Rabid Paul supporters undermining campaign

[jon_perez]

People seem to take this issue lightly... but remember how Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson because they were able to make it look like he had "fringe" views. Paul's foaming-in-the-mouth supporters are a serious liability.

 

[Shink]

http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/BostonBureau/2007/10/24/mobs_turn_out_for_obama_rally

Obama Rocks at the Boston Rally

Bostonians went wild

By Libby Hughes, Boston Bureau for Cape Cod Today

<snip>

Then, a rabid Ron Paul supporter approached a young couple behind me. They were independents, willing to listen to anyone. The man who collared them was Russian. He said, "You Americans don't realize that big government leads to tyranny. I've been through socialism and communism, I know. That's where you're going, too. The government will take all your money." By the end of his tirade, he was shouting.

<snip>

This was in no way a hit piece on Paul. It was simply the observation of the reporter.

There are way too many reports like this. IMO, this type of behavior is really undermining Paul's campaign.

Whenever we encounter this type of behavior from our fellow Paul supporters, offline or online, we need to whatever we can to discourage it. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression -- let's make sure the first impressions people get from Paul supporters are positive.

First Amendment: deal with it. People will be people, and your 'way too many reports'/'undermining the campaign' statements are dubious, to say the least. Nothing wrong about issuing stern warnings about socialism here and there either.

 

[kylejack]

People seem to take this issue lightly... but remember how Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson because they were able to make it look like he had "fringe" views. Paul's foaming-in-the-mouth supporters are a serious liability.

As usual, this anecdoctal stuff refers to the views of the actual candidate, and not a select few of his supporters.

But yes, all Ron Paul fans should act appropriately.

 

[Eli]

please quit making threads like this!
I"m sick of it! sick of it! sick of it!

please we need to do something, its 10 threads a day about single ron paul supporters upsetting someone and that person getting all butt hurt. Knock it off! <-not the promoting, but the whining about other grassroots people not doing what you're doing.

 

[Bradley in DC]

With all due respect, my post was not meant to be counterproductive. I was attempting to discuss a problem that is obviously a concern... To describe my post as "Alienating" is hardly constructive.

I wasn't referring to your posts (actually, I was thinking of the bad behavior of Paul supporters on RedState and elsewhere).

 

[Original_Intent]

please quit making threads like this!
I"m sick of it! sick of it! sick of it!

please we need to do something, its 10 threads a day about single ron paul supporters upsetting someone and that person getting all butt hurt. Knock it off! <-not the promoting, but the whining about other grassroots people not doing what you're doing.

I don't see it as bitching about a few supporters. I see it as we each take a hard look at what we are doing and if we are hurting or helping the campaign, and what we each can do to improve.

Shink we are not trying to step on people's first amendment rights, we are encouraging people to behave in ways that are going to get us the end result we want. Which if we are on this forum that end result should be getting Ron Paul elected.

You have a First Amendment right to wear a "F@#$ you if you are not a Libertarian" t-shirt, but are you defending that if someone wants to wear that while promoting Ron Paul that we should all be supportive of that?

They have a First Amendment right to wear the shirt, and we have a First Amendment right (and I would say further an obligation to this campaign) to say they are a stupid dumbass for doing it.

 

[freelance]

I can't stand it anymore. Could someone PUHLEASE change Rapid to Rabid in the title?

 

[rockwell]

Reading many of the posts here on ronpaulforums.com, I found myself wondering whether Paul was really as out-of-whack as some of his fans were, and started having doubts. It is really quite dismaying how it is FAR TOO EASY for even open-minded people to start thinking that maybe Ron Paul himself is a nutcase after encountering some overzealous lunatics preaching about how "apocalypse is imminent" if Ron Paul does not get elected.

One way to combat the serious black eye being given to RP by his foaming-in-the-mouth supporters is to show that there are far more normal, calm and rational people who support him than there are loonies (we have to admit that for some reason, Paul really attracts far more than his fair share of rabid fans compared to other candidates). After i saw his interview at Google, and listened to other recent interviews, I realized that Paul's support among the mainstream (e.g. people who do not require medication ) is quite strong. The VAST majority of Paul's supporters are normal, sane people, no matter how the crazed minority might try to make it look otherwise. I guess that's one important message we have to let out.

This is absolutely a perspective issue. Someone who looks at a chart like this, for example-

who doesn't become alarmed would- at least to me- require medication, whereas those who fits into this category-

"Nearing the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A32862-2003Sep5?language=printer

are not only unmedicated, they're in the majority.

Sometimes having a discussion of politics in this day and age with people you don't know personally is like trying to have a conversation with a street person in NYC. You know you're sane, but it is clearly crazy to engage someone who hasn't got both oars in the water, and yet you give it the old college try.

America isn't going through a rough patch, the media hasn't failed to do their job and the Bush administration isn't incompetent. It's like the poor Puritans who believed that black cats caused their miscarriage. We live in a era of universal deciet and unfathomable ignorance of the realities around us. We are engaged in an illegal war because we were manipulated into it, not out of neccessity. I could go on, but you get the gist of it. It is maddening, it is frustrating and it requires a level of maturity and sobriety to deal with such inexplicable apathy and ignorance that would normally lead to sainthood, and yet here we find ourselves, virtually reading off the same script politically, yet trying to tell one another that everything will be hunky dory if we just smile and explain ourselves calmly to people who haven't got a basic grasp on their own personal finances, never mind meta-politics.

 

[Bradley in DC]

please quit making threads like this!
I"m sick of it! sick of it! sick of it!

please we need to do something, its 10 threads a day about single ron paul supporters upsetting someone and that person getting all butt hurt. Knock it off! <-not the promoting, but the whining about other grassroots people not doing what you're doing.

The threads are IN RESPONSE to bad behavior of Paul supporters that is hurting the campaign. We are trying to change the culture here from promoting actions and posts that hurts the campaign towards ways that get Dr. Paul elected.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=28349

 

[rockwell]

As usual, this anecdoctal stuff refers to the views of the actual candidate, and not a select few of his supporters.

But yes, all Ron Paul fans should act appropriately.

And Yet Bush won...TWICE.

Stop worrying about what the MSM reports. If every last Ron Paul supporter was a PhD, they'd hire a batallion of wackjobs to infiltrate.

Go out and talk to someone, tell them how important this is and that Ron Paul is the candidate that will best serve America, the media is irrelevant.

 

[smtwngrl]

please quit making threads like this!
I"m sick of it! sick of it! sick of it!

please we need to do something, its 10 threads a day about single ron paul supporters upsetting someone

I really don't think it's 10 threads a day.

But if it's driving you crazy, don't read them! There's no use causing yourself undue stress.

All we are trying to do is get Ron Paul elected. And this is an obstacle that exists, that we need to know how to deal with. I think there's some intelligent discussion here.

 

[pcosmar]

The threads are IN RESPONSE to bad behavior of Paul supporters that is hurting the campaign. We are trying to change the culture here from promoting actions and posts that hurts the campaign towards ways that get Dr. Paul elected.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=28349

No it is not.
This thread is in response to a media report of an emotional response to ONE Ron Paul supporter out of a hundred.
The campaign is growing every day.
The Media does hit pieces every day, and they will continue.
They will LIE, they will distort and they will exaggerate.
Accept it and get over it.

 

[Captain Shays]

Steve,

I'm pretty well informed and I read a lot fo the right stuff and listen to a lot fo the right people.
My question to you, is how deeply and under what circumstances should we get into the New World Order, the NAU, NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA, SPP, and the Federal Reserve?
My take right now, and you may disagree, is that we're not running against the main stream Republicans. We're running against the CFR and Mike Huckabee.

To me, the CFR is the cornerstone of the mainstream media, the extra-national trade agreements, the military industrial complex and the financial system that is both draining our wealth and transferring it to developing countries and multi-national corporate interests.

Am I wrong?

 

[stevedasbach]

I can't stand it anymore. Could someone PUHLEASE change Rapid to Rabid in the title?

Sorry about the typo. Unfortunately I can't edit the title.

 

[freedominnumbers]

Just review your Anita Andrews course materials with supporters before you go out talking to people.

Smile, wave, never argue, you win.

 

[kaleidoscope eyes]

http://www.capecodtoday.com/blogs/index.php/BostonBureau/2007/10/24/mobs_turn_out_for_obama_rally

Obama Rocks at the Boston Rally

Bostonians went wild

By Libby Hughes, Boston Bureau for Cape Cod Today

<snip>

Then, a rabid Ron Paul supporter approached a young couple behind me. They were independents, willing to listen to anyone. The man who collared them was Russian. He said, "You Americans don't realize that big government leads to tyranny. I've been through socialism and communism, I know. That's where you're going, too. The government will take all your money." By the end of his tirade, he was shouting.

<snip>

This was in no way a hit piece on Paul. It was simply the observation of the reporter.

There are way too many reports like this. IMO, this type of behavior is really undermining Paul's campaign.

Whenever we encounter this type of behavior from our fellow Paul supporters, offline or online, we need to whatever we can to discourage it. You don't get a second chance to make a first impression -- let's make sure the first impressions people get from Paul supporters are positive.

yes, one can attract more with honey than with vinegar.

 

[stevedasbach]

Steve,

I'm pretty well informed and I read a lot fo the right stuff and listen to a lot fo the right people.
My question to you, is how deeply and under what circumstances should we get into the New World Order, the NAU, NAFTA, CAFTA, FTAA, SPP, and the Federal Reserve?
My take right now, and you may disagree, is that we're not running against the main stream Republicans. We're running against the CFR and Mike Huckabee.

To me, the CFR is the cornerstone of the mainstream media, the extra-national trade agreements, the military industrial complex and the financial system that is both draining our wealth and transferring it to developing countries and multi-national corporate interests.

Am I wrong?

Assuming I'm the Steve you directed this to, here's my 2-cents worth:

IMO, we need to take our lead from Dr. Paul in how we promote his candidacy. Stress the issues he stresses. Otherwise potential supporters get mixed messages.

I don't think we're running "against" any of the other candidates -- at least not yet. We're building support for Dr. Paul. People are already unhappy with their choices. We have to show them they have a choice who "doesn't completely suck" (as Liv puts it). And we have to convince them that he can win.

 

[Adamsa]

Honestly I think if we stay away from conspiracy theories like Zionists running the world and 9/11 being an inside job, we'd be completely fine, only thing then we'd be guilty of is perhaps having too much passion for Ron's campaign.

 

[jon_perez]

Honestly I think if we stay away from conspiracy theories like Zionists running the world and 9/11 being an inside job...

Absolutely. For one thing, these beliefs don't even reflect Ron Paul's views at all!

 

[Captain Shays]

I get what you guys are saying, especially Steve. But..... (ain't there always a but?)

But the CFR is a very real group who inhabits a very real office in NYC and who has a very real list of members including Hillary, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Biden, Dodd, Goulaini, McCain, Romney and Thompson.
Their agenda is also very real and well expressed. Their influence is remarkable and wide spread politically socially, globally and in the media.

Everything about these people, their philospphy and their actions is opposed to the sound Constitutional princples that our candidate believes in.

It is no more a 'theory" in my opinion to point out who they are, and what they want to do, any more than to point out who the Democrats are and what they want to do. The CFR is every bit as real as the Democrat Party or the Republican Party, and their names are not secrets nor is their agenda which is globalization.

The CFR is a potent and real threat to all of us. To our liberties and our sovereignty as a nation. They through their influence in the media are corrupting and have corrupted our electoral process. Their foreign policy is based in interventionism and is shared by all of the candidates who are members from both the major parties.

I respect Steve's opinion as I do everyone else who has responded to myquestion, but with respect, I need to say, that we would be making a huge mistake not to focus on the threats posed by electing another CFR candidate to the presidency let alone any other office.

In peace, truth and liberty,

Captain Shays