A Revolution Betrayed?

[AlbemarleNC0003]

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Not even SuperRon can save us from the destructive economic policies that are about to come crashing down on the head of the next president. And in the minds of the sheeple, it will be all the new president's fault.

Do you really want a Libertarian president so much RIGHT NOW that you will surely never have one again?

Think long term. In 8 years when all this is blown over and we've made progress and we have a great candidate, do you want to wrestle with the public perception of "A Libertarian? Remember what happened with the Second Great Depression of '09? We don't want that again."

That is a very fair point. 4 years is not enough time to undo a century of bad policies.

 

[SteveMartin]

Many of you are missing the point that we were infiltrated.

However/wherever/whenever the next patriot runs for president, he/she MUST put the highest priority on fully-vetting potential paid staff or everything else will be a waste of time.

Personally, I think we've run out of time. RP was this Republic's last hurrah...

 

[Freedom&Reason]

If running for 3rd party we mean we would get even less media attention(did this stop us through this presidential bid? If it did I am glad you came back to the forums)I don't see how that would make a difference since we use the internet. It takes time to keep the movement going, not running 3rd party is going to let it die down.

 

[DeanToPaulIn4Years]

Aye. I don't count myself as a part of the "Republican Party" to begin with, let alone any interest in taking it back. My America doesn't need a party -- My America needs an educated voter capable of making decisions independent of the narrow policies of various parties.

That having been said, I'd probably be a bit more willing to support any candidate or party who is willing to take a stand for the more successful elements of what initially brought this movement together and can leave the social/religious agendas at home.

ditto

 

[coffeewithchess]

I edited a YouTube video about RP's campaign's strategy...http://youtube.com/watch?v=hSjdG3LjQZ8
BTW, I don't support a third party run and I'm glad RP doesn't...unless I see RP actually step up and fire somebody or somebody step aside, then I seriously don't think they have had any strategy to win other than to plunder the grassroots of money on campaign advisers...it doesn't make any sense. Nearly $17.5 million spent in the 4th quarter and not a single NATIONAL tv ad, that is ridiculous.

 

[Freedom&Reason]

Many of you are missing the point that we were infiltrated.

However/wherever/whenever the next patriot runs for president, he/she MUST put the highest priority on fully-vetting potential paid staff or everything else will be a waste of time.

Personally, I think we've run out of time. RP was this Republic's last hurrah...

You have valid info for this? give me a link to some documents or videos that are valid please.

 

[Banana]

Some talk about how we may not take back the party, or doubt whether we want to take it.

The way I look at it, Paul wins if we take over the party and reform it.

Take a look over here.

 

[SWATH]

I feel as though the grassroots effort is being stiffled by the campaign itself, almost to the point of sabotage. It is heart-wrenching.

Where are they? What are they doing? Why don't we get updates as to what is going on after every primary or caucus? There is almost ZERO communication. Where are the ads? How can they expect to compete with a media blackout and have no ads? Are they content to just collect money then sit back on the asses and do nothing while being content with a consistant distant last place in every state? What is the new media consultant doing? Is he making sure that Ron Paul gets no media coverage at all costs? The official campaign needs to get it's act together and think about running a serious campiagn for a change instead of this sideshow oddity that loses to candidates that have dropped out. Something like 80% of people base their candidate decisions on information they get from t.v. We NEED to get on t.v. somehow.

The grassroots cannot do it all, we have done our part, the official campaign has not only not done much, they have thwarted the efforts of the grassroots to the point that confidence and motivation is wanning. THEY HAVE GOT TO FOCUS ON A WIN!!! A WIN THAT THE MEDIA CANNOT IGNORE!!! Then the campaign will get it's money. I think many of us have stopped donating because we feel that our money is not doing anything. The campaign seems to be saying, send us money and we will push for a big 6%, yeah it's still a distant last place but look on the bright side, it's better than 3%.

We need a trustworthy badass campaign manager and staff to turn this ship around, I hope it's not too late. If by chance I am way off and infact we are somehow winning with a clandestine strategy the campaign could at least give us the update with words of encouragement even if subtle insinuations to maintain secrecy.

 

[SteveMartin]

You have valid info for this? give me a link to some documents or videos that are valid please.

The infiltrators will be coming out with a press release any moment. And I am sure they will be putting many videos about their activities up on YouTube shortly as well.

