another Ron Paul book, go after stars, austrians for congress, "educate wallstreet"

[hayekian]

Hello,

I would like to suggest 8 ideas that might be good for the campaign/superpac. But prior to mentioning them let me say a few things about the RP revolution in general that will provide a context for the ideas. As I’m sure many people here know, the RP revolution is an intellectual revolution grounded in the economic ideas of the so called ‘Austrian School’ economists. Dr. Paul has often times brought up the Austrian School and people like Mises, Rothbard and 1974 Nobel Prize winner in economics F.A. Hayek. Their wisdom is the key to understanding how a free society works and overcoming the viral economic fallacies that lead to statism/‘big government’ and all its problems. Just like Darwin’s discovery of biological evolution helped explain how the biological world works and today most high school aged students learn the basics of evolution, we can be certain that someday, very soon hopefully, young students will understand the basics of how the market works and who the Austrians were/are. The truth will inevitably spread, and the RP revolution is an outgrowth if this inevitability. At its core the RP revolution is about educating people about economics and how freedom works so they overcome their fears. With this in mind…

1) I would like to see Ron Paul publish another book, but one focused solely on basic economics

It should be short and cover the basics of monetary theory, how the fed inflates to finance the disastrous government spending/etc. the damage of minimum wage laws, the economics of war, etc. It should have a non-controversial title that will not risk alienating anyone. For example, End the Fed was a great book, but the very title itself can seem crazy to some. “The Rvolution” too was a great book but the title can turn off many. The title could be “Economics 101”, or “The Economics of Freedom” , “What every voter should know about the economy” .. something like that… The tone of the book should ridicule Washington DC and highlight its economic ignorance but not vilify it or treat Obama and the others as being out there to oppress Americans on purpose.. This sort of talk just alienates many people. Obama is not destroying the US because he purposely wants to do so, he is just utterly clueless. A book like this will have an even bigger audience and focus even more on the viral economic concepts needed to overcome America’s ignorance. It would become a #1 amazon.com bestseller and stay there. One of the reasons why this time around the RP revolution is more popular is because Ron Paul’s books have gotten better and more geared towards a general audience. At the beginning of 2007 he had “a foreign policy of freedom” and then “pillars of prosperity” both awesome but not short enough to sort of go viral. Thanks to his shorter and more easily digestible books this time around you can go to any ron paul meeting and run into people who are well versed in basic economics and have read a book or two and many have been persuaded by such books. Ron Paul does not have to write it all, maybe he can just be listed as the editor. It can contain bits from his previous books, it can be quickly ghostwritten by his many Austrian economist friends. It might seem late but I know that a book like this can be out on amazon in less than a month given RP’s friends and how easy it is to publish a book these days.

2) The campaign should make an even more conscious effort to teach the basics of monetary theory and how the FED leads to higher prices. Teaching people about inflation is the most powerful “meme” that we have for the following reasons: 1) it is easy to teach and thus has high “viral” potential. The fact that most RP supporters already understand how the FED is what leads to higher prices is proof enough of the “viralness” of this idea. If the price of everything goes up, someone must be creating more money, right? Who creates the money?... Teaching inflation also focuses attention on the most destructive entity we have, the FED. So bottom line, I know campaign is already doing a great job at this but I think that more emphasis can be placed here. Here is a simple one minute video that can provide basis for an ad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fv1DqIen28

3) Make a conscious effort to educate famous people like singers, athletes, etc., especially Hip-Hop stars since Hip-Hop currently dominates what is “cool” in America. Hip-Hop is also very libertarian in its roots… “My car, my money, my bitches, my game” I think that Hip-Hop stars can be easily persuaded to a libertarian viewpoint( if someone can teach them enough economics of course) . If so many of us are ardent RP supporters and we understand the damage that gov is doing, why can’t Lil Wayne, diddy, snoop, Lebron James, Kobe Bryant. If just a few of these stars understands freedom to the point where they become as ardent as us, the impact and rate at which young eager minds and America in general can be educated will skyrocket. I believe that this will inevitably happen, but the sooner the better. If Kelly Clarkson is a ron paul fan why not the others. It should be easy to setup a starsforpaul.com or soemthign along those lines to help coordinate such an effort and provide an online database where people can see all the famous ron paul supporters. I know Barry Manilow is another RP fan, what else needs to be said!

4) Create website or organization dedicated to coordinating the campaigns of other libertarians who have this one thing in common: They refer to themselves as Austrians and are well versed in economics and want to use their campaigns as a way to further educate the public about the Austrian School just like ron paul is doing. Why not use this opportunity to have others run for congress that are also well versed in the Austrian school.. Peter Schiff is already attempting something like this via his http://www.makeschiffhappen.com/ but I would still like to see something like this take off on its own. Again, teaching economics is the key, when people are concerned about society they look to politics, RP jumped into politics because that is where the change could happen and also because that is where people look. People not only look at national election, but also congressional races, so the more Austrians we place where people look for answers the better prepared we will be to give them those answers. This should not be that difficult to coordinate, I would not be surprised if most of us know someone who has ran in past as member of libertarian party and tried to preach the econogospel, I did in 2004(but didn’t go far enough to get all the necessary signatures to get in ballot)

5) Make youtube videos where Dr. Paul challenges the other candidates to reply to his videos. I think this was recently suggested in the LRC blog but wanted to mention it again here. Ron Paul could explain his positions well thus help educate the public, he can challenge and embarrass other candidates. RP can even make a video challenging Bernanke to an online debate or for Bernanke to reply to his vids. If this gets ignored big deal, it seems like a great idea given how little effort this would take.

6) Have the campaign or superpac organize an "educate wallstreet" movement where RP supporters flood the occupy wallstreet movement and calmly helps teach these people economics and the differences between real capitalism and the messed up version we have. Peter Schiff did a great job a while ago, but he is just one person and only did it for one day. A well-coordinated effort by just 50 or so well educated Ron Paul supporters can have a huge effect. The people in occupy wall-street are not a bunch of "leftist idiots" , their brains might be filled with leftist idiotic economic fallacies but ron paul supporters and those of us who know better should treat them with compassion and the patience needed to help them overcome their ignorance and the fears the grow out of it. Many of the people there have a great desire to work towards change, once properly educated that same energy can be used towards liberty and real prosperity instead of the socioeconomic chaos their ignorance is helping bring about...

7) Bring attention to the Austrian School!!! We must use this opportunity to fully make this “meme” become a part of the debate. As great a job as Ron Paul is doing I feel like a more conscious effort could be made. He could bring up the ASE at the beginning of every debate… ok enough

8) If African American free-market economist Walter Williams is really being considered as an RP running mate then i would like to see him on the ticket asap. Not only would this help with the whole RP is racist nonsense but it would immediately bring attention on another good economist. People will begin to stumble upon his many great interviews and videos on youtube and once again help spread the proper understanding of economics which is the key to overcoming our statism. Dr. Williams could be the perfect person to help sway famous black athletes and musicians as well. And again, the moment Lil Wayne and Lebron James become ardent free-market advocates the revolution will explode even more.