The March Must Be About The Message, Not The Man. *Please Read*

[humanic]

I started this thread, entitled "The March Must Be About The Message, Not The Man", earlier today. This title may be a bit misleading, and I have had time to edit and better nail down the point I was trying to make. I want to share it with you now, because I think it is important. Here it is in a nutshell:

This march should be, in essence, The March For Freedom, Liberty, and the Constitution, Led By Ron Paul, as opposed to The March For Ron Paul

The following was posted on Daily Paul a short while ago. It was met with the exact kind of passionate division that you would expect, and it illustrates why I feel the way that I do:

How are we going to get the message out to the 9/11 truthers (who mistakenly believe that Paul agrees that 9/11 was inside job), not to carry "9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB" signs at the March? If they carry signs like this, this will be shown on the news and it's what the public will focus us on if this happens. The public will generalize that we all believe that and are lunatics. This could be a nightmare for the Paul campaign.

Paul said at the debate that 9/11 truthers should stay quiet about it and that they hurt the campaign. So, far it doesn't look like they respect that advice.

(This is not a free speech issue. I'm aware that they have a RIGHT to carry such signs. I'm talking about PURSUADING them not to carry the signs, for the best interest of the campaign.)

It is an unavoidable reality that there will be individuals who show up at this march and express controversial points of view. Even if you were able to get every single Ron Paul supporter to agree on which views should and should not be expressed (which will never happen), there will be people who show up who are not even supporters of Ron Paul. Some will even be our enemies seeking to undermine and divide us.

If it is The March For Ron Paul, there will inevitably be some Ron Paul supporters who will try to silence those who express views that they find too controversial (with the good intentions of "protecting" Ron Paul and his campaign). There will division amongst the marchers and a widespread collectivist mentality that is contrary to what Ron Paul stands for.

If it is The March For Freedom, Liberty and The Constitution, Led By Ron Paul, we will not be prone to such division and collectivism. We won't encourage this collectivist mindset where everyone argues about what hurts Ron Paul and what doesn't and who needs to be censored by the majority. Though most of the people there will be loudly supporting Ron Paul (as they should), there will not be a need for one group of people to try to silence another. There won't be a discussion about whether or not "we" should "let" people exercise their first amendment rights. Instead, we can all embrace the fact that people are exercising their God-given right to speak freely, which is a big part of what we are fighting to preserve.

Furthermore, we will show the country and the world that, unlike the supporters of other candidates, we support Ron Paul not because of a cult of personality, but because we share his core values and beliefs. We will demonstrate that we don't just talk the talk of freedom, we walk the walk and practice what we preach.

Thank you for reading, and please keep the discussion on this thread calm, friendly, and civilized.

"The freedom message brings us together; it doesn't divide us"
- Ron Paul

 

[theantirobot]

How about make signs that require more then one person to carry. Big banner type things. If you see someone with a 9/11 truth sign, invite them to help you carry your gigantic freedom banner and leave there's behind, where someone will covertly dispose of it. We could organize multiple teams to do this.

 

[Hurricane Bruiser]

Constitution Restoration Rally

Legalize the Constitution

 

[AlbemarleNC0003]

Drag/leather queens vs gay people.

I know all about this crap. They show the most vocal, fringe people and make the claim that we're all the same.

 

[Jeremy]

I think Real ID should be a main focus of this too

 

[boondoggle]

This is definitely a real issue with the march. Remember that, when being there, you are representing Ron Paul. Not yourself, not your personal beliefs, but him. And he wouldn't be carrying a 9/11 truth, white supremacist, or whatever other beliefs people may have that contradict his own.

Now, this isn't to say that it's throwing the focus on Paul, it's actually throwing the focus on Paul and his ethics, morals, and especially his decision to make public decisions when, and only when, they adhere to the Constitution. It's his strict respect for the Constitution that has got him so much respect from me and most people I know, it'd be a mistake not to at least make that a strong part of the march's message.

 

[acptulsa]

Maybe we should call it The Patriots' March Against the Patriot Act.

 

[humanic]

This is definitely a real issue with the march. Remember that, when being there, you are representing Ron Paul. Not yourself, not your personal beliefs, but him. And he wouldn't be carrying a 9/11 truth, white supremacist, or whatever other beliefs people may have that contradict his own.

This underscores my point. We should NOT be there representing Ron Paul, the man, and his beliefs on specific issues. We should be there representing the core issues that this country is founded on and which bring us all together. Ron Paul has a diverse group of supporters who strongly disagree on many specific issues (some of which are "hot topics"), but we are united in our support of freedom, liberty, and the Constitution. This is what the march should be about. We do not need people telling other people what to say or do, and this will inevitably happen if it is a Ron Paul march and not a freedom march. We are all united in a fight for individual liberty, and making it a Ron Paul march will lead to a widespread collectivist mentality, the very thing we are fighting against.

 

[Kingfisher]

Constitution Restoration Rally

Legalize the Constitution

GOOD!!

 

[chelu]

"The freedom message brings people together, it doesn't divide us." The theme should be the Constitution/Liberty/Freedom/Bill of Rights/Civil Liberties.

