An Easy Way To Spread The Message: A Series Of YT Videos Explaining RP's Stance On Issues

[Jay Tea]

I had an interesting conversation the other day with someone who's a veteran in the field of running issue-based campaigns in individual states and winning the votes on the issues in question. He repeatedly described specific strategies, ending his point with, "That's how you win elections," and he has the resume to prove it. His main focus was how so many campaigns - both issue-based or candidate-based - are still stuck in the past, ignoring how powerful of a marketing tool the Internet has become. Then he said something that I thought was particularly relevant: That the data shows that most campaigns have no idea how effective they could be if they simply produced videos which thoroughly and succinctly explained their positions to undecided voters, then spread the word about those videos to said voters.

I see a lot of people here post videos they made that hype up Ron himself, and many of them are very well done. But they generally appeal to those who are already RP supporters. What would be much more useful to the campaign is a collection of videos that:

1) Explain his reasoning on individual issues, and how that reasoning should actually make sense to the average voter when properly explained, especially when it comes to the more controversial issues. (The first step to appealing to many voters is getting past hurdles like, "Isn't Ron Paul that guy who wants to legalize heroin?")

2) Are no more than 3-4 minutes long.

3) Look and sound professional.

I wanted to make this thread because I believe that if this is going to happen, it's probably going to have to be a grassroots effort. I don't think any of us should expect the official campaign to make use of anything we create. I do think, however, that if done right, this could be a valuable tool for the "boots on the ground" volunteers who will be talking to folks whose only knowledge about Ron comes from what they see on the cable news networks. So if we can start discussing ideas about what would work and what wouldn't, that could be an important first step in harnessing our Internet advantage in order to produce something that will be helpful in the primary battles.

Thoughts?

[RonPaulVolunteer]

Ron Paul Flix is organizing this, but hey, if you want to do it, we'll just post your videos instead.

[sailingaway]

Good idea.

[eleganz]

It is a great way to get the word onto the web for those that have been polluted by the media on RP's stances.

I thought RP had youtube videos on different issues back in the 08 campaign? What happened to those?

[ronpaulitician]

The framework already exists: Liberty Defined.

50 short chapters could translate into 50 short videos, one each for each of the liberty issues that Ron Paul cares about. The quotes are there right in the book. The narrative of the video could be used to underscore Paul's line of reasoning.

"This video was inspired by the book Liberty Defined by Ron Paul. Buy it, and be inspired by it as well." The videos would likely increase the sales of the book, which might make it a bit easier to lift quotes from the book, perhaps with explicit permission from the writer.

Then try to get Paul to sum it all up with one: "Here is what I, as president, would do on my first day in office to lead this country towards the kind of liberty that I envision." (using Harry Browne's The president's first day in office article as a blueprint, which Paul's article My plan for a freedom president somewhat started, but something which is a bit shorter, more to the point. I personally think that would be the strongest possible video. Let all the other candidate dabble in half-truths and hide-and-seek games. Our candidate lays it all out there for anyone to see.

While the president can do a great deal on his own, to really restore the Constitution and cut back on the vast unconstitutional programs that have sunk roots in Washington over 60 years, he will have to work with Congress. The first step in enacting a pro-freedom legislative agenda is the submission of a budget that outlines the priorities of the administration. While it has no legal effect, the budget serves as a guideline for the congressional appropriations process. A constitutionalist president’s budget should do the following:

1. Reduce overall federal spending

2. Prioritize cuts in oversize expenditures, especially the military

3. Prioritize cuts in corporate welfare

4. Use 50 percent of the savings from cuts in overseas spending to shore up entitlement programs for those who are dependent on them and the other 50 percent to pay down the debt

5. Provide for reduction in federal bureaucracy and lay out a plan to return responsibility for education to the states

6. Begin transitioning entitlement programs from a system where all Americans are forced to participate into one where taxpayers can opt out of the programs and make their own provisions for retirement and medical care

[tangent4ronpaul]

People like to express their opinions, so how about surveys? Survey monkey has gotten a lot more powerful, and at certain subscription levels you can have it branded as whatever you want. I see a lot of "find out what people care about and address that", in the traditional sense it means research of an area. How about just asking them and serving up what they care about? Some surveys have movie trailers from films embedded. I'm pretty sure survey monkey can't do that, but asking people to open a new window and watching a 1 minute clip on issue X, then coming back and answering some questions about it is doable. Now the slick part: Don't mention Paul, but present his positions and at the end ask (advertize) the next debate and ask if they intend to watch it... They will connect the dots themselves, and think they came up with Paul being the best candidate.

Oh, as a bonus, we could send out press releases of poll results to the media and hopefully they would report on them. We could also send out a followup e-mail post debate about who did the best, if any of their opinions had changed, etc.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

These next few questions concern Herman Cain

Are you aware that Mr Cain was the head of a branch of the Federal Reserve?
y/n

Are you aware that the Federal Reserve has practiced a policy of planned inflation being good for the economy. This means your dollar has less buying power, for example groceries. Do you agree that the Feds policy of planned inflation is a good thing?
y/n

Mr Cain has no foreign policy experience. Would you vote for a candidate that lacks foreign policy experience?
y/n

On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being very unlikely and 10 being very likely, how likely are you to vote for Herman Cain?

etc.