Christopher David
Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2007
- Messages
- 225
Yes, really.
You will read below how 300 activists can win the GOP nomination for Ron Paul.
This is an update of a strategy post I wrote two months ago called How Ron Paul Can (Still) Win the Nomination.
That post received good response but didn't have the impact I hoped for, probably because it was not paired with a sustained effort to actually implement the strategy.
What follows will update the strategy and lay out a specific battle plan for implementing it. The plan involves the creation of a core team of 300 activists all working on specific tasks, each task a building block of a massive outreach operation to volunteers, voters and delegates.
If we get just a few hundred activists to synchronize their actions, I think we can win the nomination for Ron Paul.
We are now building the core team. We need 300 activists doing specific tasks. Will you be one of them?
Read on...
The Opening:
We can deny Romney the delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot at the convention.
When voting goes to a second ballot, all the Ron Paul folks who were initially bound to vote for Romney will become unbound.
If we show enough strength on the second ballot, we could develop a sense of momentum that spreads to the other unbound, on-the-fence delegates and delivers the nomination to Ron Paul on the third ballot.
Most political observers would say the chances of the above happening are way less than 1%.
But it is possible. And after a massive outreach campaign that harnesses the true strength of our million-strong nationwide grassroots, those odds will increase substantially.
Step one is overcoming the dampening effect of the media declaring the primary over. We need to become the media, and that means first getting the story straight.
Much has been written recently on the true delegate situation. I will just excerpt the highlights.
From the Daily Paul:
Yes, a contested convention is looking increasingly likely.
And if Ron Paul pulls a Warren Harding in Tampa, he might just win.
Before he was our 29th President, Warren Harding entered the 1920 GOP convention with the least committed delegates of the four remaining candidates.
But when the dust settled, Harding was the GOP nominee.
From Wikipedia:
Remind you of anyone?
Here are a few crucial dynamics that will work in our favor at the convention:
1. So-called "bound" delegates can abstain from voting on the first ballot. Nothing forces them to vote.
Prior to the 1976 GOP convention Ronald Reagan encouraged Ford delegates to abstain from voting -- to give Reagan an edge. [Newspaper source]
We can do the same thing.
From one Daily Paul commenter:
2. Delegates from winner-take-all states are under no obligation to support the candidate who won the state's popular vote - even on the first ballot.
From Politico:
From FairVote.org:
^ And states in that category may be where a delegate revolt is 'most likely' to occur...
... but with a strong enough outreach operation, we can put EVERY state and EVERY delegate in play.
Note: There may be some misunderstanding of Rule 38... see this post for potential clarification.
3. It is debatable whether the RNC recognizes ANY state's binding of national delegates.
The RNC's Legal Counsel wrote in a 2008 letter, “[The] RNC does not recognize a state’s binding of national delegates, but considers each delegate a free agent who can vote for whoever they choose.” [Source]
The gray area will undoubtedly lead to fights at the convention. Each delegate will have to make up their own mind which path to take for the first ballot - do what they're told, abstain, or vote Ron Paul.
There are a few options. Here are some thoughts to consider, from folks at the Daily Paul.
Whether that impact is sufficient to deliver the nomination to Ron Paul will be primarily a function of the grassroots.
The battle we face is steep. Victory will require a political earthquake on a scale never before seen.
The closer we come to victory, the more they will throw at us and the harder it will become.
We need to make sure our army is on the battlefield and well-organized - not buying into the lie that the fight is over, not disconnected and disempowered.
For anything more than a minute chance at victory, we will need to organize - this month - hundreds of volunteers into a clear organizational structure capable of massive, focused outreach to voters and delegates - and even to Ron Paul supporters, many of whom are sitting on the bench not engaging in the effective activism we need to actually win this.
We have the people, the tools, and the strategy for victory.
We just need to put it all together - and fast.
Strategy and Organization:
The strategy is simple, based on two facts:
1) State conventions decide the delegates to the national convention.
2) Those delegates decide the nominee.
The two goals:
1) To turn out our supporters to the district and state conventions and elect our people as delegates
2) To persuade all other delegates to support Ron Paul
To get those two goals done, we need:
1) To get WAY more people using the Phone From Home program
2) To organize a sustained outreach+marketing operation able to persuade eventually-unbound delegates to support Ron Paul
To accomplish those things we need activists doing three types of activity:
Imagine 100 people competing for prizes to see how many calls per day they can make via Phone From Home. Even with an average of just 100 calls/day per person, that's an extra 10,000 calls/day in total. There are people at Los Angeles Liberty HQ making 1,000+ calls per day multiple days out of the week, so this goal should not be hard to reach and exceed. I bet we could get 100 people averaging 500 calls/day within a month. That's 50,000 calls/day. Do you think Romney's campaign is making anywhere near that many calls per day to Republican primary voters?
