With the media ignoring us, do we have a shot? Serious question

[Carole]

I'm pushing like mad to get people registered, sending messages, inviting people to the moneybombs

Over 7 days and we're still short $700k for his end of quarter money bomb which is super important

can we hit the $6 million on oct 19th? Do we stand a chance in the election with them ignoring us?

Spanky, go to this thread below:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?319328-Jon-Stewart-s-Liberal-Challenge-to-Ron-Paul

Read the article. Then go to post at in same thread and read the article InTradePro posted:

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...n-second-gear/

Now read the comments below the article blasting the author!!!! We are winning and Dems are crossing over. Forget the polls; they are sham polls. Forget the media; we may win BECAUSE they are ignoring and denigrating Dr. Paul.

Cheer up. All is well.

 

[Carole]

Spanky,
Are you for real?

Join Date 09-29-2011 Last Activity Today 09:57 PM

{{{hugs}}} withdrawn until I know if you are legit.

 

[wstrucke]

Your negativity is really becoming tiresome.

Pragmatism is not negativity. Whether its due to his age or his pride, Ron Paul is not presenting his message well at the debates. We get it because we've studied it. To the layman it sounds like nonsense and he's not fighting for the time he's due on stage. Feel free to bitch out other supporters, but your time would be better spent getting new people on board because the campaign isn't doing enough.

 

[Article V]

Regardless of how much media coverage Romney gets, his search volume is almost always flat-lining. Perry gets (at least) 2-3x the amount of news volume as Paul, but Paul still ranks as high (if not higher) as Perry in searches. Bachmann is gone.

How can I say all of that? Google trends, ftw!

Cain worries me a little, though. He spiked on the 25th for some reason, but that's also the same time he got more news volume. Double the search volume, double the media coverage? I imagine that once people realize he doesn't know what he's talking about, those search volume numbers will go down.

Also...if you get bummed out about the media ignoring Paul, watch this. That was from last election season. This is 3-4 years later, after all of his predictions about the economic climate came true. As bad as the media is being to him right now, it still wasn't as bad as last time, imo. At least he hasn't gotten left out of a debate yet (although, some might argue he might as well have been with the silly questions they sometimes ask him). People are slowly coming around to him.

I could just be overly optimistic since I read that Huffpo article, though. That was a really good article, hah!

Glad to have you on board!

I know I'm going to get flack for this comment. Because it's nearly unrelated to the comment above and because it's not something anyone wants to hear.

But, see... it's the kind of statements like the guy made above that depress me. It's like every time one of us says, "We should be doing better," someone else says, "We're doing just fine; keep it up."

We are doing fine, yes. But we also need to do better. Fine does not win elections. Comparisons to failed past campaigns do not help us win elections. Who cares why our Google trend remains high? There's no way for us to judge the meaning of that number. Maybe people are searching us because they are curious to see what the freaks are doing. Maybe people are searching us to educate themselves before rejecting us. Maybe people are searching us because we're the same ones doing the searching. Now I don't believe any of those things are the reasons for the GoogleTrending, but there's no way to disprove or to prove them. We can't keep relying on GoogleTrends to make us feel better or to encourage us if we're not seeing a similar growth in the polls. We've been having better GoogleTrends than everyone else for years! Herman Cain gets one day of better GoogleTrending then surprises the media by doubling his poll numbers overnight!

So yes, I find the well-intentioned encouraging statements depressing, because what I hear from these kinds of comments is that everyone else thinks we're doing all we can do, that we'll win if we just keep plugging away, that we should each ignore the reoccurring feeling that we're missing something.

And the evidence we all provide to one another as reason to ignore our feelings is: we're doing so much better than when we started 5 years ago. <Sigh> Really? That's all we've got for encouragement? Because I sure hope we're doing better. It's been 5 long years, a broken economy, 5 simultaneous wars in 5 separate countries, two failed presidencies, debt increases on an exponential scale, major corruption, widespread unemployment, vast devaluation of the dollar, and the unrelenting efforts of a fervent group of tireless Ron Paul supporters who have additionally bred an entirely new group of Republicans known as Tea Partiers. We sure as shit better be doing better after all that!

But come on, what can we do that we aren't already doing? For example, let's look at the just the female voting block. What can we do to make in-roads there? Because whatever we've been doing there for the past 5 years hasn't helped us much. And do we really think we can win without them? Do we really think that if we just keep doing more of the same thing that suddenly after 5 years, they're going to respond differently? I want to focus on them. I want to see that number increase. Because maybe, if we focus on increasing their support, we'll somehow stumble on a way to increase our overall support. Not just in small doses, like we've been doing; but exponentially, like Cain, Santorum, and Gingrich have all done in the span of the past 2 weeks. Just once I'd like to see us grow dramatically like that.