 

[ConstitutionGal]

Go ahead and scream at me, but look how donations/postings have gone. We've got a lot of fair-weathered patriots even on this forum. We all complain, but are we willing to do anything about it? I'd guess about 10% or less (same as most states' voting results) are willing to put their time and energy into this.

But one thing is very clear. The GOP does not want us.

I'll certainly not scream at your for pointing out the obvious. Dr. Paul was our Pied Piper but sadly, I don't think he ever REALLY believed he could win and this is becoming more apparent every day. Remember when many on these forums were arm-chair quarterbacking after media appearances where Dr. Paul made comments about being surprised at the support he was getting? Folks here kept commenting that those statements didn't look good? They may not have looked good but they were Dr. Paul being honest. I don't think he ever envisioned getting past the first couple of debates - being about to get his message out there for just a few times to the masses. It snowballed on him I don't think either he or HQ were prepared enough for it to actually run a professional national campaign. People here kept waiting for some 'secret strategy' to come to materialize and, it never did because there wasn't one. Just look at all the instances where HQ basically told the grassroots to 'stand down' and then HQ completely dropped the ball resulting in nothing getting done! I don't believe it was saboutage, I think it was sheer incompetance on the part of folks who had no experience with running a national campaign.

While most of us believe wholeheartedly that Dr. Paul is the perfect candidate, his campaign apparatus has not been up to par and has cost us dearly along with the media blackout (this was partly due to HQ dropping the ball on interviews and failing to send out press releases in a timely manner).

The lack of good showings is both harming our morale as well as lessening the chances of garnering new supporters (as is evidenced by these forums as well as donation levels). Granted, we've had good showings that the media has ignored but, where were the press releases from HQ about them? Oh, they sent out emails to the grassroots but, we weren't the ones that needed to hear about them (most of us were here on the forums watching the results as they came in!). The masses needed to hear about them to grow the movement. Ads, if necessary, should have been quickly launched talking about those 2nd place wins so people might have begun to see Dr. Paul as a 'viable' candidate and alternative to the neocon, flip-flopping 'front-runners'. People will NOT vote for someone that they believe has no chance of winning.

I somehow don't see Dr. Paul being willing to undertake a national run again so, I reiterate, where does that leave us?

 

[Freedom&Reason]

kind of curious, why would they incriminate themselves?

 

[coffeewithchess]

I feel as though the grassroots effort is being stiffled by the campaign itself, almost to the point of sabotage. It is heart-wrenching.

Where are they? What are they doing? Why don't we get updates as to what is going on after every primary or caucus? There is almost ZERO communication. Where are the ads? How can they expect to compete with a media blackout and have no ads? Are they content to just collect money then sit back on the asses and do nothing while being content with a consistant distant last place in every state? What is the new media consultant doing? Is he making sure that Ron Paul gets no media coverage at all costs? The official campaign needs to get it's act together and think about running a serious campiagn for a change instead of this sideshow oddity that loses to candidates that have dropped out. Something like 80% of people base their candidate decisions on information they get from t.v. We NEED to get on t.v. somehow.

The fact is that the media would have to run RP's ads, because he is a presidential candidate. If RP is going out, he should go out with hard fact hitting ads that may actually start waking people up. Your last two lines sum it up nicely. I can email, give literature and talk to the majority of Americans(like my family) but unless and until they see RP on the news or tv every two minutes, in their minds he "isn't electable".

 

[AlbemarleNC0003]

I somehow don't see Dr. Paul being willing to undertake a national run again so, I reiterate, where does that leave us?

If we take our marching orders from the Constitution, we start running and supporting local candidates and then state reps and go up from there. Our gov't is supposed to be based on the people, by,for the people. This campaign was run just that way. We really need to rethink waiting for HQ to do anything.

 

[SteveMartin]

I somehow don't see Dr. Paul being willing to undertake a national run again so, I reiterate, where does that leave us?

It leaves us on our knees, praying that the Good Lord will spare this nation during four more years of a godless, totalitarian, bloodthirsty leadership without WWIII breaking out against us so that we can try to find a reasonable facsimile of Dr. Paul to rally behind in 2012.

 

[SteveMartin]

kind of curious, why would they incriminate themselves?

LOL...I can't find the sarcasm button on here....

