This story was first published today by Djentrify. Amazing... -------------------------------------- I first heard about Ron Paul in 2001. I was just starting to get into free market capitalism and paleoconservative thinking. One of the first webzines that I happened upon by accident one day was Lewrockwell.com. After reading a few of Ron Paul's articles I was hooked . Not only was this guy of the same political persuasion as me, but he also held a position in Congress. Maybe my pro market capitalist libertarian views weren't totally insane after all. In 2004 I signed the Ron Paul for President petition. Old fans of Ron Paul will remember exactly what I'm talking about. Last year when I heard he was running for office, naturally I was over the moon, but as thrilled as I was, I was near positive he would poll around 1% and raise around $20,000. My candidates are never very popular, liberty is just a buzzword these days it seems. I can't tell you what I felt after Ron Paul won the first Fox News debate phone poll, it was the exact opposite of what I felt when a girl told me she thought she might be pregnant one time. Although I didn't get to feel that wonderful feeling of surprise and joy tonight that I felt after the Fox News poll, that doesn't mean that I'm giving up. As I scan over the posts on this forum, I'm seeing many who seem ready to throw in the towel. I actually read someone who said "If we can't do better than 5th in IA, whats the point in even trying, its just a waste of money and time." I don't vote for a candidate based on whether he is gonna win or not (I leave that up to Giuliani and Clinton supporters to do), and before tonight neither did most of you, I vote for a candidate because that candidate represents what I believe in and I fight for what I believe in until the end even if I know from the begining that I'm gonna lose. This is a matter of principle, if this country is moving in the wrong direction, they're gonna have to drag me kicking and screaming. In the end, do you wanna be the guy saying "See, I told you so" or the guy who has to admit "Yeah, you were right"? If I give up now do I even have a right to complain about the state of our country when the next president is elected and we see "politics as usual"? We all know who the candidate of change is in this election, and it ain't Obama or Hillary, all we gotta do now is let their supporters know that. It's been 15 years since Pat Buchanan ran, and 44 years since Barry Goldwater ran, 15 years since we have had a candidate running in a major party that we can unite behind and 44 years since one won the Republican caucus, and it probably won't happen again in any of our lifetimes. Think about that for a minute, THIS WILL PROBABLY BE THE LAST ELECTION THAT YOU WILL EVER TRULY CARE ABOUT. This will probably be the only election you ever donate to, or hand out flyers for, or meet others and make friends with those who think like you do. Now is our shot at liberty, now is the time to fight because we'll have the rest of our lives to be apathetic to politics, so lets fight now and complain later. When this is all over I don't wanna look back at this time in my life and say "I wish I would have done more, I wish I wouldn't have left it up to others to fight for what I believe in." Up until now, that's exactly what I've done. I've contributed a measly 50 dollars to Ron Paul's campaign, talked to a few friends and convinced a handful of people, but tonight I'm gonna change that, as of tonight I'm actually gonna get off my ass and fight for what I believe in. If I don't stand up for my principles then who will? I truly believe that Ron Paul supporters are the brightest bunch in politics, and I know for a fact they're the most passionate. We started off broke, no one new who Ron Paul was, the ones who did called him crazy and laughed at us. Since the end of the summer we've taken a candidate polling at 1% with no money, raised him 20 million dollars in 3 months, broken a world record in single day campaign contributions, and built more websites then all of the other candidates combined. We've even raised him money for a blimp for God's sake, a friggin BLIMP!!! Have any campaign managers with their Harvard MBAs and posh business suits ever thought of that? We've won just about every straw poll, internet poll, and post debate phone survey, and we did all this with NO support from the MSM. Ron Paul and his campaign managers didn't do this, WE DID!!! The next time any one of you think we can't win this thing, I want you to think about that. We had NO HELP FROM ANYONE. We're the most technologically advanced voters in this election and like I said, we're definitely the smartest, all we gotta do now is figure out how to use it to get to our fellow citizens. Can you imagine if we were as organized as the mainstream politicians, we would have blown this thing out of the water already. Never before in the history of politics has this ever been done, and Ivy league political science classes will probably be studying what we're doing today for the next 20 years, so lets give them something to read about. At the beginning of the chapter entitled "The Internet, Politics, and the 21st Century" I want the first paragraph to be about what we have done and how we have done it. So lets not morn what happened in Iowa tonight, instead lets be thankful to God for leading us to the first step and for giving us a wakeup call saying "This is it, this is what you say you've been waiting for all of these years, you gonna get up and do something about it or you gonna just watch from the sidelines?" I want all of us tomorrow to examine 1 question, "Am I doing everything that I can do to win this election?" From now on don't work like its Ron Paul running in this election, work like its YOU who's running in this election.