If the RPF represent the movement, then just once I'd like to see an influx of female users here. But that never happens as far as I've been able to tell. Instead, a single girl like Alexa comes in, and the forums go ga-ga because it's the most unique event ever. Why is it unique? Could someone answer that question? Because after 5 years, I don't think that should be a unique event. But it is. And I don't think we've ever successfully answered the question as to why.

And we can't just blame the media. Gingrich has gotten hardly any media, yet he's quadrupled since the last debate. So please, let's stop patting ourselves on the back for a moment, stop blaming the media, stop the conspiracies, and just talk about what else we can do.

I know we deserve the pats on the back, I know the media is to blame, I know there is a conspiracy... but the pats don't win new voters, the blaming doesn't win new voters, the conspiracy theories don't win new voters. I want to win new voters! A lot of them!

Can we please have that discussion without the rest of the same old pats, blames, and conspiracy justifications? I just really want to be above 15%. If Cain can do it, then we need to do it too. And I'd prefer the congratulations stop until then. The congratulations are premature. We should be sweating right now from all the hard work we're doing. And if we're sweating but only making small unsustainable strides, then we need to figure out how to sweat in smarter ways. Okay?

PS. If this wasn't helpful, then just ignore it. It's the feeling I'm having right now, so accept it for the snapshot in time it is. I'm not trying to be negative. I'm trying to figure out how to be more productive.

PPS. Damn, there's been a lot of comments in this forum between when I started this comment and when I finished it. Apologies for it being out of sync.

 

[wstrucke]

I would like to set up a clearing house of Ron Paul's articles, videos, voting record etc with EVERYTHING from historical figures, founding fathers, authors, or whatever to back up his plans and positions. I want to take all the guess work out of it for people and make it really easy for them to find the answers they seek and to find them fast. Then let them make up their own minds. But there is so much BS out there about Ron Paul that when I go into debate forums or respond to articles I am constantly educating people and correcting them about either lies or inaccuracies about Ron Paul and his positions.

This would also be a GREAT way to counter the media lies. IN fact, I really wish the main campaign would do it, but then I realize that WE ARE the campaign so we should do it for Ron Paul.

http://www.ronpaulmyths.com

I know the people who maintain the site, I'm sure it could be expanded to include what you suggest if you want to do (or at least push) the leg work.

 

[Spanky]

We need to call, email, anything and tell paul to fight for his time on stage. it's now or never.

call the headquarters and tell staff members, idk, anything, but he needs to fight for more time

 

[Carole]

Remember the old college saw?

A freshman doesn't know he doesn't know;
A sophomore knows he doesn't know;
A junior doesn't know he knows;
A Senior knows he knows.

America doesn't know it really needs and wants Ron Paul.

How does it come to know?

One sign is that Dems who recognize the left-right paradigm are uniting with Indys and Reps this time in greater numbers for the greater good.

 

[Article V]

The reason you're being perceived as negative is because it is *really* tough to explain his philosophy in sound bytes. Good luck finding a space on TV that will give Ron over 10-15 minutes to discuss the basics of Austrian economics just so people can start to understand where he is coming from in what he says. Our current system is based on the Keynesian model, and our schools also teach it as well. Essentially, we have to un-brainwash people to get them to understand.

I believe I read that you had helped other political campaigns in the past on another forum. I imagine they were more of the status-quo type politicians with no integrity that we see today. Instead of answering the tough questions, most politicians side step them. Ron Paul answers them head on, and that's usually when those "kooky" soundbytes come out. Honestly, I love it when he does that. However, I can see how a lot of mainstream viewers would see him as "weird" or "unelectable" (which is bullshit, because he's been elected into office 11 times...maybe we should ask the MSM how many times one has to get elected to become electable?).

That leads me to this point. I think this is a much different campaign than you're probably accustomed to; it's much more grassroots. Don't get me wrong, your insight is very welcome. It's good to hear opinions from the outside. I think it just irritates people when you tell them something they already know. We know we need to get our message across better, but read that first paragraph again to understand why it's so hard. That doesn't mean you shouldn't bring it up, though. I'm sure there are a lot of new users or lurkers on here that are probably thinking the same thing as you.

Honestly, I think the best way we can get more on-board is by talking with people (whether it be through social media, on the phone, or face to face). This encourages more people to look him up, which in turn allows them to grasp the whole concept of his platform.

