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View Full Version : It's time to refocus and regroup. We must harness the power of the grassroots!




madcat033
01-09-2008, 01:17 AM
Okay people, it's really time to refocus and regroup. Do NOT let these setbacks get you down. Remember the wisdom of those like Thomas Paine. Nothing worthwhile is EVER easy. Did you really think this would be easy? Did you really think you could go wave signs and make Ron Paul win the nomination? No. We took a hit in NH and IA. As Rocky said, "It's about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward... how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done."

Now, if you want to give up, then go. Don't start threads saying you're giving up. Don't list the reasons or lament our chances. Just go quietly. Don't try to bring others down with you. As for me, why would I ever give this up? Ron Paul has inspired me like no one or nothing has before. So far, only about 40 delegates out of over 2,000 have been decided, and some people are GIVING UP? This race has not even begun! Don't you at least have a LITTLE faith in Ron Paul? The guy has been elected to Congress TEN TIMES. He knows how the game works. He is experienced. We still have a shitload of cash.

Now, I think the first course of action is that we need to refocus and regroup. We need to reevaluate the activities of the grassroots. What works and what doesn't. Here is a list of things we should and should not do:



Fancy new ways of promoting Ron Paul are ineffective. People are spending WAY too much time trying to come up with the new hip way to promote Ron Paul. Blimps, Ron Paul gum, military care packages, elephants, digging, etc. We are spending too much time and effort coming up with these elaborate and ridiculous ways of promoting Ron Paul. You know, we pride ourselves in being the first campaign with a Blimp, but there's a REASON no other candidate has ever gotten a fucking blimp! We spent way too much of our collective time and money on that thing. Say what you will about the "advertising value" but how many actual voters do you think it has converted?

And in the same vein, we need to reevaluate these moneybombs. They are effective at raising money, that's it. Don't be fooled to think the media cares. They don't. We broke the goddamn record and NO ONE NOTICED. The only point of a moneybomb is to help Ron Paul get more money. But in the past few months, all we do is debate when to have moneybombs. We've diluted them by having them all the time. Everyone thinks they have the best idea for the next great moneybomb. We now have polls and arguments and debates about whether to do the Martin Luther King moneybomb or the Ben Franklin moneybomb. People are getting too selfish and concerned with promoting their own little pet project and forget about the goal of GETTING RON PAUL ELECTED.

Traditional campaigning methods are EFFECTIVE! We've got a GREAT message, now let's go bring it to the people! This means canvassing, phone banking, voter lists, etc. These will win us this election. Going out and talking to people is the most effective thing you can do, period. And with THOUSANDS of meetup members, we should be able to talk to many people! Think about it. If we estimate 100,000 meetup members, and each knocked on 100 doors, then we would reach 10 MILLION homes. And I know people who have knocked on MANY more than 100 doors.

No more sign waving! Name recognition is not enough. We tried that and it doesn't work. People aren't that motivated. We need to give them a reason to CARE! We need to give them a reason to look up Ron Paul! I didn't become a Ron Paul supporter just because I saw his name somewhere. Sign waving is a waste of time.

We need DETAILS to show what sets us apart. Someone mentioned this in another thread. When people see shit like "secure the border" and "lower taxes" and "end the war in Iraq" they just tune it out. Fuck, ALL THE REPUBLICANS say that kind of shit. Why would they bother to look him up? That's just more vague BS. We need to be DETAILED with what sets Ron Paul apart. "No more birthright citizenship" "Bring the troops home now" "End the Patriot Act" Those are the kinds of things that will differentiate us.

No more attacking / boycotting the media. Stop getting all self righteous and egotistical by thinking you can take down the media just because they piss you off. It is a MAJOR waste of grassroots time and effort. So what if they diss Ron Paul? So what if they ignore him? So what if they exclude him from their debates? If we waste time bitching about it, that's just hurting ourselves. Ignore it, and stay focused on our goal here. Don't you think Hannity loves it when we focus our energy on trying to come up with ways to boycott or hurt Fox News? I mean, he doesn't give a shit what any of us think, we can't harm them in any way, and it's just distracting us from our goal of winning a presidential election.



Anyways, those are my recommendations to the grassroots. We have incredible manpower. We can achieve a LOT if we focus all of our efforts into effective venues. I mean, we set a new record for most donations EVER! We got a goddamn blimp into the air completely on our own! We, as a grassroots, have INCREDIBLE muscle. If we can properly focus it, then we will WIN this election!

