than any of us were previously aware. One way or another, we will eventually need to take that energy and transform it into a permanent force in politics. To do that, we need Ron Paul supporters to start running for local offices, like town councils, county positions, state congress, and eventually federal congress and governors.

I think first of all we should keep this domain name. It's already well-known. The trick will be transforming its focus from Ron Paul's presidential bid to promoting individuals with pro-liberty values running for lower offices.

I'm not sure which party is the best vehicle for these runs. Both the Democrat and Republican parties are mired in corruption from the bottom up. In order to run for many local positions, you need the consent of your local party chairperson. These are usually people who got to their position by handing out contracts and positions to their buddies, and it'll be tough to convince many of them to let a pro-liberty candidate run based on principles alone. It'll also be tough to remove them from power, because in order to do that you have to win an election in your local party committee, which is populated almost exclusively by people with strong political connections who depend on maintaining the status quo.

On the other hand, the Libertarian party is very small and weak compared to the Repubs and Dems. Most people have never heard of it, and our "winner takes all" election system encourages people to vote for the lesser of two evils in general elections. Most people don't vote for a candidate because they think he's the best choice; they vote for him because they're afraid of the other guy. In this situation, no third party has a real chance.

I'm interested to hear everyone else's points of view on this subject.

[Cindy]

People able to, need to infiltrate every party as a Ron Paulican.

Just today I was thinking about bumper stickers and signs that say

Ron Paulitics or Bust
and

Ron Paulicans
Get My Vote

We can keep those on our cars and up until all of America "gets it"

The admins of this forum say it is staying here no matter what happens to keep the movement alive as it has proven to be a valuble asset for organizing and net working for the cause of Liberty, national soveriegnty under the U.S. constitution, and transpancy in government.

Let's focus on getting Paul the nomination in September for now.

If he were not to get it, this place will be full of raging piss and vineger and the ideas and motivation for getting Ron Paulitics established in America will probably increase ten fold.

We should have that in us now though as the prospect of facing a Hillary or Rudy unconstitutional dictatorship is just to hard to bare.

[derekjohnson]

If, and it is a big IF at this point, Paul doesn't win the republican nod, it will all depend on whether he goes for a third party run. If he chooses the constitution or libertarians, then we should obviously back that party and try to infiltrate it to change align their views more with Paul's. If he couild get more than 5-10% in the general election as a third party candidate, then he opens the doors to debates for future candidates from that party. Having a shot at the debates against Sept and Oct of the election year and having money to compete is what third parties have lacked for so long. Look back in history, Perot was the only third party candidate to have money and an opportunity to debate and he was the only one that came close to winning. Had he not dropped out in July and August, he very well may have won. In 2004, Badnarik had $1,000,000 to campaign. Paul is over $25,000,000 in 10 months. Just think what could be done with four years of supporting a third party and finding a candidate to get the name recognition out more than 3 or 4 months before the primaries. The only way to do it though is to keep the grassroots alive and to unify behind one party with a goal of winning the country back in 2012...again...if Paul doesn't win the Republican nod.

[pacelli]

Imagine sponsoring billboards across the country to resist the tyrannical laws that we are essentially forced into accepting.

This doesn't stop with Ron Paul-- it started with him. He was the person who struck the match to ignite our passion for liberty and freedom. This is not a game, our flames will not be extinguished.

[Malakai0]

Am I the only one thinking "if we lose, move to NH and join free state project"?

[RoyalShock]

I don't know. I keep thinking that a 3rd party is inevitable. I would like to think the GOP can be salvaged. And if Paul wins or does very well, maybe it can. But winning one election, even if it's presidential, is no guarantee that enough minds have been won over (ie. neocon conversions back to real conservatives).

I would think that if a large majority of RP supporters threw their support into an existing party, like the Constitution Party, it might not gain instant credibility, but it would be close.

Since I wasn't a Perot supporter, I don't know if the old Reform Party really had a foundational platform or whether it was just an impromptu "protest" party. Can anyone provide a little history?

[derekjohnson]

I don't know. I keep thinking that a 3rd party is inevitable. I would like to think the GOP can be salvaged. And if Paul wins or does very well, maybe it can. But winning one election, even if it's presidential, is no guarantee that enough minds have been won over (ie. neocon conversions back to real conservatives).

I would think that if a large majority of RP supporters threw their support into an existing party, like the Constitution Party, it might not gain instant credibility, but it would be close.

Since I wasn't a Perot supporter, I don't know if the old Reform Party really had a foundational platform or whether it was just an impromptu "protest" party. Can anyone provide a little history?

It was primarily an impromptu protest party and it didn't form until 1996 after Perot blew his shot at the white house 1992. If the entire grass roots got behind a third party and supported it actively and financially as they have in this campaign, I think you would see a legitimate 3 party system come 2012. It has to be a 4 year effort though, you can crawl back under a rock until 2011 and hope to make a difference in one year. Honestly, I think the best case scenario, other than Paul winning the election is for him to run as a third party and get more than 5-10% of the vote to ensure debate access in 2012 and then have this movement support whatever party Paul decides to run with fully for the next 4 years.

[FreeTraveler]

The Republican Party takeover is the only logical choice.

