Our success is maneuverability

[moonbat]

Brilliant post!

 

[francisco]

Great post!

An interesting read that relates to your topic and the Ron Paul campaign is the science fiction classic "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein. It's the story of lunar colonists who conduct a clever revolution against their oppressors. A key role is played by a sentient computer which performs in some ways like the internet.

 

[Politicallore]

bump
John I emailed you back... Are you on?

 

[Andrew76]

""Appear at points which the enemy must hasten to defend;
march swiftly to places where you are not expected."
Sun Tzu, Art of War"

Great quote, and great original post!
So then, what "points should we appear at which our enemy must defend?"

I suppose the first part, and perhaps easiest, requires defining the enemy, or rather, enemies. Obviously, Rudy McRomney, the MSM and their supporters. Others?

Where are they weakest? Where are we not expected? Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

The two events in my mind are the Nov. 5th mass donation campaign, and the Philly rally. As someone else pointed out, Nov. 6th there will be another debate. If Ron can issue a press release that he's defied all expectations and raised more than a million in a single day - it would be breathtakingly huge. This cannot be underestimated. The hugeness of that event would eclipse the possibility of any negative connotations ala "V." In fact, lets just stop beating a dead horse over that one. We need to do everything we can to make this happen!

The Philly rally. C'mon people! There's been so many emails and message board posts for various rallies to attend over the last few months no matter where you live. Let's throw a dart at this Philly rally and all say, "If I attend only one R.P. rally, let it be this one." We need to draw a line somewhere and say, "this is the one!" The location is symbolic, Ron Paul will be there, and thousands of us will be there. Will it work out as planned? Maybe, maybe not, but if we don't make an effort then the outcome is certain. If it doesn't go as planned, let it not be because we didn't make some sacrifices and put forth some real effort.

 

[john_anderson_ii]

The two events in my mind are the Nov. 5th mass donation campaign, and the Philly rally. As someone else pointed out, Nov. 6th there will be another debate. If Ron can issue a press release that he's defied all expectations and raised more than a million in a single day - it would be breathtakingly huge. This cannot be underestimated. The hugeness of that event would eclipse the possibility of any negative connotations ala "V." In fact, lets just stop beating a dead horse over that one. We need to do everything we can to make this happen!

Money & fundraising. Definite weak spot. How can the MSM, the mouthpiece of "The Establishment" continue to report that RP is a kook, and has no support when his money is competing with Rudy's? That kills two birds with one stone. The media then looses credibility, the pundits have to eat crow and backtrack. People who thought they trusted the likes of Hannity and O'Reilly would begin to question.

The Philly rally. C'mon people! There's been so many emails and message board posts for various rallies to attend over the last few months no matter where you live. Let's throw a dart at this Philly rally and all say, "If I attend only one R.P. rally, let it be this one." We need to draw a line somewhere and say, "this is the one!" The location is symbolic, Ron Paul will be there, and thousands of us will be there. Will it work out as planned? Maybe, maybe not, but if we don't make an effort then the outcome is certain. If it doesn't go as planned, let it not be because we didn't make some sacrifices and put forth some real effort.

Another excellent weakness. They don't expect to have to defend their claim that Ron Paul can't win, and that he has no support. We MUST make them start to defend it, and when we see them defensive concerning this claim on the nightly news, we know we've already won....We can then move on to his electability against Hillary while the MSM is still trying to sort out if he can win or not.


Another area we can attack is the we must Win or we must Have Victory supporters. I've posted some logic that can be used to counter this argument in the "strategies for success forum". Pick up that logic, add your own, go undercover as a "Joe Republican Non-RP supporter" and start spreading the logic among political pundits listener forums.

 

[eloquensanity]

Great post.

 

[Energy]

Splendid post.

Another way we can take advantage of the establishment's time/money expenditure and its bureaucratic organization is through jujitsu: the principle of using an opponents's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

One effective way is called reframing: expanding the range of possible meanings or interpretations of an event or idea - it can happen instantly.