So the bottom line is, ditch all these fancy ideas. We need a mass grassroots mobilization to do some canvassing. We need to show people what sets Ron Paul apart. We need to get out there and spread our message to as many people as possible. With a $20 million national advertising blitz from the campaign, and a massive grassroots canvassing drive, we can win this election. We have one month. Now GO and TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY!

madcat033
01-09-2008, 01:21 AM
Oh, and I also recommend you go read john_anderson_ii's thread:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=28132

Highly recommended. He is SPOT ON.

"If you are bashing heads with neo-con pundits, you are pitting your strength against theirs, and its consuming more resources (time). Instead assault the fence-sitters in that particular segment and subvert the pundit entirely. Why bash through the front lines to destroy ignorance when you can envelop and cut off the supply of ignorance these pundits feed upon?"

I could not have said that better. Bravo.

damon04
01-09-2008, 01:22 AM
Bump!!!

shortna
01-09-2008, 01:27 AM
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6MjU-1QVaXU

madcat033
01-09-2008, 01:38 AM
We really need to have faith in the campaign. Face it, regardless of what you think about the national campaign, they know what they have to do to win. We shouldn't focus on telling them what to do. We should just do the best job WE can, and if we go around knocking on millions of doors, we will be successful.

Opulen
01-09-2008, 01:43 AM
bump!!

Corydoras
01-09-2008, 02:11 AM
That was a great post. I agree with all of it and don't think I could have put it better.

This was very well put, too.

Now, if you want to give up, then go. Don't start threads saying you're giving up. Don't list the reasons or lament our chances. Just go quietly. Don't try to bring others down with you.

madcat033
01-09-2008, 02:32 AM
No more negativity. We need to focus on doing the best we can to win.

sandersondavis
01-09-2008, 03:22 AM
I agree - Bump

madcat033
01-09-2008, 12:08 PM
So, what do you guys think? Are we doing a lot of canvassing in MI and NV and SC?

spacebetween
01-09-2008, 12:13 PM
So, what do you guys think? Are we doing a lot of canvassing in MI and NV and SC?

I think your points are great.

In marketing, when a product isn't doing so well, they "rebrand" or "reposition" the product.

Something about Dr. Paul's message isn't coming across. With all the anti-war GOP voters voting John McCain, we KNOW something is wrong with the delivery of Ron Paul's message.

We need to decide on one or two points of the message to focus on, emphasize the "REPUBLICAN" part, and execute this well.

Ernest
01-09-2008, 12:15 PM
Well said. We need to keep moving forward no matter what happens.

PAULinSC
01-09-2008, 12:17 PM
We went door to door last weekend in Fort Mill and Tega Cay with about 25 volunteers handing out slimjims, and other campaign materials. The fort mill neighborhood we went to was a huge middle to upper-middle class subdivision with about 950 families, and I would say we hit half the houses in one day. We will be doing it again this Sunday in another subdivision.

His name seems to be everywhere up here (just south of Charlotte), and a lot of people like him. From what I can hear on the radio though is that he has one problem...

"I really like what Ron Paul has to say, and I agree with him on almost everything, but I don't think he has a chance to win so I don't want to waste my vote"

That drives me crazy hearing that!

scandinaviany3
01-09-2008, 12:31 PM
so far it seems some scandal in iowa cost 3-4000 votes and 3rd place do to problems with individual and the campaign and mass numbers of people didnt get to the polls.

In NH...what is up with these missing votes and all these large other catagories.

Not to mention there is no way to so smoothly move all the candidates populations up within 1% deviation all night long in the state...never happened.

70k for recount better get paid from the campaign for a manual recount, them their with a ceritifying process.

At a minimum moving up or tieing with huckabee or beating him would be massive.

madcat033
01-09-2008, 12:35 PM
We went door to door last weekend in Fort Mill and Tega Cay with about 25 volunteers handing out slimjims, and other campaign materials. The fort mill neighborhood we went to was a huge middle to upper-middle class subdivision with about 950 families, and I would say we hit half the houses in one day. We will be doing it again this Sunday in another subdivision.

His name seems to be everywhere up here (just south of Charlotte), and a lot of people like him. From what I can hear on the radio though is that he has one problem...

"I really like what Ron Paul has to say, and I agree with him on almost everything, but I don't think he has a chance to win so I don't want to waste my vote"

That drives me crazy hearing that!

That's awesome! Good to hear. Unfortunately, you will get a lot of people who say they don't want to waste their vote. However, you just gotta try to tell them to vote their conscience and then move on. The key to canvassing is cost-benefit. Don't spend too long trying to convince any one person. Just go for the low hanging fruit. The great positive is that if we do a lot of canvassing, and we start to raise his poll numbers pretty high, we'll get a big boost from all those people who liked him but didn't want to "waste their vote." Once he starts to do well in the polls, they'll see him as "electable" and jump on board.