What do you all think about this? I don't know what Rand's doing but we can get people ready none the less.
I'm fading out from this stuff, guys. I really am. To the point that I really look for reasons to stay around here. Respectfully.
I don't even care if we just talk about it and run through the rules again. I watched those drones working for Sanders and they didn't know jack squat nothin. And we're lucky they didn't, too.
Hello. If I've learned anything this election cycle it's this. "Winning" isn't everything. Or more importantly, there are short term gains that can mask long term losses and long term losses can mask short term gains. The long term gain we got from Ron Paul is that the libertarian message was gaining respect and popularity and it was gaining popularity across the political spectrum. Of course neither of Ron's campaigns won. This time, some us us felt like we "won." But what has been lost? Respect for our movement across the political spectrum. And "winning" by jumping on a bandwagon doesn't mean that you have any ability to steer that wagon in the direction you want it to go.
So, here's the "campaign" that I think those of us who still care about liberty need to take. Forget "delegate strategies" and trying to figure out a way to make Rand, or anyone else, president. Concentrate instead on winning hearts and minds so that more people who disagree with us on certain issues, but agree with us on others, end up agreeing with us on more. For example, you mentioned Sanders supporters. My best friend voted for Sanders. She called me recently to complain about how badly the government has screwed up nutrition in America by subsidizing big farms. She thought "billionaires" were the problem, but didn't realize that government interference itself is the problem. Rather than lecture, I listened. She talked about how in some countries they pay 50% of their income to the government but they have a higher "happiness" index. (Actually that's not true. I looked it up and the countries she talked about have a 50%
marginal tax rate on the highest incomes, but nobody pays 50% in taxes and they have lower corporate and capital gains taxes than the U.S.) I mentioned that I heard on NPR (of all places) that some countries have more social services (since that's what she wants) and lower income tax because they do value added tax. She was like "I'm cool with that. In fact there was someone who ran for president who's name I can't remember who was advocating something like that." We tried to think of the politician, but couldn't. Later in the conversation I mentioned something I read on RonPaulForums.com. She said "That's it! Ron Paul! That's the person who's tax idea I liked!"
Let me repeat.
This BERNIE SANDERS supporter told me "That's it! Ron Paul! That's the person who's tax idea I liked!"
Let me repeat.
This BERNIE SANDERS supporter told me "That's it! Ron Paul! That's the person who's tax idea I liked!"
Let me repeat.
This BERNIE SANDERS supporter told me "That's it! Ron Paul! That's the person who's tax idea I liked!"
Let me repeat.
This BERNIE SANDERS supporter told me "That's it! Ron Paul! That's the person who's tax idea I liked!"
We have to stop thinking about people outside of the Republican party as our enemy and we have to stop thinking of everyone who sometimes says what we want to hear as our "friend." There is no way you will convince a Bernie Sanders supporter that Donald Trump's insane foreign policy that changes with the wind is really "3-infinity-D-squared chess" that will someone give him "political capital to make peace." You can't convince a rational thinking person of that either. By defending the indefensible we are daily losing more and more credibility.
So, how to go about an educational campaign? Instead of training "delegates" we need to train ideological evangelists. What do I mean by that? An ideological evangelist is not going around trying to "win elections" or "influence politicians" or anything like that. An ideological evangelist tries to win hearts and minds of regular people on the street. Effective ideological evangelists are patient. They don't talk down to the people they are trying to convince. The don't yell at the people they are trying to convince. They know when to drop "seeds of truth" and when to shut up and move on. We see the results of ideological evangelism around us all the time. For example, the whole "climate change" movement. I was visiting some city years ago (forget where) and I was walking around the city center and there were global warming ideological evangelists walking around talking to whoever would pause long enough to listen about their pet cause. They got enough people to sign on to the idea that the "science" is clear that aerial plant food (CO2) is killing the planet (dumbest idea ever), so there was critical mass when the media kicked the lie into high gear. We don't have control over the media, but we can be ideological evangelists. Then again, we have enough freedom in this country to be our own media. Here is a man that understood the power of creating your own media. And it's a great place to start to train ourselves to become ideological evangelists.
Also a good place for discussion, sharing, and learning. Those are reasons enough for me. 
