Ron Paul's campaign should be working the issue of media coverage. We need to focus on getting people registered to vote, educating people about the issues that face us, educating people on Ron Paul's message of freedom, and getting money by the truckloads as a minimum weekly to ensure the campaign can show non-erratic results and be able to actually plan out a course of action based on money in the bank versus money that may come due to long lags of time from these massive donations. I seem to be quite alone on these issues.
Here I'll spell it all out for all of you.
If you go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_bomb and read the entire history of the money bomb you might begin to grasp what I am about to say.
Between Dan, Elders, Nordstrom, Lyman, Krzyzanowski, Yao, and others whose name I am not familiar (and in that order), and the general online Ron Paul support community, plus the offline community, we have all generated a ton of loot for Ron Paul. Far more than he ever dreamed.
Due to the mixing of Elders and Nordstrom's efforts with Lyman's and the video people, throw in the Ron Paul Graphs, and the common voice of all of us (all of us meaning - this generation, the patriots of liberty, Ron Paul supporters, you) doing our best to spread the word, and we got us a machine!
I read allot about ego. I read allot about who did what, who is better that who, what is important and what is not, y`all need to settle down and remember that the person who posted before you and the person who posts after you are all on your side and are all on the same team.
Now, there is a division at the moment. Lyman is doing his thing and I am proud that he has held his ground. True he shouldn't inflate his ego because that fact that the 5th was a success was not his doing - it was all of your doing. It was the right place at the right time with the right people carrying the flag up the hill.
This division I speak of is simple to describe. Some of us believe that focusing on one or two (maximum) online fund raisers is the best way to go. Your frustration is gumming up the forum.
The fact of the matter is that you can try all you want to try and hold all the donations into one or two fund raisers but it is a bit like holding sand in your hand. The tighter you grip, the more sand falls out. Loosen up.
Elders and I have always supported any and all money raising donation schemes for Ron Paul. If it raised $100.00 to $4,000,000.00 we always advertised it and spread it around in the forums and directly on our website.
Prior to my adventures with the website, I was a general Ron Paul supporter. I went to his donation page and gladly gave up $100.00. I felt good about contributing. A month passed and I began to wonder how many other people out there donated $100.00. Hell I am a damn Sergeant I don't make squat for money I wanted to donate more but diapers are damn expensive. I started thinking about making a website that has the intent of encouraging people to donate more than once and making it feel like the donating party is part of a large movement. (A rEVOLution)
Thats when I happened across Elders Email Opt-In donation idea
[email protected] - I thought this was absolutely genius - except for one thing - there is nothing to look at. People might as well go directly to Ron Paul's donation page. Without signing up. I built a website. I asked politely of Elders if it met with his satisfaction. I asked because this was now a group effort and his opinion was important. We began posting the words "Ron Paul Money Bomb" every where. I myself stayed awake 36 hours doing nothing but posting ads, blogs, comments, emails, anything and slapping the term "Money Bomb" onto it. We knew we had a hit! We knew that people would come by the thousands. The ronpaulmoneybomb.com site was ready, a date was set and off we went.
It was strange, we had amassed more than 1000 people very quickly. Crazy quick. But then as quickly as the pledges came they virtually stopped. We pulled in $30,000.00 dollars from Money Bomb 1 (MB1) and I was damn proud. Hell it's more than I make in a year working 60 hour work weeks on F-15s.
Our name-sake "The Money Bomb" was all over the internet at this time. I mean everywhere. But we still thought it strange that we weren't gathering pledges as fast as we should have been. We did some investigating. We found, virtually at every place we had left and ad, comment, or blog, someone else was advertising. We found that someone was advertising a (quote) "November 5th Money Bomb". We looked up the site and sure enough, people were flocking to the November 5th Money Bomb? This wasn't the Money Bomb, we were the Money Bomb. Hey that was our idea! That dude hijacked all or our pledgers!
But not so fast. Lyman did a hell of a job with linking up the V for Vendetta theme. Even the off line community could be seen wearing Fawkes Masks. So there began the life of the term Money Bomb in our common lingo. Although upset at first (because Elders and I were trying to get our idea off the ground) we settled in and figured - eh' as long as it helps Ron Paul - right on.
We did figure we would get some assistance from Lyman after the 5th but so far he seems to not care too much for all the rest of us. I don't mean that in a negative way just an observation. He believes in what he is doing and that is commendable. Do I agree with his methods post November 5th? Hell no.
The sway of 20,000 people and the wake of the $4 Million dollar bonanza has given Lyman a sort of fame. He is using it to the best he knows how. The problem is that he seems to be driven to out perform his previous sucess, hopefully not at the expense of the campaign but absolutely at the expense of those persons such as myself who worked so hard to see the success of the 5th, saw the payout to the campaign, can contribute so much more - however now passed over and stifled by a mans pride - we find ourselves in limbo.
The division I spoke of earlier is the difference between those who want to narrow the funnel to only two sites versus those (the majority) who want free and open donation sites, the more the better, (without being hassled by some moron speaking out against it). I can't count how many times I have now placed a reminder to folks about the Ron Paul Money Bomb site, only to go back and find some ass-hat telling people not to do it but rather to focus only on the Tea Party only.
