One Man's Opinion--Full Text
One Man’s Opinion
On to St. Paul!
On to St. Paul!
By David Franke
Editor
UltimateRonPaul.com
For a while, it seemed the Ron Paul Revolution had fizzled out. Editor
UltimateRonPaul.com
Supporters were demoralized by the actual primary results, which fell far short of (often unrealistic) expectations. And supporters suffered whiplash as a result of unclear signals from the presidential campaign headquarters. Was Ron Paul still in the race or not?
Well, the predictable happened. The grassroots took charge. As detailed in our Spotlight News article by George Dance, Ron Paul supporters all across the country are working to get selected as delegates to GOP county conventions, then state conventions, then to the national convention in St. Paul.
Most people, including the mainstream media, thought all the delegates had been selected in the state primaries. Ron Paul supporters read the actual rules and went to work.
Most outside observers, including the mainstream media, think that the most unique aspect of the Paul campaign has been its use of the Internet. They’re wrong. It’s probably true that, by the percentages, Paul supporters constitute the most tech-savvy campaign force of 2008. But the Obama camp is also savvy in its use of the Internet, as was the Dean campaign four years ago.
The really unique quality of the Ron Paul campaign has been its totally grassroots nature. Virtually all of the big innovations in fundraising and organizing have taken place at the grass roots, with next to no supervision and minimal assistance from the campaign headquarters. The biggest achievement of the national headquarters was to understand its own limitations, as well as the genius of its supporters, and just stay out of the way.
That’s what differentiates our operating procedures from those of the Obama campaign. As successful as it is in tapping widespread grassroots sentiment, the Obama campaign is a top-down model of organization. Done well (and the Obama campaign has been brilliant), that’s the way to win—tight organization, tapping broad grassroots support. But before it turned to the Internet, Obama had massive financial support from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Ron Paul and his ideas were shunned by regular Republican honchos and donors, so we had no choice but to go totally grass roots from the beginning.
So it is that the Ron Paul delegate march to St. Paul is being run by the grassroots, not the national campaign office. That’s the Ron Paul revolutionary way.
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