To tie in Ron Paul and draw attention to him, I think signs should be Ron Paul quotes. We have a plethora of choices to choose from at RonPaulLibrary.org If it's not part of the Ron Paul platform (e.g. Impeach Bush-Cheney/9-11 Truth/etc.) I think it would better serve us to leave out those messages.

 

[dvictr]

Marijuana TRUTH

 

[affa]

I posted this as it's own thread in the March subforum but it never got read and dropped out o' sight.
but it fits in here:
Ron Paul stands for freedom. Pretty much everyone can get behind this idea. This march can be HUGE.

That said, some of the threads going on here give me great cause for concern.

Specifically, we need to understand that Ron Paul attracts people from all walks of life. Not just people like... some of you.

In addition to promoting this March, we need to seriously start pushing forth the truth about Ron Paul. That he is NOT racist. That he is NOT homophobic. Because right now? That's what a lot of people still think.

The last thing we need to do is have Ron Paul's rally be protested by organizations that SHOULD be on our side! We need to clear the air. We need the activists acrtoss the country on our side.

Say what you will (or, actually, maybe don't) about truthers, gay pride advocates, and other 'activists' that some of you ex-Fox News watchers hate with a passion, but they have a lot of experience with rallies. They can all be on our side, promoting RON PAUL.

I am NOT advocating people pushing their own message. What I am trying to get across is that if we do not make a move to include groups like this, we very well may end up being protested by them. And why? Because we failed to truly deal with the misinformation campaign against Ron Paul. Sure, we were satisfied, and it dropped out of the news cycle... but we did not address it as properly as we should have. How do I know this? Because I live in an activist city and people still don't know the truth - they still wonder. And they shouldn't wonder, because Ron Paul is no racist.

Specifically, the following groups have a lot of experience with large protests and/or rallies, and all should be on our side:

1. Minorities.
2. Anti-War
3. Gay Pride
4. Anti-WTO/IMF types
5. Truthers.

All of the groups above want freedom. ALL of them, to some degree, could and would support Ron Paul if they understood his message and were not filled with disinformation (specifically, groups 1,2, and 3 - we probably already have a good portion of 4 and 5).

I can tell you right now - anyone coming across some of these threads that is gay or lesbian, or supports gay and lesbian pride, would be turned off instantly by certain posters thinking that they're being 'funny'. I'm not trying to be a PC cop here - I'm trying to explain something that everyone here really needs to understand - we need everyone behind us. We need unity. We need freedom. And the last thing we need are organized protests against us from people that should be protesting WITH us.


We need to deal with the original smears. We need to reach out to the activist left. We need videos showing Ron Paul in action throughout the 80's, 90's, and 00's railing against the racism found in the War on Drugs (and the War on Terror, for that matter). We need to explain that he doesn't believe gov't should have anything to do with marriage. That he doesn't care what two people do on their own time. We need to get across that he would pardon non violent drug offenders. We need to FOCUS On this - on how many people he would effectively 'free'. This alone is a powerful dismissal of any claims of racism.

To the posters on this board who are homophobic - please, please understand you don't represent all of us. But a single post here or there implicates everyone, and it implicates Ron Paul.

This Ron Paul March should be HUGE. But in order to best accomplish that, we need to reach out to the people that are established protesters and ralliers, and get them behind the Ron Paul message ASAP!

 

[UKLooney]

Democrats should be invited too, to tell Obama they want some real change...

 

[affa]

everyone needs to be invited.

and everyone needs to be informed as to why they should support Ron Paul. Yes, right now we are in a Republican primary. But on the larger scale, we're in a fight for the American heart and mind. And we need everyone in this march.

 

[fedup100]

I think we need to ask Paul if we should march for him or the movement. It was his instruction, he needs to be the final word.

 

[micahnelson]

March of the Patriots

 

[affa]

March of the Patriots

my only criticism of this, and it's not one i'm sure that i'll get across correctly, is that thanks to our current US gov't the word 'patriot' carries some negative associations.

that is, using the current media definition of the word, many might think it's people who support our current gov't. Yes, many people on this board know what patriots are and that a proper patriot stands up to his gov't when needed... but this isn't the current definition of the word and it can therefore be misconstrued.

Something like 'March for Freedom' might be better for this reason. We're not supporting the gov't, we're trying to change it.

 

[RonPaulVolunteer]

Perhaps, but for me this march is about one thing, getting Paul into the White House by showing the GOP all the votes they won't have in November if Paul is not the nominee.

 

[solrac]

If I see anyone with a 9/11 inside job sign at the march, I'm tearing it down. I don't care who is holding the sign. The sign's coming DOWN

 

[humanic]

I think Real ID should be a main focus of this too

That is the beauty of a freedom march. People are free to express whatever they want, and many people will express their opposition to Real ID on their own. We don't need a collectivist mentality where the majority tells us what issues this march is and is not about and uses coercion to force compliance. That is the exact opposite of what Ron Paul stands for and exactly the mentality that we are all united against.