 

[Banana]

If we take our marching orders from the Constitution, we start running and supporting local candidates and then state reps and go up from there. Our gov't is supposed to be based on the people, by,for the people. This campaign was run just that way. We really need to rethink waiting for HQ to do anything.

*Exactly*.

We all got in this mess because we somehow believed that POTUS is the leader.

WRONG!

POTUS is a public servant! So are the Senators and Representatives.


You should go over to that thread about what Alaskans did to get their resolution passed. And don't forget Heather_in_WI's anti-McCain resolution. Those are what we can do, and the more delegates we send to National Convention, regardless of who is the nominee, we get to dictate the platform and basically chain the nominee to Paul's message.

This is how Paul will win.

 

[AlbemarleNC0003]

You should go over to that thread about what Alaskans did to get their resolution passed. And don't forget Heather_in_WI's anti-McCain resolution. Those are what we can do, and the more delegates we send to National Convention, regardless of who is the nominee, we get to dictate the platform and basically chain the nominee to Paul's message.

This is how Paul will win.

I'm 100% in agreement with you. I've been to that thread. I think it's gone on too long that people keep looking to the top for answers when the bottom is where we find the motivation and the reason for continuing.

 

[ConstitutionGal]

If we take our marching orders from the Constitution, we start running and supporting local candidates and then state reps and go up from there. Our gov't is supposed to be based on the people, by,for the people. This campaign was run just that way. We really need to rethink waiting for HQ to do anything.

I would advocate focuing on Congressional campaigns for U.S. House seats. ALL spending bills must originate in the House so that's where the power is. If we can raise millions of dollars to fund a presidential campaign, we should be able to throw $50,000 or so at many different U.S. House campaigns. That would buy a lot of signs, mailouts and local ads. This, IMHO, would serve two-fold, it would get us people in Congress of a like mind which would give Dr. Paul support there AND those newly elected officials would have a bully-pulpit to use to begin educating and winning over the local districts.

Dr. Paul has paved the way for us and the official campaign has shown us what NOT to do to win. If we actually learn from these, we could realistically actually take over Congress in just a few short years. The question then is whether we can keep the support together and active once the presidential campaign begins to fade out of mind....

 

[Shink]

A few things:

Ron Paul has every reason NOT to run third party. Seriously, he's not only been there/done that, but if he were to make us happy and do so, HE WOULD NOT BE IN A SINGLE DEBATE. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Presidential_Debates

The League of Women Voters is withdrawing sponsorship of the presidential debates ... because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The League has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.

Like it or not, we would not raise Ron enough cash to make a big dent. We could possibly beat December 16th, but Ron would have to spend most of the money getting on ballots (disgusting) and wouldn't be able to buy his way into a debate. We all know that debates are where Ron does some heavy damage. If he was disallowed from debates, maybe we could run enough ads to pick up a few thousand votes in all the states. Maybe.

Remember, though, we've had people leave the fold for reasons of: racism smears, the campaign staff not pleasing people one way or another, lack of media announced victories, a sense of wasted effort in some, and general lack of true commitment from some (I posit the 'Obama's my 2nd choice' types as evidence).

Nader and Bloomberg will likely only run IF Ron does play the 3rd party card. If you don't think this election is scripted as I, that's fine, but I bet you anything Nadeberg would announce within a couple days of Ron if he chose to go through with it. Were that to happen, Ron would get zero mention, but Nader would be covered as 'a potential spoiler for Democrats' and Bloomberg would be 'the billionaire wildcard that cannot be ignored.' Ron? *cricket, cricket*

I am not one of those 'let's give up' people, but I am a 'let's factor reality into our strategy' person. One of the smartest things RP supporters can do right now is support this GOP run to its fullest potential, stay registered (in closed primary states) long enough to vote in Ron Paul Republicans, and ALWAYS spread the message whether there's an election or not. Live every day like you have to personally get Ron Paul's message understood by the world.

 

[ConstitutionGal]

It leaves us on our knees, praying that the Good Lord will spare this nation during four more years of a godless, totalitarian, bloodthirsty leadership without WWIII breaking out against us so that we can try to find a reasonable facsimile of Dr. Paul to rally behind in 2012.

Gee!! And here I thought I was being the gloomy Gus for today!!

With that being said - I don't think we can afford to wait for four years or we will see the grassroots fall apart. See my post above....