The grains of sand will slip from a tightened fist. There must be and is a balance. Due to the work we have all done as described from the beginning of this long ass note until now, we have collectively found a new form of campaign donation system. The machine.
The reason we attend the donations website versus going directly to Ron Paul's donation page is simple. We all feel part of a larger team when we get together and help Ron Paul to confuse the powerful in Washington.
There are five prongs to the system we have developed/stumbled upon.
1. Weekly donations are absolutely essential. They are an important introduction into the donation drive world. They ensure that people who would otherwise have only donated once, repeat the process a few more times. Garnering the campaign a few extra bucks. They are important because they help other smaller donation sites out by advertising them. They keep money flowing into the main campaign during the lull times in between the Mass Donation Drives. The weeklies are also (to the weeky's peril) a gateway into the larger Mass Donations.
2. Rogue donators are essential, they are the bulk of the donations between the large Mass Donation Drives and they keep the campaign moving along with cash. The rogues are usually people who don't give a hoot about donation drives or don't have the time for them.
3. The online campaign support community itself. The efforts of thousand of hands and minds advertising for the weekly and the mass donation drives are what brings fresh people into the scene. Without the online support community nothing would happen. The best ideas come from this prong of the system as well. The vast resources of the online community is absolutely amazing.
4. The off line support community is perhaps the biggest boost this donation system has. The shear numbers of people willing to contribute is astonishing. Some folks never set eyes on a website and yet they donated on the 5th of November for example.
5. The Mass Donation Drive. The cocaine of the donation system. Mass Donation Drives greatest flaw is the amount of time required to generate interest and then the damage to the campaign cannot be denied. The longer a Mass Donation Drive takes to gain momentum, the longer the main campaign goes without the bigger funding required to run a campaign. The trade off and the balancing act is to generate enough momentum to generate massive sums of money while not starving the campaign of funds. The Mass Donation Drive does provide some media attention to the candidate however, the Donation Drive itself becomes the news and not the candidate (main stream media), and one person is accredited for the success of the Mass Donation Drive. In reality it required an army of people to make it happen and so to the Main Stream Media begins to shine the light on that one individual. The army, who made the Mass Donation drive is sidelined. However , the overall success of the Mass Donation Drive quickly overcomes any malice and the clock is reset. At this point the people at the Mass Donation are required to hand the baton back to the weekly donation drives. The individuals who had pledged money into the Mass Donation Drive now have an opportunity to continue to feed the campaign needed cash.
With the advent of the Rudysreadinglist one can see that the system broke down at that point.
The Ron Paul Money Bomb and many other faithful donation oriented websites that are backed up by faithful and passionate patriots have now been sidelined and rendered useless by the over-reach of the Mass Donation Drives. Cocaine.
It isn't too late to salvage the system. The mechanisms work. Proof of that is simple. Look at Ron Paul's total donations. The Mass Donation Drive (as of now) is only half the amount pulled in.
The facts are that it doesn't matter if we have 100 donation sites, what matters is the collective effort by the 100. Each dollar is as important as another. Success should not be measured by who made the most or who has the best website. What matters is what the collective places into Ron Paul's campaign. Having two websites ONLY is counter productive.
Rules to follow: Spread the widest net possible. Help each other with each others attempt to raise money for Ron Paul. Do not horde information and do not horde influence. You may not thin it a big deal but congratulate someone for making a buck or two for Ron Paul and help him to make it more successful. Ensure that you keep the love in rEVOLution because your bad attitude and poor manners reflect upon Ron Paul and his bid for the Oval Office. Cooperate, be a friend, help out, don't stifle ideas.
If you do anything other than those rules. Well, you are a counterproductive member of the support group and your tone, words, or additude should be made aware to you, if you continue you should be shown the door.
Now, I have advertised allot this week, I have a few Meet-up groups attending Monday's Money Bomb (unless someone sent them an email and told them to focus on the Tea Party) and so I can use some of the support we had prior to our system being fed cocaine. Furthermore the main campaign needs cash. So, I am hoping that we can all agree that we need to pull it together and support something more than this wacky (2 sites to victory crap). We have a long way to go. December is only the beginning.
I have two young boys - I cannot begin to imagine the quasi-autocratic society they will have to endure if we don't succeed.
We have one opportunity, just ONE CHANCE to see liberty restored. Every negativity you spew, every power grab you attempt, every project you spit on, and every aspect of our online community you disrespect you diminish that ONE CHANCE piece by piece.
It may sound goofy, but ask yourself if the founding fathers would utter some of the crap that we read (that were posted by our fellow Ron Paul supporters). Make a good impression.
Unite - work as one - help for all who need it - this is a fight weather you take it serious or not. I guarantee those who are currently in power are watching this and us very closely. If you don't believe that this is a fight for our general way of life and the preservation of the Constitution - wake up.
I am just one of your fellow patriots and I am damn proud to be a part of this attempt to awaken our sleeping fellow citizens to the possibility of liberty again and always.
If you need anything - I'll be here ->
www.ronpaulmoneybomb.com
V/r
Eric Nordstrom