Well, it's a nice story, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to be the wet blanket. First off, I like Ron Paul. I tend to lean more towards the Kucinich side in the 2008 race, but they have a lot in common and I support many of Ron Paul's views. That said, neither Kucinich nor Ron Paul have a chance. If Iowa taught us anything, it's that Ron Paul polls higher than reality. In other words, if you were to conduct an online poll and include Ron Paul's name on it, he'll do better in that poll than in the actual election. I also have to question the logic behind the Ron Paul blimp. Did you consider that perhaps there's a reason why Harvard MBA's and campaign managers don't support spending money on a blimp. It's all about perception. Do you want your candidate to be considered a serious contender, or do you prefer that people see his campaign as a circus act? Also, the phrasing "Ron Paul Revolution" probably isn't smart if you are trying to attract senior voters, which is the same as saying it's not smart phrasing if you want to win an election, because you DO need considerable support from senior voters since they always vote in higher percentages than the rest of the population.
You missed the whole point about fighting for principle, even if you are going to lose. It's that kind of defeatist attitude that has allowed us to have a succession of sh1thead candidates for how long now? That's the challenge to overcome. The campaign did not spend any money on it. The campaign has nothing to do with it. It's totally paid for and run by supporters. We're not running a perception campaign. It's not putting lipstick on a pig over here. It's about ideas and principles, not pandering and targeted marketing. The Revolution is not an official campaign slogan. It's (again) from the grassroots. As are the REVOLUTION T-Shirts, signs etc. This campaign is highly decentralized. a lot of individuals spontaneously forming groups to accomplish goals, then breaking up again and working individually. Perhaps you should re-read the first post again to understand who and what is behind this campaign. It's not the military industrial complex, big media or Wall Street. It's everyday folks like you and me, circling the wagons.
Even if he only gets 1% of the vote nationwide, I hope he does not drop out until it's all over. Simply spreading the message, getting people who normally would not get involved will be worth it. I just hope when he loses people who decided to get involved one time in their life do not take it to hard, I hope they look at it as they need to keep up the fight and get others like them involved. I still hope he can win, but I say when he loses as to me spreading the message is a win that could be far greater than him even winning the republican nomination. Not just his message of freedom, but his message of not pandering, of not giving into corporate interests, of not being more of the same.
i'm tired of the nappy grapefruit headed loafers at rpforums complaining all the time, i'm about done with that place. i've tried to get out the word of very important issues and most of my material is swept under the carpet and forgotten about while people keep updating pointless space filling threads. right now i don't care about the "mental status" of my peers. suck it up and learn to be a man. i'm in this for my own reasons, not anybody else's. so if people wanna treat this like some fad or popularity event, go ahead and be forgotten about like everyone else. i'll manage things on my own quite well here in PA.
Paul supporters have to realize while 10% is disappointing to us, it looks like a strong showing to most of the people who have just seen the MSM say he's a fringe candidate. Many of them may taking a deeper look at him after seeing him finish right there with McCain and Thompson and well above Giuliani.
Still no mention whatsoever of Ron Paul on the flagship BBC Ten O'Clock news. If he does well in NH is there any way they can ignore him?????
It's iight, i realize threads do get passed up 1 minute after posting due to hundreds of ppl. I just want to get something organized, set a date and start formulating worthy thought to the future of this rather than talking about what's history. There's 2 types of people i guess, the ones who get pumped after this and realize we really need to make it happen - and the fair weathered fans. This all reminds me of when Pittsburgh was 7-5 in the regular season, but they still had it all there mentally and manned up and decided not to lose another game. I had their back that whole season and remembered game after game naysayers getting shut up. We made the playoffs as a wildcard team and wala! we went to the superbowl and won. A picture in the local newspaper of the team in the locker room rallying around each other in a moment of prayer after they decided they wanted to go from 7-5 to being the SB champion, with the caption under the picture reading, "Be strong. Believe." That's where we are now. Ron Paul made an impression on me which I will keep as a foundation to politics for the rest of my life. I'll ride this horse out until it crashes and burns.. and then I'll get up and ride another one.