Imagine 100 people compiling then working through the lists of delegates aligned with other candidates, with some folks assigned to communicate with the delegates, others filling a support role providing strategy, talking points, call scripts, supporting literature, and the like. A sophisticated and respectful delegate outreach operation, well-executed, would seriously impress a lot of non-Ron Paul delegates, likely enough that the professionalism of the operation itself would be what gets a number of Santorum, Gingrich and Romney delegates to flip their votes to Ron Paul.
Imagine 100 people working our lists of identified supporters and volunteers; spreading out all over the internet to add more recruits; informing the 1.2 million people who voted for Ron Paul in 2008 and the ~1.5 million who have voted for Ron Paul so far in 2012 of the plan. Just spreading AWARENESS of our need for more people to help this become a reality. So many people just don't know that Ron Paul is still running a competitive race. Many of them just need to know that there is an active operation out there with the potential to make a difference, and they will get off the bench.
There's more that I haven't thought of. Together we can figure all this out.
Organizing a Core Team:
I do know from personal experience that this 'core team' organizational model works REALLY well in rapidly building a massive volunteer organization on a budget of zero.
We did this same thing back in 2009-10 for the Year of Youth Core Team - the team of volunteers back when Year of Youth was a project independent of YAL, when we put YoY on the map with nothing but private forums, a clear division of labor, and a lot of passion.
Back then we had an application process to join as member. Applicants had to do a task -- defined as 5 hours of work on a specific job that advanced the cause -- before their application was approved. Maybe recruit some friends, raise a bit of money, spread a video around, do some issue research, build a list of potential supporters -- something that grew our team. After becoming a full member, they would choose to join one of three teams (Outreach, Education, Fieldwork) and continue doing tasks specific to that team.
The fun part was when we had contests to see who could do the most tasks in a month. There were prizes for the individual who completed the most tasks, and group prizes for the team who had the most tasks completed.
Within a few months we built that core team into a sizable organization with more completed work hours per week than any other liberty non-profit in existence -- all on a budget of zero.
Eventually we phased out the YoY core team when the project merged into YAL, but the model definitely works and deserves to be used in other projects.
I think the Ron Paul grassroots so far has a tremendous amount of awesome OFFLINE organization, but our ONLINE organization and strategic coordination is lacking. The core team model will more than address that.
The Growth Contest:
To grease the wheels, I am putting up $1,000 of my own money in cash prizes for top performers.
There will be sub-contests for each of the above three teams (who recruits the most members, who makes the most calls, etc.) with $250 prizes each, and a $250 prize for the winning team to be divvied up (or re-invested) based on the decisions of that team.
If anyone wants to chip in their own money to be used for incentive prizes, shoot me a private message.
We will launch the contest with specifics based on feedback we receive from all of you about exactly what tasks each team should be accomplishing.
Feedback Needed...
The above is a skeleton outline of a strategy and organizational model to achieve it. It is a starting point.
We need additional input on exactly what each team should be working on. How do you think the Voter Outreach, Delegate Outreach, and Volunteer Organizing teams should be organized? What tasks should be accomplished? Please respond below.
How to Join the Core Team:
By the end of this weekend we should have 25+ people per team engaged in SERIOUS, ORGANIZED effort to implement the above strategy. Or heck, if we get enough support, maybe we can hit that 300 member number by the end of this weekend and shoot next for 3,000...
Shall we?
You will read below how 300 activists can win the GOP nomination for Ron Paul.
This is an update of a strategy post I wrote two months ago called How Ron Paul Can (Still) Win the Nomination.
That post received good response but didn't have the impact I hoped for, probably because it was not paired with a sustained effort to actually implement the strategy.
What follows will update the strategy and lay out a specific battle plan for implementing it. The plan involves the creation of a core team of 300 activists all working on specific tasks, each task a building block of a massive outreach operation to volunteers, voters and delegates.
If we get just a few hundred activists to synchronize their actions, I think we can win the nomination for Ron Paul.
We are now building the core team. We need 300 activists doing specific tasks. Will you be one of them?
Read on...
