Yes that's awesome, I was part of that too, but we need to do things to win, not just feel good.
No it didn't... and most importantly, it didn't win any votes either.
Yeah, it made people feel good, but it didn't accomplish anything.
We should aim to use our head and not our emotions.
Yes and no... this is a mixed bag.....
While we cannot scare away voters by seeming to be radical, we must also realize that in most cases fewer than 15% of the population decides any given election. In some cases it's less than 6%.
We don't need to win over the masses, we just need to market to those who are already going to the polls, and most of the time that is very few people.
Matt, you are too quick to dismiss those efforts and the impact of appealing to people emotionally.
the 2012 campaign was an appeal to emotions. Every single donation letter and email I get from Ron Paul and Rand Paul is an appeal to emotions. The problem is, the campaign is going to be very poor at stirring emotions if it is OUT OF TOUCH with the grassroots.
I already explained to you what the Blimp accomplished. It was taking the ideas that Ron Paul was putting out there for his supporters and making those ideas happen.
The blimp flew in the face of campaign finance laws. It was a totally unique campaign fundraising concept at the time. It brought people together it united the grassroots across a wide swath of geographical areas in a way that the internet is incapable of YET, it complimented other efforts.
The reasons that you are using to dismiss the blimp as a wasted effort are the same reasons we can use on ANY effort in 2008 to say those efforts were wasted.
At the very least, the blimp was a successful application of Ron Paul's message of free market ideas rising to the top. The market inside of the grassroots Ron Paul revolution wanted a blimp. The market got what it wanted. Whether or not it worked out for your purpose and your goal is irrelevant.
It worked for the people who wanted it to work (me) and achieved what I needed it to achieve. It is part of my campaigning efforts, even to this day.
As far as scaring away voters by seeming to be radical, I think that the fatal flaw in what you are trying to preach here. Being radical is what attracted me here and probably most people.
Voters aren't scarred away. Voters are literally ignored, their opinions, ideas, concerns, and most importantly, their support is being ignored. Not just by the Paul Inc Apparatus. By the entire political establishment.
You want to join that establishment and honor its tradition of ignoring 80% of Americans?
Remember, FREEDOM IS POPULAR?
That was something that Ron Paul has been saying this whole time. I personally agree. Freedom IS popular and in the CONTEXT of history, FREEDOM is RADICAL.
You have a nice big juicy prize sitting out there for you if you have the right message to go and get it. That prize is a base of America voters that make up the vast majority of the population.
You have to let go of the idea that somehow getting the right people in positions of power is all that it will take to turn this country around. That idea fails so bad and its obvious why.
As Ron Paul has said, this is a revolution of ideas. The battleground is in the hearts and minds of Americans. I will have no success in winning that battle by using the same establishment tactics, the same establishment ideas to get "MY GUY" elected, the same old methods of only caring about the every shrinking number of "likely voters".
I need new, fresh ideas, new tactics, and most importantly, a new message that UNITES people, new ideas that speak to EVERYONE, not just the special interest voters.
I am sure there is middle ground between the grassroots who are by their very nature RADICALIZED FANATICS to the cause and the polished campaign that has careers and fortunes riding on success.
That middle ground has to be found, and the first thing to do is put away the knives on both sides. Ultimately the goal is the same, but it is hubris of the highest magnitude to believe and try to convince others that ALL we need to do is convince a small slice of "likely voters" to come to our corner for the primary and we'll win the revolution.
That would be an unlikely victory, but in the scope of what I am personally trying to accomplish, its nothing more than a sub plot that, win or lose, won't amount to much if the vast majority of Americans are not inspired to take back their freedom and liberty.
Making freedom popular is my ultimate goal. empowering individuals to stand up to illegitimate authority is my ultimate purpose. I will use the momentum from Ron Paul's educational campaigns, and use the lessons he taught me to accomplish that goal.
I hope you understand Matt, that while yes, Ron Paul's message showed me the nature of my chains and gave me the key to unlock them, the message itself is something that ALL of us are born with. It's the oppressive political system in this country and around the world that bound that message.
I can't believe that the ideas of freedom and liberty have been oppressed for SO LONG. I also can't believe that at the end of the day, the people who have been doing the oppressing are going to sit idly by and let anyone use the system they have crafted against them, to beat them.
What we need is rebellion against that system. I personally rebel against that system. the side effect of my rebelliousness against the status quo establishment political class who have been using their power against me is get behind a candidate that speaks truth against them on a national stage.
That is the ONLY reason Ron Paul's message made it out of the meat freezer. People were embolden by Ron Paul in a time of desperation. That is why the blimp flew. It was bold, it was not "normal", it was unique, it was coordinated, it represented the MORAL HIGH GROUND.
The blimp is a symbol of the power of a REBELLIOUS GRASSROOTS. Does it scare people?
YOU ARE DAMNED RIGHT IT DOES.
Does is scare voters? NO. It attracts MORE radicals and helps other radicals recognize each other and rally to each other. It is a high perch from which to view and assess the movement as a whole.
You can try and trick those likely voters into giving you illegitimate political power in a corrupt system. But ultimately no matter who is in power, that power is going to be taken away from them by the people with the moral high ground.
That would be the scary radicals that Ron Paul united. The real movement, the movement that your political polls don't take into account and summarily dismiss because they don't participate in the scheme, that movement is the movement that Ron Paul predicted to be growing exponentially.
He's right, it's here. It is coming. And those people think the blimp was an amazing idea. At the end of the day, that opinion is the one that counts.
