LESSONS LEARNED Discussion Thread **UPDATED**

"Essential Videos", and "resources", on the right...and down a bit?

Though I think a Quote Compendium, where we record the best one-line conceptual explanations/refutations would be a useful addition...

by G. Edw. Griffin - http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0C....

I worked in NH for a month leading up to that primary with Operation
Live Free or Die. Many thoughts, but one quick one for now: DON'T DO ALL DAY SIGN WAVES!

For someone like Ron Paul, sign waves are actually more of an energy
booster/fun time for the activists. We have to get the meetup/local groups
going early--ready and trained in the basics of call center and canvassing work. Too often I saw (across the country) full days being taken up by giant and, yes, amazing sign waves--when that time could have been better used targeting likely voters on the phones and door-to-door canvasing. I know it isn't sexy to say this---but it is 100% true. It doesn't mean we don't have sign waves---it means that they are scheduled as energy boosting rallying times between real political feet-on-the-ground work. Here is an example of a wasted sign wave day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=md4yBfvSCjo

Actually, I lied---you can watch that video and learn how to do a massively successful sign wave---and it was Dec. 24th - so it wasn't the best time for walking door to door or calling - however, my point still stands - there is no excuse for thinking that a sign wave is hard-core activism. It's just a fun rallying time. There is no need for activities like these to go on for all day.

Musician, Blimpographer...Hear my music: www.myspace.com/americanpirates

I am not trying to control anyone, but I would suggest that people that want to push 9-11 truth, chemtrailing, Birther ideas, jewish banking cartel theories do so far away from the liberty campaigns. I would not want anyone to stop spreading the truth, ever, but understand it doesn't take much to make one of our candidates look very bad. So if you want to go to a 9-11 truth rally, do it, and do it well, just please don't bring your Ron Paul sign, etc...

Our biggest failing in Louisiana was two-fold.

One: we were not aware of the need to switch voter registration to republican sufficiently in advance so as to avoid the dirty tricks of using "old lists" of voters.

We also should not have filed all of our delegates as a block but should have let them be independently mailed in. We did it as a block under the fear that they could be individually rejected and it would be difficult to fight back. In reality, all this did was alert the GOP to our support for Dr. Paul and that prompted them to change their own rules to allow later filings so other people could get on the ballot to defeat us.

Two: we failed to consider the pro-life angle that would be used in our heavily conservative state. We should have known better. (and I take the blame here as much as anyone else) EVERY election in this state involves if not hinges on, the candidates "pro-life" record. While some candidates who are pro-choice can get elected, if you are not coming out swinging as a pro-life candidate as a republican - good luck.

We were sandbagged at the caucus with handbills for "pro-life" delegates. Not that our delegates weren't or that Dr. Paul isn't 100% pro-life. We just didn't think to come out swinging on this issue.

While these may be specific to Louisiana, they are lessons everyone should take heed of.

Knowing your deadlines for filing, voter registration, etc. that allow you to participate is crucial. Knowing where some local decisions are made and how to get elected to those bodies is essential.

Designing a campaign strategy based on what voters expect and what is traditionally used in your state is critical. It can make the difference between winning and losing.

Remember, state conventions and caucuses are geared in many states to STATE issues and writing the state platform. If you come out campaigning to fight for traditional republican values and preventing the party from being "hi-jacked" by the neo-cons aka Lindsey Graham types, then you will be ahead of the curve.

If however, you allow the neo-cons to claim the YOU are hi-jacking the party, you are destined to lose.

There is no need to wait for the Paul campaign to approve commercials and run them. Jeremiah Black produced some excellent ads that were never used.

I say this time around, we fund those and similar ads directly through our own PACs. That will also relieve a burden on reporting requirements for the Paul campaign.

The best parts of the last campaign and the most effective activities were those that came from the grass roots and not from the campaign headquarters. In fact, the WORST moves came from HQ.

The classical liberal view -- the view of the Founders, in fact -- was that freedom was important in part because government coercion was cruelty, by its very nature, and that it tended to grow and thus to cause ever-more misery to the people.

Compassion, in other words, was a major factor in advocating and creating a small, highly restrained government.