An example of reframing is the booing during the last debate. One can look at it as a negative for Ron Paul, but it was instantly reframed by this YouTube video titled "Republicans Boo The American People" http://youtube.com/watch?v=5DmvKVVVX1o - in which the booing is reduced to absurdity.

Ron Paul expertly reframed Hannity's accusation of the botched text polling by saying, "You mean your poll isn't any good?"

A famous reframe that arguably got Reagan's 2nd term:

"With questions about Reagan's age, and a weak performance in the first presidential debate, many wondered if he was up to the task of being president for another term. Reagan rebounded in the second debate, and confronted questions about his age, stating, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," which generated applause and laughter from members of the audience, and even from Mondale himself." (wikipedia)

 

[TVMH]

The OP made me giggle like a little girl.

 

[john_anderson_ii]

Splendid post.

Another way we can take advantage of the establishment's time/money expenditure is through jujitsu: the principle of using an opponents's energy against him, rather than directly opposing it.

One effective way is called reframing: expanding the range of possible meanings or interpretations of an event or idea - it can happen instantly.

An example of reframing is the booing during the last debate. One can look at it as a negative for Ron Paul, but it was instantly reframed by this YouTube video titled "Republicans Boo The American People" http://youtube.com/watch?v=5DmvKVVVX1o - in which the booing is reduced to absurdity.

A famous reframe that arguably got Reagan's 2nd term:

"With questions about Reagan's age, and a weak performance in the first presidential debate, many wondered if he was up to the task of being president for another term. Reagan rebounded in the second debate, and confronted questions about his age, stating, "I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience," which generated applause and laughter from members of the audience, and even from Mondale himself." (wikipedia)

I like your thinking How can we reframe the debate booing beyond youtube? I'm thinking but drawing blanks. Maybe we can find a democrat mouthpiece and pass it off to him as an example of the GOPs division? Prod him or her into presenting it in such a way that to liberals and republicans alike RP seems to be the noble underdog he is.

 

[TVMH]

I think we need to speed things up. Find an establishment weakness and exploit it. Not hard. Avoid their strengths. More difficult. We need to increase the pace and intensity. We want them running around in circles chasing their tail and spending like crazy to counter us. Only to find out that they are too late to counter anything, the damage has been done, and we have moved on to another avenue of approach.

If you are bashing heads with neo-con pundits, you are pitting your strength against theirs, and its consuming more resources (time). Instead assault the fence-sitters in that particular segment and subvert the pundit entirely. Why bash through the front lines to destroy ignorance when you can envelop and cut off the supply of ignorance these pundits feed upon?

Serious questions:

Would you consider a flood of quick retorts to hit-pieces (as opposed to drawn out debates) a precision strike?

Is it worthwhile for us to get them to consume their resources spending time acknowledging, however begrudgingly, the name "Ron Paul"?

 

[TVMH]

I like your thinking How can we reframe the debate booing beyond youtube? I'm thinking but drawing blanks. Maybe we can find a democrat mouthpiece and pass it off to him as an example of the GOPs division? Prod him or her into presenting it in such a way that to liberals and republicans alike RP seems to be the noble underdog he is.

Call the booing what it is...shameful.

 

[JDouglasFisher]

Something else to REMEMBER in this battle

It is said (In New Jersey anyway) that only %15 of registered republicans actually take the time to vote in the Republican Primary (which I assume is similar across the nation)..

Yet, %100 of Ron Paul's supporters are going out there to vote in their respective primaries.

Now, I don't know about anywhere else, but in NJ, I think we the people are going to ram-rod Ron Paul right down the GOP's throat come February, just like Molly Pitcher during the battle of Monmouth Courthouse.

The odd are in our favor. Many republicans are L A Z Y and won't vote in primaries. Exploit this by garnering as many Ron Paul supporters as possible.

Remember, the Neo-Cons %15
RP Supporters %100.

it truely is a numbers game.

Joe.

