Ron Paul’s phony populism

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T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#463
Jun 30, 2005
9,597
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#463
Once again, you get it completely wrong. I would have absolutely loved it if there was no NEED for government. But for that to happen, humanity needs to reach a level of collective intellectual development that will allow it to overcome the primal animal instincts currently driving people's behavior and that at the moment there is pretty much zero hope it will ever achieve. Which means that there is dire need for draconian regulation to keep those self-destructive animal instincts in check.

It's not just you, this is where most people fail to get it, particularly those of conservative and libertarian orientation - they do not understand human nature for what it is, typically because they are under the spell of some serious religious brainwashing that drives them to the exactly opposite conclusions. We will all pay the price for that in the end
 
Roz

Roz

Sicc OG
#467
Jul 22, 2009
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#467
Washington march near the White House by Military Veterans supporting Ron Paul, on Presidents Day. It wasn't reported by the MSM, other than a small article on the ABC news website. In the article they downplayed the numbers saying dozens of Veterans were there to show support, when there were actually hundreds. They're also supposed to show a big turn-out for the Republican National Convention with a larger group.

[video=youtube;nMseeqLgwTU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMseeqLgwTU[/video]

[video=youtube;llcerneJcUo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llcerneJcUo[/video]
 
CaseyJones

CaseyJones

Sicc OG
#468
Mar 8, 2006
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#468
Ron Paul quietly amassing an army of delegates while GOP frontrunners spar

While the Republican nomination race is focused on the ongoing battle between frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, the Ron Paul campaign is waging an under-the-radar "delegate strategy" that could make the libertarian-leaning Texan the surprise kingmaker of the race.

In states that have already voted via a caucus system – rather than a straight primary ballot – Ron Paul supporters are conducting an intensively organised ground effort aimed at securing as many convention delegate slots as possible, often in numbers that far outweigh the number of actual votes that Paul got in the ballot.

If successful, it means Paul's campaign could arrive at the August Tampa convention at the head of an army of delegates far larger than the proportion of votes that it won during the nomination contest.

It could also increase the chances of a contested convention – where no candidate has enough delegates to declare the winner – as well as give Paul much greater ability to inject his beliefs into the Republicans' 2012 policy platform.

The strategy is based on the fact the GOP race is in fact a "delegate contest" despite an overwhelming focus by the media and most campaigns on "winning" individual states by coming top of the popular vote. But in reality, each state, weighted proportionally by population, sends a number of delegates to Tampa where a nominee is then chosen.

A total of 2,286 delegates are sent to Tampa and so a candidate must secure the support of 1,144 of them in order to win the nomination.

However, a bewilderingly complex set of rules, often varying from state to state, exists to actually assign these delegates. Ron Paul's campaign is seeking to work that system in order to maximise its delegate count.

So far signs are that the campaign is being so successful at its strategy that it may be able to "win" delegate counts in states where it did not win the popular vote.

"They will be able to perform well enough that in some states where they came in third or fourth in the straw poll, they will come in first or second in terms of the delegate totals. I am fairly confident in making that bet," said Professor Josh Putnam, a political scientist at Davidson College who runs the Frontloading HQ blog dedicated to tracking the delegate fight.

How the strategy works

The strategy works because of the varying ways each state assigns the delegates that get sent to Tampa. Some states hold a "winner takes all" primary that will assign all its delegates to the candidate who tops the vote.

Others assign delegates proportionally according to the vote, splitting the delegates roughly according to the results and ensuring each major candidate gets some delegates.

But it is in the caucus states that the Ron Paul campaign is focused. There the method of assigning delegates is complex and lasts a long time. In caucus states that have voted so far like Iowa, Nevada, Colorado, Minnesota and Maine, the process of assigning delegates in support of each candidate has barely begun.

That process begins on caucus night when each precinct votes and then chooses delegates to send to a county convention to be held later in the year. Those county conventions will then choose a smaller number of delegates to send to a state convention or conventions held in each state's congressional districts.

Those state and district level conventions are the bodies that actually finally choose which delegates to send to the Tampa national convention.

However, at the start of the process – the precinct level meetings held on caucus day – the delegates selected to go to the later county conventions are frequently under no obligation to declare which candidate they are supporting or to support the "winner" of the day's actual voting.

Ron Paul's campaign strategy is to get enough of his precinct-level supporters to volunteer to become delegates to the county conventions so that they outnumber other campaigns. "Their strategy is to gobble up as many of these slots as they can," said Putnam.