You're right. Not as far as the specifics of my life or the campaigns I was on or my exposure to grassroots. But you're right in the spirit of your message as to why I might get perceived as negative and as to what we can do to make a difference. I just want more for us. I know we all do. But I'm really struggling hard to find it. Is that okay?

 

[wstrucke]

I know I'm going to get flack for this comment. Because it's nearly unrelated to the comment above and because it's not something anyone wants to hear.

<snip>

PS. If this wasn't helpful, then just ignore it. It's the feeling I'm having right now, so accept it for the snapshot in time it is. I'm not trying to be negative. I'm trying to figure out how to be more productive.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Article V again.

I tried, sorry. You're spot on correct. None of us should be on here except to pool our ides on how to more effectively raise money and spread the message. Three quarters of the posts on this forums are a circle jerk on how great we're doing which is complete bull shit. We haven't won until we've won and the show's not over until the fat lady sings. We still have time but sitting around congratulating each other on how great we're doing isn't going to come close to winning anything. To all of you complaining about the "negativity" and whatnot, you come across as delusional as FOX news. This is reality, we need to work hard and spend our sweat and blood if we want a chance to win. Until you can get your grandma and your neighbor to see the clear difference between Romney, Perry, and Paul, you haven't done enough.

 

[Article V]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Article V again.

I tried, sorry. You're spot on correct. None of us should be on here except to pool our ides on how to more effectively raise money and spread the message. Three quarters of the posts on this forums are a circle jerk on how great we're doing which is complete bull shit. We haven't won until we've won and the show's not over until the fat lady sings. We still have time but sitting around congratulating each other on how great we're doing isn't going to come close to winning anything. To all of you complaining about the "negativity" and whatnot, you come across as delusional as FOX news. This is reality, we need to work hard and spend our sweat and blood if we want a chance to win. Until you can get your grandma and your neighbor to see the clear difference between Romney, Perry, and Paul, you haven't done enough.

Thanks. Glad I'm not alone.

 

[mainstream economist]

Dr. Paul isn't just trying to get elected. He is trying to get elected to change the course of history.

Changing history is never easy, and no one said a revolution was easy either.

Dr. Paul, through his message, and through his supporters' efforts, has gathered the critical mass necessary for the revolution. The Revolution has begun, but it still has to be won! The rest is up to us. Think about it this way: the Founding Fathers were outmanned and outgunned by the British tyrants in 1776, but they also had enough good men and guns for them to have hope that tactics, ingenuity, and perseverance would lead them to freedom. They had enough devotees of freedom on their side to know that they could spread their message to others in the Colonies. We are in that position right now. Again, it is up to us. This primary election is the most important election of any kind in American history.

Let us not be discouraged, but be inspired to do more and better.

EDIT: It is often said that Dr. Paul is the Thomas Jefferson of our time. Who will step up to the role of Thomas Paine, George Mason, George Washington, etc.? Maybe Judge Napolitano can be James Madison. There were many founding fathers who were simple farmers in their daily lives (Washington and Mason in particular), but nevertheless understood the importance of a free society. We live in exciting times because I feel like there many ordinary people who are starting to play the role of people like George Mason in this revolution. Everyone who participates in this second revolution will be a new Founding Father. Perhaps we won't be famous, but historians will study us and future generations, even if they forget our names and remember only Dr. Paul, will praise us much like we praise the unnamed founding fathers of the past (even while celebrating the well-known ones). However, that praise will have to be earned. Let's go earn it.

 

[Mustang]

Unfortunately the polls show the media still has far too much influence on the election. When Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll earlier, their coverage propelled her to a solid third place for a few weeks. When Perry entered the race, their coverage enabled him to jump to the head of the pack despite having done almost nothing at that point. When the media began to turn against him after his bungled debate performances he began to drop in the polls. Now Cain has been lifted by the media through the coverage on his victory in the Florida straw poll, and he'll likely enjoy at least a few weeks boost in the polls as a result. Romney and Newt benefit from the media praising their debate performances which is reflected in their slowly growing numbers in the polls.

Ron doesn't get any media coverage aside from being dismissed as unelectable and having his weakest debate clips shown out of context, which has led him to be nothing but an afterthought for most primary voters. Ron will always have a solid 5-6% of his core followers in the polls, but breaking out from his peak of 13-15% will be close to impossible until society stops getting their information primarily from the mainstream media. That might happen in 10-20 years from now, but unfortunately for this election Ron is facing immense odds as long as the media ignores and downplays him.

 

[Proph]

I know I'm going to get flack for this comment. Because it's nearly unrelated to the comment above and because it's not something anyone wants to hear.