- The Opening
- Strategy and Organization
- Organizing a Core Team
- The Growth Contest
- Feedback Needed
- How to Join the Core Team
The Opening:
We can deny Romney the delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot at the convention.
When voting goes to a second ballot, all the Ron Paul folks who were initially bound to vote for Romney will become unbound.
If we show enough strength on the second ballot, we could develop a sense of momentum that spreads to the other unbound, on-the-fence delegates and delivers the nomination to Ron Paul on the third ballot.
Most political observers would say the chances of the above happening are way less than 1%.
But it is possible. And after a massive outreach campaign that harnesses the true strength of our million-strong nationwide grassroots, those odds will increase substantially.
Step one is overcoming the dampening effect of the media declaring the primary over. We need to become the media, and that means first getting the story straight.
Much has been written recently on the true delegate situation. I will just excerpt the highlights.
From the Daily Paul:
Yes, a contested convention is looking increasingly likely.
And if Ron Paul pulls a Warren Harding in Tampa, he might just win.
Before he was our 29th President, Warren Harding entered the 1920 GOP convention with the least committed delegates of the four remaining candidates.
But when the dust settled, Harding was the GOP nominee.
From Wikipedia:
Remind you of anyone?
Here are a few crucial dynamics that will work in our favor at the convention:
1. So-called "bound" delegates can abstain from voting on the first ballot. Nothing forces them to vote.
Prior to the 1976 GOP convention Ronald Reagan encouraged Ford delegates to abstain from voting -- to give Reagan an edge. [Newspaper source]
We can do the same thing.
From one Daily Paul commenter:
2. Delegates from winner-take-all states are under no obligation to support the candidate who won the state's popular vote - even on the first ballot.
From Politico:
From FairVote.org:
^ And states in that category may be where a delegate revolt is 'most likely' to occur...
... but with a strong enough outreach operation, we can put EVERY state and EVERY delegate in play.
Note: There may be some misunderstanding of Rule 38... see this post for potential clarification.
3. It is debatable whether the RNC recognizes ANY state's binding of national delegates.
The RNC's Legal Counsel wrote in a 2008 letter, “[The] RNC does not recognize a state’s binding of national delegates, but considers each delegate a free agent who can vote for whoever they choose.” [Source]
The gray area will undoubtedly lead to fights at the convention. Each delegate will have to make up their own mind which path to take for the first ballot - do what they're told, abstain, or vote Ron Paul.
There are a few options. Here are some thoughts to consider, from folks at the Daily Paul.
One way or another, we are poised for huge impact at the convention.
Whether that impact is sufficient to deliver the nomination to Ron Paul will be primarily a function of the grassroots.
The battle we face is steep. Victory will require a political earthquake on a scale never before seen.
The closer we come to victory, the more they will throw at us and the harder it will become.
We need to make sure our army is on the battlefield and well-organized - not buying into the lie that the fight is over, not disconnected and disempowered.
For anything more than a minute chance at victory, we will need to organize - this month - hundreds of volunteers into a clear organizational structure capable of massive, focused outreach to voters and delegates - and even to Ron Paul supporters, many of whom are sitting on the bench not engaging in the effective activism we need to actually win this.
We have the people, the tools, and the strategy for victory.
We just need to put it all together - and fast.
Strategy and Organization:
The strategy is simple, based on two facts:
1) State conventions decide the delegates to the national convention.
2) Those delegates decide the nominee.
The two goals:
1) To turn out our supporters to the district and state conventions and elect our people as delegates
2) To persuade all other delegates to support Ron Paul
To get those two goals done, we need:
1) To get WAY more people using the Phone From Home program
2) To organize a sustained outreach+marketing operation able to persuade eventually-unbound delegates to support Ron Paul
To accomplish those things we need activists doing three types of activity:
- Voter Outreach --> Getting out the vote and turning out our supporters to district and state conventions. This can all be done through the Phone From Home program which cycles through voter lists according to the campaign's immediate needs.
- Delegate Outreach/Marketing --> Contacting delegates: building relationships and persuading them to support Ron Paul. Also building whatever infrastructure necessary to help persuade those delegates. Like for example assembling a 1-page dossier with citations of every poll that shows Ron Paul polling better than Romney among independents, then handing that off to the people making the persuasion calls.
- Volunteer Organizing --> Building our organizations, recruiting volunteers to make calls, training callers, uploading data and working the lists of identified supporters to translate that into support.