Then, if you manage to stack the beginning of the process with Ron Paul delegates, as the system moves through the county conventions and the district and state-wide conventions the chances of Ron Paul-supporting delegates emerging at the end and being chosen to go to Tampa is greatly increased.

The entire strategy is helped by the fact that Paul's supporters are seen as far more organised and dedicated than other campaigns.

Is it successful?

It is currently impossible to say. No caucus state that has already voted has yet held any county conventions at which an idea of the number of Ron Paul-supporting delegates chosen at the precinct level may emerge. Those first indications should come in March.

However, the Ron Paul campaign itself, which is at pains to point out their strategy is entirely within the rules, has released information from Colorado that shows how they hope it could be playing out.

In one precinct in Larimer County there were 13 delegate slots available. Santorum had won the precinct's vote by 23 votes to Paul's 13, with five votes going to Romney. But Paul supporters took all the delegate slots.

In a Delta County precinct all five delegate slots went to Paul supporters though he came behind Santorum and Romney in the popular vote. In a Pueblo County precinct Paul supporters got the two delegate slots available despite the fact Paul finished fourth in the precinct's vote with just two actual votes.

Those examples are likely cherry-picked by the Paul campaign as best case scenarios. But Colorado party officials are – officially, at least – sanguine about what is going on as it obeys the party rules. "We are just here to play out the process. Whatever happens happens," executive director of the Colorado GOP Chuck Poplstein told the Guardian.

But Poplstein did say a successful delegate strategy was not easy to pull off. "It is difficult for any campaign. You have to be very well organised and in all of the counties. It is not an easy process. You have to have a very good ground game," he said.

But that might not be too much of a problem. The Ron Paul campaign is highly organised and focused. "We are also seeing the same trends in Minnesota, Nevada and Iowa, and in Missouri as well," the campaign said in its statement on the precinct performances in Colorado.

A recent report by the Washington Post from a caucus in Portland, Maine, revealed a dedicated activist organisation complete with pre-printed lists of which delegates should be voted for at the precinct level. That is likely true across all the caucus states.

"They do tend to be very organised and very enthusiastic for Ron Paul," said Professor Tim Hagle, a political scientist at the University of Iowa.

What impact could it have?

The fact is that Paul's delegate strategy would have little impact in a normal Republican race. The system is set up with enough winner-take-all and primary states to ensure that Paul's strategy has no chance whatsoever of picking up enough delegates via this method to actually win the nomination himself.

But it all changes when the Republican race becomes protracted and closely fought. If Santorum, Romney and Newt Gingrich all stay in the race beyond Super Tuesday and start to amass their own large piles of delegates, then reaching the vital 1,144 delegates needed to win starts to become more difficult.

If that scenario plays out – something most experts see as possible but unlikely – then Paul's delegate total becomes crucial. He could become a kingmaker, agreeing to throw his hefty delegate total behind one candidate who could then claim victory.

As a candidate with a very clearly defined agenda – on foreign policy, the role of government and fiscal issues, especially the Federal Reserve – Paul could demand a high policy price for that support.

However, even if a nominee emerges prior to the convention, Paul's delegates will still be important. If he amasses a loyal and large delegate total he will able to secure a high-profile, possibly primetime, speaking slot.

He will also be more able to get his agenda into the party's official policy platform. Given Paul's stance on issues like American foreign policy and the wars in Afghanistan, that could upset the party elite and the nominee.

Modern conventions are supposed to be highly organised, tightly controlled displays of party unity. At the very least a successful Paul delegate strategy could shatter that prospect.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/201...s-delegates-republican-election?newsfeed=true
 
SeriouslyThug

SeriouslyThug

Sicc OG
#473
Jan 31, 2008
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no i was at the civic center stop after this. He had the most diversified following that id ever seen. He was well spoken but i think being in a room with like-minded or open-minded individuals was great for me in and of itself. No regrets.
 
n9newunsixx5150

n9newunsixx5150

Anti-feminist
#476
Nov 17, 2002
2,627
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#476
That's absurd. How could that video be for every candidate if it clearly rules out the possibility of it being for any candidate other than Ron Paul or anyone who might share the same views? And sure, it's about opinion in so far as one person's opinion might be that we should elect someone who will drive us further into debt while another's opinion might be that we should elect someone who will actually cut spending on a massive scale and has a detailed plan to do so, someone who predicted our current economic situation back in 2001. Even if some people don't like certain other details about Paul's message, it boggles the mind why anyone would vote for anyone else. Anyway, if you have some problem with something said in the video, then why not address it specifically?
 