The Founders had it right: Love and freedom are actually a duality in human life, and each quality is dependent on the other. Consider:

* Treating someone with coercion (denying them freedom) is not loving; it is anti-love. Police states, for example, are toxic to love.

* A free society without a widespread sense of compassionate connection to others (i.e., without love) cannot stay free for long; love is the lubricant and anti-corrosive for honest market activity and provides the impetus to charity and to other healthy human action. A nation of emotionally damaged people (Germany leading up to the Hitler years, for example -- Alice Miller is a good source here) is in grave danger of becoming a nightmare, no matter what the original political system might be.

The understanding that love and freedom require each other and are a yin/yang type duality (or yin and yang aspects in life, if you prefer) has been lost and the lie that these qualities are at odds with each other has used in clever ways by the power elite. Government is seen (by the left) as the bringer of compassion while market action (actually pseudo-market action, because it's mostly corporatistism) is seen as "freedom" by many on the right. In both cases, big government is the supposed answer, even for those who think they are advocating the market -- see most of the GOP for that last.

People WANT, and rightfully so, a social doctrine that embodies compassion. People also want freedom, although they have increasingly been taught to fear the resulting responsibility and to believe freedom equals lack of concern for others.

The freedom movement desperately needs to actively repair the public's understanding that love and freedom require each other. Until this is done, we will never gain acceptance by the majority.

Two more points: First, love and freedom exist in somewhat different realms and must be approached differently:

Freedom requires the non-aggression principle, which can and must be stated as a command: "Do not agress against others."

But love and compassion are inner states, and attempting to enforce them via coercion or even to pay for compassionate works or programs via coercive funding leads to disaster; in addition, the coercion itself harms love directly.

Thus: It is important that our universal brotherhood be widely and explicitly acknowledged and lived up to, and it is equally important that we not allow coercion to be used in its expression.

The second point is that early experience is what later experience, attitudes, and actions are based upon, and young humans are rapidly growing complex systems -- meaning that it is extremely important that the young be treated well. Widespread coercion and other cruelty to children makes it far more difficult to move a society in the direction of freedom, and especially to create a workable and sustainable free society.

Dr. Paul often talks about compassion, but I wish he -- and those who support him -- would frequently and explicitly talk about the facts that love and freedom REQUIRE each other; that love (unlike freedom) cannot be mandated by law and imposed by force; and that the young -- actually, pregnant mothers, newborns, infants, and children -- absolutely MUST be properly cared for and treated compassionately if we expect positive long-term results.

Summerhill School and Sudbury Valley School are excellent examples of freedom for children and the benefits they offer; Dr. Leboyer and other advocates for gentle birth and for compassionate treatment of the very young are also worth learning and talking about.

to put it into words. I have been here about two years and I have learned so much. Some of the things I have learned is.
1) Controlled Opposition is a tactic that those in power use to make us think we have choices but in reality they CONTROLL all sides of the argument that is why we are in this predicament.

2) The money masters control the politicians, military and the media. They don't have to control everyone just the ones who make decisions. A lot of good people are doing bad things because they were TOLD it is part of their job.

3) Voting is a joke because they control the machines. Until we can get honest elections we are in trouble.

4) There is an agenda and it is right on schedule and if you think the laws are just dumb and the politicians are just stupid then it shows you have a lot to learn.

5) There are events that are called falseflags which our own country does in order to get people to do are think a certain way. The term is a military term our own military coined.

6) Eisenhower warned us of the "Military Industrial Complex"

7) I learned that just because people my use sound bits that we agree with that is no reason to trust there is a phrase " trust but VERIFY" and it is good advice.

8. I learned to keep an open mind and not be to quick to criticize because new information comes forth everyday.

9. I learned that we all have talents and that we must use them to help further the cause to bring forth information so people can make good decisions.

10. I have made use of google and Youtube there is lots of info good and bad out there and to bring it here to the Daily Paul so we can inspect it and discuss it. I have discovered that this journey is better when we go down the rabbit hole together.

This is a great idea. I hope these videos help. I thought they were eye opening.

Civil Disobedience: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/58648

US vs John Lennon: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/47192

Waco, Texas: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/111323

The Story of Stuff: http://www.dailypaul.com/node/58037

Free yourself.