But, see... it's the kind of statements like the guy made above that depress me. It's like every time one of us says, "We should be doing better," someone else says, "We're doing just fine; keep it up."

We are doing fine, yes. But we also need to do better. Fine does not win elections. Comparisons to failed past campaigns do not help us win elections. Who cares why our Google trend remains high? There's no way for us to judge the meaning of that number. Maybe people are searching us because they are curious to see what the freaks are doing. Maybe people are searching us to educate themselves before rejecting us. Maybe people are searching us because we're the same ones doing the searching. Now I don't believe any of those things are the reasons for the GoogleTrending, but there's no way to disprove or to prove them. We can't keep relying on GoogleTrends to make us feel better or to encourage us if we're not seeing a similar growth in the polls. We've been having better GoogleTrends than everyone else for years! Herman Cain gets one day of better GoogleTrending then surprises the media by doubling his poll numbers overnight!

So yes, I find the well-intentioned encouraging statements depressing, because what I hear from these kinds of comments is that everyone else thinks we're doing all we can do, that we'll win if we just keep plugging away, that we should each ignore the reoccurring feeling that we're missing something.

And the evidence we all provide to one another as reason to ignore our feelings is: we're doing so much better than when we started 5 years ago. <Sigh> Really? That's all we've got for encouragement? Because I sure hope we're doing better. It's been 5 long years, a broken economy, 5 simultaneous wars in 5 separate countries, two failed presidencies, debt increases on an exponential scale, major corruption, widespread unemployment, vast devaluation of the dollar, and the unrelenting efforts of a fervent group of tireless Ron Paul supporters who have additionally bred an entirely new group of Republicans known as Tea Partiers. We sure as shit better be doing better after all that!

But come on, what can we do that we aren't already doing? For example, let's look at the just the female voting block. What can we do to make in-roads there? Because whatever we've been doing there for the past 5 years hasn't helped us much. And do we really think we can win without them? Do we really think that if we just keep doing more of the same thing that suddenly after 5 years, they're going to respond differently? I want to focus on them. I want to see that number increase. Because maybe, if we focus on increasing their support, we'll somehow stumble on a way to increase our overall support. Not just in small doses, like we've been doing; but exponentially, like Cain, Santorum, and Gingrich have all done in the span of the past 2 weeks. Just once I'd like to see us grow dramatically like that.

If the RPF represent the movement, then just once I'd like to see an influx of female users here. But that never happens as far as I've been able to tell. Instead, a single girl like Alexa comes in, and the forums go ga-ga because it's the most unique event ever. Why is it unique? Could someone answer that question? Because after 5 years, I don't think that should be a unique event. But it is. And I don't think we've ever successfully answered the question as to why.

And we can't just blame the media. Gingrich has gotten hardly any media, yet he's quadrupled since the last debate. So please, let's stop patting ourselves on the back for a moment, stop blaming the media, stop the conspiracies, and just talk about what else we can do.

I know we deserve the pats on the back, I know the media is to blame, I know there is a conspiracy... but the pats don't win new voters, the blaming doesn't win new voters, the conspiracy theories don't win new voters. I want to win new voters! A lot of them!

Can we please have that discussion without the rest of the same old pats, blames, and conspiracy justifications? I just really want to be above 15%. If Cain can do it, then we need to do it too. And I'd prefer the congratulations stop until then. The congratulations are premature. We should be sweating right now from all the hard work we're doing. And if we're sweating but only making small unsustainable strides, then we need to figure out how to sweat in smarter ways. Okay?

You and I disagree. That's okay. You think this campaign should be run in another fashion, targeting key demographics and treating people as if they're an object to be won. This goes against the principles of the campaign, though. Our message resonates with all liberty minded people, regardless of whatever groups you want to associate them with. The problem is that some of those people haven't heard the message, yet. It's our job to deliver it (although, the MSM can make this really hard).

We ARE doing fine. Fine is all we need right now. Everyone else is crashing and burning, yet we are steadily gaining momentum. I don't think we've even started spending much yet. I believe the campaign is just about to kick things into a higher gear. Now that the deadline to get on ballots is approaching, the field solidifies. The MSM won't be able to push Christie or Palin anymore. I imagine at least some of that airtime will go towards Paul.

As for Google Trends, you're right. Just because he's getting publicity doesn't mean it's good publicity. However, if people were just dumping him as soon as they searched for him, it seems like his trend would rise and fall sharply with each "dump". People don't really have to have a reason to look him up in order to dump him, either (he's usually got the lowest news volume of all the other candidates). Not to mention he's also had higher and more consistent search trends, as well. Wouldn't you agree that means something?