F

Fucky McFuckerson

Sicc OG
#477
May 9, 2002
37,066
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#477
n9newunsixx5150 said:
That's absurd. How could that video be for every candidate if it clearly rules out the possibility of it being for any candidate other than Ron Paul or anyone who might share the same views?
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Easy. Instead of pointing out what every person who votes AGAINST Paul says, you could easily make one for Romney. Crazy, right?

And sure, it's about opinion
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I mean...really, this is the part where you put [/thread].

in so far as one person's opinion might be that we should elect someone who will drive us further into debt while another's opinion might be that we should elect someone who will actually cut spending on a massive scale and has a detailed plan to do so, someone who predicted our current economic situation back in 2001
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.

Electing a president is like recruiting HS football players...you ASSUME that the 5* will be good, but they dont always pan out.

Since the beginning of the voting process, candidates have been saying what WE want to hear in order to take office. How many of those presidents either flat out LIED or stretched the truth to asinine lengths? Just becuase they SAY they will do it, doesnt mean they will. I mean, do i REALLY need to explain this to a grown adult? Holy fucking shit...bricks have just been shat!!!!

Even if some people don't like certain other details about Paul's message, it boggles the mind why anyone would vote for anyone else.
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Its called being subjective. Baffling.

Anyway, if you have some problem with something said in the video, then why not address it specifically?
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I have a problem with the video as a whole...how is it any different than any other video made by someone who supports something???

I equate political candidates to used car salesman. And the fact that people view Paul as the end-all be-all candidate means he is doing his job well. Keep it pimpin', pimpin'....

I can only hope that Mr. Paul gets elected, so he can pull an Obama and let everyone down. It would be hilarious.
 
n9newunsixx5150

n9newunsixx5150

Anti-feminist
#479
Nov 17, 2002
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#479
I Pukokeki Ioulo Momu said:
Easy. Instead of pointing out what every person who votes AGAINST Paul says, you could easily make one for Romney. Crazy, right?
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Except that the "against Romney" video would be about Santorum or Gingrich voters, not Paul voters. And then it would just be them trying to distract from their own candidates faults. If it was about Paul voters, then it'd be about people who prefer consistency and spending less money policing the world. In other words, they can't say anything against Ron Paul, which is why they don't go there. They politely disagree is all. But even the other candidates acknowledge Paul's consistency and Constitutionalism. So, no. It just wouldn't work the same at all with a similar video in support of the other candidates.


I Pukokeki Ioulo Momu said:
Since the beginning of the voting process, candidates have been saying what WE want to hear in order to take office. How many of those presidents either flat out LIED or stretched the truth to asinine lengths? Just becuase they SAY they will do it, doesnt mean they will. I mean, do i REALLY need to explain this to a grown adult? Holy fucking shit...bricks have just been shat!!!!
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This is the part where you look at Ron Paul's political history and shit some bricks of your own.


I Pukokeki Ioulo Momu said:
I have a problem with the video as a whole...how is it any different than any other video made by someone who supports something???
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It is different for the reason that it couldn't possibly work for any other candidate.
 
F

Fucky McFuckerson

Sicc OG
#480
May 9, 2002
37,066
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#480
n9newunsixx5150 said:
Except that the "against Romney" video would be about Santorum or Gingrich voters, not Paul voters. And then it would just be them trying to distract from their own candidates faults. If it was about Paul voters, then it'd be about people who prefer consistency and spending less money policing the world. In other words, they can't say anything against Ron Paul, which is why they don't go there. They politely disagree is all. But even the other candidates acknowledge Paul's consistency and Constitutionalism. So, no. It just wouldn't work the same at all with a similar video in support of the other candidates.
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In other words, it would be EXACTLY like this video...only for Romney or whoever the fuck. I dont think you are getting what im saying.




This is the part where you look at Ron Paul's political history and shit some bricks of your own.
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Like when he put out his own newsletters and was blatantly racist towards black people? Totally.

Remind me again...exactly what has he done as President? Just because someone is a good offensive coordinator, doesn't mean he will make a good owner.




It is different for the reason that it couldn't possibly work for any other candidate.
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It absolutely could and would. Man, Paul is alike a pimp and you are like a hoe. And im not even trying to be an asshole, its just the best possible analogy i can come up with in this situation. Daddy would NEVER do you wrong, right? He beats you because he loves you. Duh.

Like i said, i hope he does get elected, proves he is no different than any other president...ever, and just puts on the trollface.jpeg. Hilarity will ensue. Voting for presidents in the US = the biggest scam ever.
 
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