Imagine 100 people competing for prizes to see how many calls per day they can make via Phone From Home. Even with an average of just 100 calls/day per person, that's an extra 10,000 calls/day in total. There are people at Los Angeles Liberty HQ making 1,000+ calls per day multiple days out of the week, so this goal should not be hard to reach and exceed. I bet we could get 100 people averaging 500 calls/day within a month. That's 50,000 calls/day. Do you think Romney's campaign is making anywhere near that many calls per day to Republican primary voters?
Imagine 100 people compiling then working through the lists of delegates aligned with other candidates, with some folks assigned to communicate with the delegates, others filling a support role providing strategy, talking points, call scripts, supporting literature, and the like. A sophisticated and respectful delegate outreach operation, well-executed, would seriously impress a lot of non-Ron Paul delegates, likely enough that the professionalism of the operation itself would be what gets a number of Santorum, Gingrich and Romney delegates to flip their votes to Ron Paul.
Imagine 100 people working our lists of identified supporters and volunteers; spreading out all over the internet to add more recruits; informing the 1.2 million people who voted for Ron Paul in 2008 and the ~1.5 million who have voted for Ron Paul so far in 2012 of the plan. Just spreading AWARENESS of our need for more people to help this become a reality. So many people just don't know that Ron Paul is still running a competitive race. Many of them just need to know that there is an active operation out there with the potential to make a difference, and they will get off the bench.
There's more that I haven't thought of. Together we can figure all this out.
Organizing a Core Team:
I do know from personal experience that this 'core team' organizational model works REALLY well in rapidly building a massive volunteer organization on a budget of zero.
We did this same thing back in 2009-10 for the Year of Youth Core Team - the team of volunteers back when Year of Youth was a project independent of YAL, when we put YoY on the map with nothing but private forums, a clear division of labor, and a lot of passion.
Back then we had an application process to join as member. Applicants had to do a task -- defined as 5 hours of work on a specific job that advanced the cause -- before their application was approved. Maybe recruit some friends, raise a bit of money, spread a video around, do some issue research, build a list of potential supporters -- something that grew our team. After becoming a full member, they would choose to join one of three teams (Outreach, Education, Fieldwork) and continue doing tasks specific to that team.
The fun part was when we had contests to see who could do the most tasks in a month. There were prizes for the individual who completed the most tasks, and group prizes for the team who had the most tasks completed.
Within a few months we built that core team into a sizable organization with more completed work hours per week than any other liberty non-profit in existence -- all on a budget of zero.
Eventually we phased out the YoY core team when the project merged into YAL, but the model definitely works and deserves to be used in other projects.
I think the Ron Paul grassroots so far has a tremendous amount of awesome OFFLINE organization, but our ONLINE organization and strategic coordination is lacking. The core team model will more than address that.
The Growth Contest:
To grease the wheels, I am putting up $1,000 of my own money in cash prizes for top performers.
There will be sub-contests for each of the above three teams (who recruits the most members, who makes the most calls, etc.) with $250 prizes each, and a $250 prize for the winning team to be divvied up (or re-invested) based on the decisions of that team.
If anyone wants to chip in their own money to be used for incentive prizes, shoot me a private message.
We will launch the contest with specifics based on feedback we receive from all of you about exactly what tasks each team should be accomplishing.
Feedback Needed...
The above is a skeleton outline of a strategy and organizational model to achieve it. It is a starting point.
We need additional input on exactly what each team should be working on. How do you think the Voter Outreach, Delegate Outreach, and Volunteer Organizing teams should be organized? What tasks should be accomplished? Please respond below.
How to Join the Core Team:
- Make sure you read everything above
- Read this post to understand the big picture. If this project succeeds now with Ron Paul, we can use this model for other projects too.
- Fill out the core team application.
- After filling out the app you will be directed to our forum to read the next steps. You will be asked to promote this strategy post on social media and to your friends - so we can reach the 300 number as soon as possible.
- In our public forum you will introduce yourself to the rest of the team. In your introduction you will say which of the above three project teams (Voter Outreach, Delegate Outreach, Volunteer Organizing) you want to join.
- After introducing yourself you will be able to discuss in our public forum with others who are on your same team how best to proceed.
- We will start adding team members to private forums where they can strategize out of the public eye.
- Based on the discussions, we will finalize the tasks and incentive structure (contests, point system, etc.) - then get to work.
By the end of this weekend we should have 25+ people per team engaged in SERIOUS, ORGANIZED effort to implement the above strategy. Or heck, if we get enough support, maybe we can hit that 300 member number by the end of this weekend and shoot next for 3,000...
Shall we?
Last edited:
