Last night we all watched as our expectations were crushed in Iowa, and today everyone is asking, "Why did it happen like this? Who is to blame?"
People are casting around and throwing aspersions on all and sundry, from the campaign staff to the media to the voters of Iowa. But no one is willing to address the most pertinent question of all -- what could we, the grassroots, have done differently? No one seems willing to engage in a little introspection and see where our fault lies.
Sure, the campaign bears some blame. We've all heard the horror stories about how they don't effectively exploit the media, don't actively court big name endorsements, don't coordinate well enough with the grassroots, and all that.
Ron himself bears some of the blame for not holding his staff more accountable for the poor performance thus far, for not working hard enough to streamline his presentation, for not spending enough time on the trail shaking hands and making his case to people besides his already die-hard supporters, and more.
But how many times have we in the grassroots found ourselves saying, "If we win it will be in spite of the campaign staff, not because of them! If we win it will because of us"?
Well, last night shows us just how far We the People still have to go. Last night exposes so many of our weaknesses. Last night gives us cause to look at ourselves for once and try to figure out where we went wrong.
I watched these forums last night as the results rolled in and our spirits fell, and what I saw shocked me. I read with dismay the comments of many posters on this board, and only shook my head at the naivete and anti-social attitudes on display here.
And no, I'm not talking about the "OMGZ! It's all over! I give up!" posts. I'm talking about the ones where people were cursing the voters of Iowa and blaming them for our failure.
I watched people ranting about "stupid cornfed hicks ruining everything". Well, guess what! "Cornfed hicks" vote too. They always have, and usually in much greater numbers than our current support base of young suburbanites. Moreover, most rural voters haven't even heard of Ron Paul, because they don't spend all damned day on the internet or sipping Starbucks in some trendy wifi hotspot.
They are the working people who make up the backbone of this nation, and indeed of the Republican Party, whose nomination we are trying to win, and if you want to win this thing you'd better drop the superiority complex and start courting them.
Even worse, I watched agape as people ranted about our elders, who have always been the people who are most politically active, saying idiotic things like, "I fucking hate old people", and "look at all these damned old people OMG".
Let me tell you something: If you didn't know that the elderly were going to turn out to vote on election day, you must have been living in a fucking cave all your life. It is axiomatic in politics that college students make a big noise and get in everyone's face in the run up to election day, but then sit on their asses when the time comes, whereas the elderly quietly go about their business, letting the politicians come to them, and then roll out on election day and decide who wins and who loses.
And if you think you can bring them around to our guy with an "I fucking hate old people" attitude, you are severely deluded and are no help at all to our cause.
Yeah, I've heard all the arguments about how old people are just selfish and looking out for themselves and their social security checks, and I tell you right now that it's bullshit. Those kinds of remarks come from the same people who "fucking hate old people" and think we can rely on college kids to get and vote for us.
If you want to win this thing, you'd better start showing some respect for the people who actually vote. You'd better become 'that nice young man who held the door for me and gave me this Ron Paul flier.'
But most important of all, so many people here think we can rely on Independents and crossover Democrats to win this thing for us, and last night just goes to show that type of thinking is idiocy.
This is a Republican primary, and it will be decided by Republicans. Sure, I welcome all the crossover and Indy support we can get. We love you guys and you're sorely needed, but we have to face the facts -- you cannot win this election for us all on your own.
Too many of you out there are living in a fucking fantasy land if you think we can win the Republican primary by just doing our own thing, looking down our noses at the average Republican, calling him a "rethug" or a "repug", and screaming "Neocon!!!!!" at everyone who questions or disagrees with us.
I guarantee that most of those people caucusing last night had never met a real life Ron Paul supporter before, and probably half of them had never even heard of Ron Paul. Why is that? Is it a failure of the campaign? Is it the fault of the media? Of course, but only in part.
We should know by now that we cannot expect the media to help get our message out there. We can't expect the campaign to do it for us, either. What we have to do, if we want to win the Republican nomination, is take over the whole damned Party, and we ain't going to do that on the Internet.
How many of you -- be honest -- have actually attended a Republican Party meeting or event in your area? How many of you introduced yourselves to the GOP officials in your county? How many of you have volunteered to be a precinct captain or a poll worker? How many of you have actually marched into the lions' den and made the case for Daniel?
Not enough of you, I guarantee it.
I'm telling you now. We will never win this thing unless more of you put your prejudices aside, put on a decent shirt and a tie, and go show the Republican Party activists in your area that Ron Paul supporters are real people with real concerns and real conservative values. Show them that we are the future of the Party and that they need to get on board with us if they expect to win the general election or maintain any shred of relevance in the coming years.
It's far too easy to look at them and make excuses and blame them for our apparent lack of success than it is to look at ourselves and ask, "What could I do to bring these people around?"
But the answer is easy, and it just starts with introducing yourself. I don't care what your background is or what feelings you've had for the Republican Party until this point. The fact is that we're not going to win the Republican primary without courting the Republican voters, so you'd better hold your nose and take the plunge.