It could be current supporters looking him up over and over again for material, but that should still show that he has much more support than the other candidates. The media should cover him accordingly, but they don't. That's not an excuse, you're right. But a pat on the back is exactly what we need sometimes to keep going. If we don't pat ourselves on the back, who will? The media? Hah. The campaign? I like to think that *we* are part of the campaign, even if we only supplement ideas.

Coming in here saying we need to panic is just counter-productive right now. Yeah, there will be a crunch time when we'll need to make a big push. That time isn't necessarily right now, though. After October 1st, it's game on.

I know you're trying to help. Thanks for your insight. However, it wouldn't hurt to point out what we are doing *right* every once in a while. How many campaigns have you worked on with a supporter base as fervent as this one?

I'm not going to lie, when I first read your post; I got pissed. Yelling at you and chasing you away doesn't help anybody (except maybe another campaign), though. We need all we can get. What's that old saying?....You can catch more bees with honey than vinegar? I think a lot of people on this forum could take that advice.

If someone pisses you off, don't yell at or berate them. Just prove them wrong. That's why the truth is so great.

Blah. Damn that was long. Hopefully I got my points across.

 

[love_ron]

Lets keep the emotions aside till the first few primaries.
Just focus on what we can do to the best of our ability.

Donate.
Go out and talk to people and educate them.
Register and work as a volunteer and later as a delegate.
Keep thinking and discussing ideas on how to spread the message.

I feel ups and downs every week !
I feel if Ron doesnt win, it would just be because most people are not mature enough to understand the real concerns.

I would also like Ron to be more assertive in demanding time during debates - because debate performance would probably reflect national poll performance - those are cosmetic at best at this stage, but will help.
And some sound bites with his message in simple terms will make people think that what he says can be done and has been done -
like for economy - give the example of a country where Keynesian system has failed and where Austrian has worked.
For terrorism - give the example how other (and more?) prosperous and free countries are not being attacked,because they dont meddle in others' affairs.
For healthcare - how a certain system has worked and how in europe it is in shambles.

talk about his predictions/warnings about economy, housing bubble and terrorism.
talk about his donations from the military.

this people will understand.
just plain theory may not always work, because that will require the people to go back and look up those things, which most will not do.

 

[RIPLEYMOM]

If we allow the media to ignore us, no, we do not have a chance. We are where we are because we do not accept this. We must not ever accept this.

 

[Spanky]

then stake out media stations, do everything. at worst they kick you off. we have to do this, the time is now.

 

[Akus]

to answer the original poster's question, do we stand a chance?
The answer is yes we do.

All we have to do is get our own fecal matter together. I am certain that if we donate NO MORE and campaign NO MORE, but get every, every RP supporter who claims to like RP to actually show up and vote at the primaries, we would still win by a very large margin.

I am tired of "whaa, whaa, Illuminati is ignoring us" crap.
I am tired of "whaa, whaa, Ron Paul isn't given enough time to talk" crap.

Everyone who is genuinely curious about our true state of affairs has already heard of Ron Paul, shares his views and has read at least one of his books. The rest are not worth it, because they already would be RP supporters if they gave a shit. The problem is not media or secret evil cabal holding us back. The problem is we are too busy sitting on the internet and not voting when election time comes around. Again, we stand a chance, all we have to do is show up and vote.

all of us.

 

[Proph]

All we have to do is get our own fecal matter together. I am certain that if we donate NO MORE and campaign NO MORE, but get every, every RP supporter who claims to like RP to actually show up and vote at the primaries, we would still win by a very large margin.

Depending on the state, we have to make sure they're registered Republican first, though. Independents and Democrats can't vote Republican in a closed primary.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?319412-POST-Ron-Paul-s-REP-problem
^^According to the article in that thread, only 1/3 of the people who supported Paul in an ABC poll were registered Republican. We need to change that.

 

[Paul4Prez]

With more and more Americans ignoring the media, they don't have a chance.

Think of the media as the forgotten gatekeepers of an obsolete order from a bygone age. Then stop worrying about them and focus on the people you can influence directly. One of them could be the key to victory. If not them, then someone they can influence...

 

[S.Shorland]

'Opinion polls don't tell you what you think,they tell you what you should think.' - Lenin (I heard somewhere).All the other candidates stole his clothes so he likely won't receive so many donations because of dilution and the economic situation.You have a fascist state there and Paul is a threat to fascists.All the rest of the candidates apart from Cain have horrible records or character flaws.Cain is eminently attackable particularly by Ron because he was a FED chairman! They don't have anyone pristine.Sarah might leave it very,very late and try to hold on but she too has overwhelming negatives to be attacked by the media.He has a chance.