 

[john_anderson_ii]

Serious questions:

Would you consider a flood of quick retorts to hit-pieces (as opposed to drawn out debates) a precision strike?

Not exactly. Think strategically. No matter how many resources you spend arguing your point, you are not going to convince the poster of the hit-piece. A.k.A The pundit of anything.

Online: Its best to logically and calmly state your position with the express purpose of convincing the pundits' listener/viewer circle, without being seen as combative toward the pundit. Remember, you don't want the support of the pundit, you want the pundit's supporters. Once your points are made, move on to the next place. You might also want to tap another well-spoken supporter to check back on the online situation, forum, whatever, in a few minutes. His job will be to agree with you, and reinforce your points. The purpose is to develop the same group mentality bond between your ideas and the pundit's listeners that the listeners have with the pundits ideas.

Offline: Be loud, courteous, professional, and logical. Oh, and be loud without sounding crazy. Did I say be loud? The point here is that once again you are NOT going to convince the pundit. However, you might convince many others within earshot.

In both cases its very important to be perceived as being on the sane side of the issues. Not tinfoil hat stuff here. In this way you can transform a would be anti-Ron Paul pundit into a conversation piece. A tool that can be used to gain Ron Paul support. You just have to be logical and tactful.

Is it worthwhile for us to get them to consume their resources spending time acknowledging, however begrudgingly, the name "Ron Paul"?

Definitely. It costs us nearly nothing online, and we own the internet and can move freely. However, I think we need to greatly step it up online. Remember, we want to run them ragged with news like the Philly Rally. Make the poor anchorman so tired of the name Ron Paul that he says accidentally when he's supposed to say Thompson if you know what I mean. Its important to spend the resources wisely though.

 

[expatriot]

Reframing Media Coverage

Bravo,
bravo


This was a 5-star post, brilliantly explained, John.

Two items pop to the surface immediately,

1. Unaddressable events. There is not a single candidate who can respond
to the November 5 event without being recognized as part of the 'Establishment'
There is simply no way they can steal that particular morsel from us.

In the same vein - Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and any other event
associated with the original Revolutionary history is ours to OWN and theirs to envy,
simply because the other candidates are all for more government and not less.

Seize these and similar calendar dates for notable actions and point out to anyone and everyone
who witnesses that Ron Paul is the only true answer to the
Empire of King George and his cronies.

2.
Flash Mobs if properly and tastefully choreographed could really stir the pot.
This is an event media cannot and must not predict.

Remember - media which omits Ron Paul must have its credibility undermined,
not by vicious attacks or tirades but by simple events which defy their coverage.
Paint the town Ron is a perfect example of this.

Point out to any witnesses how the controlled media is hiding something
from public exposure and discourse and this will undermine their credibility.
Already CNN and Fox are becoming known for their omissions, and not just
in regards to Ron Paul but a lot more social and historical issues as well.
The simple fact is they are outgunned by the rapid news-spreading ability of the
internet and they know and fear this. It's up to us to ensure that average guy
on the street sees us and our message and then goes home and wonders
why it doesn't show up on the nightly news.
That is a devastating blow to controlled media credibility.
We are already doing this, I know, so well it is now beginning to have impact.

3. An interesting thought occurs - what if before Clinton/Obama/Rudy/Freddy etc
show up, our people mob a venue with signs,
only to evaporate during the event to avoid any type of confrontational controversy,
and then magically reappear as the event concludes?
(mental image: we are still here, your candidate's appearance had no effect)

Being slightly off-center does have its attention-drawing advantages, as well.

Cheers

 

[devil21]

Tremendous post. Sticky?

 

[deezblast]

Great Post!

 

[moonbat]

I just wanted to bump this up. It's a great post that got lost in the early hours of the morning.

 

[werdd]

cool analogy

 

[a_european]

Focus is needed. Read the Original Post!

 

[freelance]

John,

That was superb, but my head is spinning over the IA debate right now. Can you specifically recommend how to best handle that situation.

Do we go all out and try to get the poll numbers up? Do we work on a plan B? WHAT?

TIA