Ron Paul, Texas Congressman and candidate to be the Republican nominee for President, recently finished 2nd in the Ames, Iowa straw poll. He was bested by a mere 152 votes, less than 1% of the 17,000+ cast, to Iowa native and fellow Minnesota Congresswoman, Michele Bachmann. The mainstream media responded to his remarkable performance, a tripling of his vote count as compared to his total in the same poll in 2007, with merely a collective yawn. Only one mainstream television program, “The Today Show”, even bothered to schedule him for an appearance after his strong Saturday straw poll outing but oddly cancelled at the last minute. Paul’s legions of freedom loving supporters promptly cried foul and flooded the email inboxes of mainstream media outlets everywhere. Even progressive humorist Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” waded in, giving a scathing albeit comical critique of the aforementioned media neglect, a video of which quickly went viral. As a supporter of Paul myself I offer this to my fellow freedom lovers: GET OVER IT.
Seriously, get over it. What did we expect? This campaign, or rather this movement is in large part based on the idea of removing the establishment from their well fortified perch. The mainstream media is little more than the mouthpiece of the establishment, its sweet sounding bullhorn if you will. Did we seriously expect them to even mention let alone praise the continuing success of a growing movement that ultimately will lead to their fundamental transformation? Why do we desire the approval of an establishment we are working so hard to unseat anyway? Isn’t this energy that could be put to a much more productive use? Even if we could get an “attaboy” from the mainstream press, why would we want it? After decades of slumber, Americans are finally waking up to the fact that the mainstream press long ago stopped living up to its Constitutional billing and became nothing more than slickly packaged entertainment disguised as news. We are returning to our founding roots of mistrust of government, its politicians, and by extension, mistrust of their conspirators in the mainstream press. The last thing Paul supporters should want is the endorsement or positive coverage by the voice of this unholy cabal. I maintain that such an endorsement is most assuredly a path to defeat and how Paul could lose in 2012.
This movement’s ultimate success doesn’t require acceptance by the mainstream press but it most assuredly requires acceptance by individuals in the mainstream. How do we achieve this acceptance without the mainstream press? The answer is simple. We swallow our pride and give up on ever getting the respect and recognition we have so long sought from the mainstream media. We marginalize them by making our own rules, developing an electronic form of guerilla warfare. We use alternative press such as the internet’s RevoluTimes and the Daily Paul and then share the truth of what we learn there directly with our family and friends. I put this to you, who do you trust? Establishment “news” outlets such as CNN or Fox News? Or do you trust your friends, family, and loved ones? An endorsement of Congressman Paul from a friend or loved one will have much more meaning than an endorsement from Wolf Blitzer or Bill O’Reilly.
Early in the War for Independence, General George Washington was faced with the same dilemma we have today. From his earliest days as a British officer and continuing to his time as Commander in Chief of the Continental army, he had desperately sought respect and recognition by the establishment, in this case, British Generals. In an effort to achieve this, he first attempted to fight the British army like they fought, playing by their rules. He quickly discovered this to be the Continental Army’s path to defeat. There was simply no hope of victory playing by the British army’s long established rules. It took a few losses but eventually he “got over it”. He realized it was a complete waste of energy seeking the approval of those he was fighting so hard to overthrow. He swallowed his pride and gave up on ever getting the respect and recognition from the establishment he had so long sought. He marginalized their strengths by making his own rules, using a fighting style that today is known as “guerilla warfare”. In the end he lost the respect of the establishment but ultimately achieved what we all know; victory in the War for Independence.
Winston Churchill was quoted as saying, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” In this respect however we should learn from history precisely so we do repeat it.
Here, here. It's the difference between those of us who don't cling to extremes they call out as extreme, well, in terms of ideology. We're as dangerous to the establishment in ways because we aren't buying what they're selling us. And we talk to people, we all have mainstream friends who accept our views as rational, logical and the way things should run. But they've been fed the line that it can't work because someone won't play fair. That's what we're doing here, we're playing the victim and that's not the way of one who thinks freely and takes personal responsiblility.
ReplyDeleteWe've got to look at it another way, it's actually to our benefit they hide Dr. Paul They don't realize he's conspicuous by his absense. He's been relegated to soundbites that don't give him justice, asked silly questions and such. But by hiding him and being obvious about it, they make him seem mysterious. They forget their audience is the ultimate consumer. With the division in the world, they think hey, he's not like them or they'd let him play. Then they get the full impact.
Dr. Paul doesn't give pithy, rehearsed answers. He explains how we got here, where we are and our future should we continue. He's usually right, in spirit if not in exact detail. I know many are afraid of him, they actually think WE think he's a prophet. Really, I keep hearing that. Suspicion because he seems too good to be true. It annoys me they'd think a free mind would fall for that. Yes, he's honest, doesn't judge and honestly believes that free people will work together. And I do, too :)
But how do we combat that in those who treat us like we're Crazy Uncle Ron? They say they want the truth, but do they really? Most are having a hard time now because they realize the world isn't working like they thought and hasn't been for a long time. It's comforting to cling to an old, failed system rather than own it, fix it and give others the same freedom of thought and life they supposedly had.
I work at home and rather than giving money, I've been spreading the word in the various groups I "belong" to. I offer up tidbits, make sure the debate is civil and friendly. It's important to not do their thing where they exclude us, we've got to include them. In pieces. When we ramble, it makes them nervous, lol. But with the words "unelectable" "radical" etc out there, shouldn't we spread our word magic all around in the circles of people that feel as marginalized as us? We just have to learn their language if we want to make them see.