I'm reposting this (edited for clarity) from another thread because I think it's an important issue. This isn't to say protest shouldn't be used. Just that we need to use it wisely:
What would Ron Paul advocate?
Judging by the message from the official campaign, I'd say he'd advocate letting him try to solve things diplomaticly before we send in the troops to punish offenders. I don't agree with everything Paul says, and I'm not going to obey him like a robot, but he's our man there in the situation, dealing directly with the insiders, and relaying what's going on to us. And he's asking for us to support him by giving him a chance to solve it. And it sounds like he's going to be in if we we can show some self discipline.
Last time we were excluded in Iowa, he didn't need to attack the Iowa GOP. Paul showed them up by simply holding his own event down the hall, and this method probably won him more support from Iowan voters, even among those who went to the GOP event, than protesting would have. He defeated them and at the same time made them look like the asses for excluding him when a alot more people showed up to see Paul.
It's called strategy. The Presidential campaign isn't a war that can be won by simply defeating opponents with force. It's a fight to win the people over to our cause. We need to consider not just the effects our tactics will have on opponents, but the effects they will have on the hearts and minds of the people. If those against our cause can instigate us into overracting at the wrong time, then they can defeat our movement through manipulation.
We don't want to end up winning the war and losing the peace. Look at Iraq after Saddam was defeated. Do tactics that offend the Iraqi people lead them to view the US as oppressors or liberators? Do we want people to view us as a movement that's going to force it's will on others?
Here are a few words from Paul himself, excerpted from remarks Before the US House of Representatives, October 7, 2005
We lost a war in Vietnam, and the domino theory that communism would spread throughout southeast Asia was proven wrong. Today, Vietnam accepts American investment dollars and technology. We maintain a trade relationship with Vietnam that the war never achieved............
.............We should have confidence in how well freedom works, rather than relying on blind faith in the use of military force to spread our message. Setting an example and using persuasion is always superior to military force in showing how others might live.
If the message from the official campaign, Paul's own words, and logic aren't worthy reasons to at least pause and give honest consideration to thinking and acting stategicly, I don't know what are.
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