The Republican Party platform and history at least pretend to pay homage to the idea of smaller government and states rights. The Democrat party has never had those ideas as a focus.

The Republican Party would also be an easier target. The voter base is mostly older, and more complacent, than the Democrat Party. Also, the Democrat Platform would have to be completely changed, which would be another huge battle. There are a lot more energized Democrats than Republicans, and a platform battle would be a terribly difficult undertaking.

According to what I've heard, Ron Paul supporters are already making up a sizeable portion of county Republican activists, as opposed to members who may or may not show up for meetings but are relatively inactive.

As for the Libertarians: there's almost no difference in platform between the Libertarian and Republican parties any more, since this party was hijacked by the NeoCons too. If we go for the Libertarian Party, we have name recognition and "he can't win" issues, which they've never been able to overcome. Even Dr. Paul stresses how loaded the current political system is toward two parties.

The effort to resurrect the Republican Party will be only marginally more difficult than taking over the Libertarian Party, but the rewards will be FAR GREATER, and will occur FAR FASTER. Suddenly we'll be one of the TWO big boys at the table, and not relegated to the Kids table, as all the other parties ALWAYS are.

The Statists and NeoCons will once again only have ONE party to manipulate, instead of pretending to be LEFT and RIGHT instead of different brands of Statism. We'll effectively HALVE the number of enemies we have to defeat, even if NeoCon Republicans desert and go Democrat.

I think it's realistic to run 100% Ron Paul Republicans on the Republican ticket in 2010 if the good doctor wins, and in excess of 50% even if he doesn't.

Imagine the changes by the 2012 election, if even 25% of Federal Political Offices were held by Ron Paul Republicans at the start of 2011.

One thing is certain... if we stay connected, the world in 4 years will be MUCH DIFFERENT than the world will be if we do not! Let this be our NEW MOTTO:


"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."


Benjamin Franklin

[jarofclay]

The Republican Party takeover is the only logical choice.

The Republican Party platform and history at least pretend to pay homage to the idea of smaller government and states rights. The Democrat party has never had those ideas as a focus.

The Republican Party would also be an easier target. The voter base is mostly older, and more complacent, than the Democrat Party. Also, the Democrat Platform would have to be completely changed, which would be another huge battle. There are a lot more energized Democrats than Republicans, and a platform battle would be a terribly difficult undertaking.

According to what I've heard, Ron Paul supporters are already making up a sizeable portion of county Republican activists, as opposed to members who may or may not show up for meetings but are relatively inactive.

As for the Libertarians: there's almost no difference in platform between the Libertarian and Republican parties any more, since this party was hijacked by the NeoCons too. If we go for the Libertarian Party, we have name recognition and "he can't win" issues, which they've never been able to overcome. Even Dr. Paul stresses how loaded the current political system is toward two parties.

The effort to resurrect the Republican Party will be only marginally more difficult than taking over the Libertarian Party, but the rewards will be FAR GREATER, and will occur FAR FASTER. Suddenly we'll be one of the TWO big boys at the table, and not relegated to the Kids table, as all the other parties ALWAYS are.

The Statists and NeoCons will once again only have ONE party to manipulate, instead of pretending to be LEFT and RIGHT instead of different brands of Statism. We'll effectively HALVE the number of enemies we have to defeat, even if NeoCon Republicans desert and go Democrat.

I think it's realistic to run 100% Ron Paul Republicans on the Republican ticket in 2010 if the good doctor wins, and in excess of 50% even if he doesn't.

Imagine the changes by the 2012 election, if even 25% of Federal Political Offices were held by Ron Paul Republicans at the start of 2011.

One thing is certain... if we stay connected, the world in 4 years will be MUCH DIFFERENT than the world will be if we do not! Let this be our NEW MOTTO:


"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."


Benjamin Franklin

Absolutely.

[sluggo]

Join the two organizations in my signature. (GOA and Downsize DC)

If you've got a clean background, run for Congress.

Support the Ron Paul's Across America.

Support the platform Ron Paul is running on, no matter who is in office.

[d_goddard]

Three words:
Free State Project (http://freestateproject.org)

The notion of using the Libertarian Party to make the USA a freer place was an interesting idea ... for the first 30 years it was tried. Take a look around. After 30 years of LP, is the USA a freer place, or more of a Socialist-and-Fascist state?

I wish we could make the whole country a freer place, but be realistic -- it's not going to happen anytime soon.

If Dr. Paul does not win the Presidency, it's going to be time to fall back to a more fortified position

Consider the Free State Project.
New Hampshire has rejected Real-ID, no state income or sales tax, open carry with no license and shall-issue concealed carry... the list goes on & on.
Oh yeah, and we have the highest per-capita donation to the Ron Paul campaign! :)

The Republican Party of New Hampshire is already being "taken over" by Paulites, Free-Staters, and "small-L libertarians". Go to any Republican even in NH, and about 1/3rd of the people there are Free-Staters. One example out of many, my wife is the Chair of the Central New Hampshire Republican Women's Committee.

The Libertarian Party in this state is basically already bring run by Free-Staters. It's been a HUGE invigoration of the NH LP.

At minimum, you owe it to yourself to check out the Free State Project.
We'd love to see you in the Live Free or Die state!