Grassroots Leadership - Happening on this forum now

[Nate K]

I have several juicy ideas to get us going with this liberty campaign, but I realized something. In order to make crucial decisions at our current level, we need appointed leadership. Let's face it - our most constant, reliable stream of updates, ideas and communication are these very forums. Much can get done through here if only we have some direction. At the moment - there's a bunch of rogue projects going on that divides our resources and attention, leaving them all eventually abandoned and unsuccessful. Right now, those of us like myself hoping for some upgraded platform, are waiting and waiting on the Campaign for Liberty's inefficiency. There's no communication between them and us - they could be working once a week for all we know.

What we need is some unofficial (or official?) "Committee" whose members are voted on directly by forum members. With x amount of committeemen up for reelection x amount of weeks or months. If someone is slacking or the rest of us feel they're making poor decisions on our behalf, they're voted out and replaced with someone better - that simple.

Please vote in the poll, if the majority is in favor of my idea at tomorrow midnight, I shall, or someone else, follow-up with the process.

 

[john_anderson_ii]

I am dead set against any sort of top-down management within these forums or within the movement. The reason being that such management strategies stifle productivity and innovation, and slow down the proliferation of ideas. When one is the underdog, one has to work outside the box.

I explained my reasoning in an old post: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=28132 which I believe is still very relevant.

The maneuver strategy I vocalized did not get Ron Paul the nomination, but it was certainly not a failure. To the best of my knowledge Paul was the only primary candidate to have committed delegates at the convention besides the nominee, and was the only 'failed' candidate to appear on any ballots. Considering the size and scope of the force we were up against during the primaries, I would say the decentralized, maneuver approach was a net gain. Even if it wasn't enough to secure a Paul nomination, our decentralized efforts proved they could make an impact, and one impact begets several others.

A top-down centralized approach to managing the proliferation of ideas puts us liberty minded individuals on the same playing field with the incumbent parties. It forces us to utilize the same weapons, the radio pundits, the main stream media. A top-down approach puts our ideas into a war of attrition with the ideas that are entrenched within the two major parties. Quite frankly we don't have enough resources, people, or clout to compete on those grounds. We should continue to be autonomous, opportunistic, and most importantly swift. When it comes to how we decide to pursue philosophical and ideological battles, we cannot constrain ourselves to the same, slow procedures our opponents have embraced.

When you want to take on the men in power, you have to decentralize and bite at their flanks. It's the only way to stay alive long enough to have a chance at winning.

 

[speciallyblend]

sounds like a good idea,first step remove any word with the letter R in it remove any association with the gop and the r word,might be a good first step!!

 

[Conza88]

Against.

See Freedom Force, i.e G. Edward Griffin's reasoning in: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

 

[me3]

Nate, leadership has to come by merit, not ballot.

Get your ideas out there, and petition the right people to join you. Work those PMs.

I believe in you.

 

[Truth Warrior]

If you don't like how this forum is being run and lead enough, then just buy it. Or are you planning a "Federalist like" coup?

 

[Austin]

If you want top-down leadership, I suggest you go to the Campaign For Liberty. For here, I like the current approach.

To be clear, I think everyone here should join and be active in CFL.

 

[speciallyblend]

If you don't like how this forum is being run and lead enough, then just buy it. Or are you planning a "Federalist like" coup?

lmfao, so funny

 

[worl]

sounds like a good idea,first step remove any word with the letter R in it remove any association with the gop and the r word,might be a good first step!!

Why just R. Ron Paul is a Rep. & last time I looked The Dem. were just as bad, if not worse for our cause. From what I've seen lately there are a lot of young stupid people out there yet that did'nt get the message & voted for socialism instead of third party & the const. We don't need to vote in leaders here, at least until the trolls are gone.

 

[me3]

I don't think Nate meant ill by it. He's looking for ideological allies and learning how to build a coalition.

How come no one asked him about his ideas?

 

[Jeremy]

It bothers me when libertarians treat a forum like a government system. His idea may not be so bad. Stop using arguments against it that were meant for real politics.

 

[Nate K]

I probably should've elaborated further. The purpose of having a committee or whatever wouldn't be to shut everyone else's ideas out. They would simply be the driving force to rally around. In my own opinion, this is a necessity to get anywhere.

What was the purpose of the CFL? Not to rule over everyone else and stop having people think - it's an upgrade. What I'm talking about is having a group of people handle the tasks of further, publicly agreed upon upgrades.

For instance, if people were publicly brainstorming ideas for a website, which ALWAYS happens here, nobody ever follows through with it - but if we had what I was proposing, there would be a group to take initiative if the idea got big enough. We'd set a pitch-in so the project is "financially public" meaning it's not going to be funded by a few weeks lunch money - there'll actually be some backing to it.

The problem is with a pitch-in, nobody would really trust throwing it in to private hands they might not know of. But when there has already been a previously agreed upon group of people throughout the forum to volunteer to handle the task - it becomes a better decision.




This is my own opinion, you may disagree - but what I have noticed on this forum is that things will likely never ever change unless there is some unity on matters - teamwork.

 

[Xenophage]

I'm in favor of Anarchy on the message board.

Furthermore, I think we should be able to shoot each other through our computer screens. I don't know how to make that work, but I have faith in the power of a free market to find a solution.

 

[Truth Warrior]

It bothers me when libertarians treat a forum like a government system. His idea may not be so bad. Stop using arguments against it that were meant for real politics.

I don't know about your property, but I govern mine.

 

[Nate K]

As far as relating this to a system of government, that is NOT THE IDEA. It's not like a sudden dictatorship where if you say something that this group disagrees with, you are excommunicated.

My idea came from this point of thinking.. There are many ideas on this forum, even some threads created for the purpose of brainstorming such ideas. Nobody takes initiative because one person, even a team of people to work on doesn't have the finances to achieve. With a designated group of forum members - there would be a pitch-in for everyone to help fund the project. The group would work on this and critique it according to how the rest of the forum sees fit.

The power would remain as it is in this forum. We're not suddenly some archaic country with a king and queen. I didn't think of this because I thought it "would be some neat forum experiment".. real projects, real money happening.

 

[ShannonOBrien]

It's not top down. It's organization. Right now everything IS at the grassroots. I only have a state coordinator in my state and nothing else. We don't have leadership at any other level and we need it badly. If you want to lead, please go to C4L and be a legislative district leader.

 

[Nate K]

It's not top down. It's organization. Right now everything IS at the grassroots. I only have a state coordinator in my state and nothing else. We don't have leadership at any other level and we need it badly. If you want to lead, please go to C4L and be a legislative district leader.

I've given up entirely on the Campaign for Liberty - I've spent enough time with them to figure out it's an incompetent quagmire. But i applaud your efforts sticking with it.

 

[ShannonOBrien]

I've given up entirely on the Campaign for Liberty - I've spent enough time with them to figure out it's an incompetent quagmire. But i applaud your efforts sticking with it.

Sometimes a losing cause is worth fighting for.

 

[Kludge]

System in place works great. Members -> (Complaint System ->) Mods -> Admin

 

[yongrel]

I've seen this thread before. Many times.

Nate, if you want us to follow some sort of steering committee, give us a reason to do so. Create something worth supporting, and we will follow. Otherwise, it's just herding cats.