Note to Ron Paul – Today's High Alert
Friday, June 15, 2007
I watched presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex) on the recent Colbert Report and some thoughts occurred to me from a marketing point of view.
First some background. Ron Paul is a "constitutionalist" and free-market candidate for president in the United States, the only one for a number of years, perhaps since the mid 20th century. As such, Free Market News Network itself has been covering him closely - as it should.
Ron Paul's message, indeed the very fact of his candidacy, does Americans a favor by exhibiting the fault lines of what is left of their republic. That it is still a republic at all is a miracle considering that its leaders seem to want to merge the country with Mexico and Canada as fast as possible.
But this may well take some doing - and Ron Paul is daily exposing the truth of what the Republic should be, even as the media and the other well-corrupted candidates illustrate all-too-well what it has unfortunately become.
With both the media and his own party apparently set against him, Ron Paul soldiers on, winning Internet polls by wide margins and giving himself the chance, at the very least, to win a primary such as New Hampshire.
But to do so, I believe he should continue to position himself not just as "Dr. No" - someone against the $3 trillion obscenity that is the US Federal government, but also as Dr. Yes - as in 'Yes, I am an American,' and "Yes, here's what doing away with these wasteful programs means to you."
In watching him on the Colbert Report, I could not help but see how far he had come in terms of a humorous and warm public persona. But his message still relied on negatives - programs he would do away with. I could almost hear the average American wincing as Ron Paul ticked off program after program that he would "disappear" - as the media often seems to be doing to the good doctor's appearances themselves.
Instead of just talking about what would "go" - Dr. Paul should be emphasizing what the disappearance of so many government "services" would mean to the individual American. How much more money he or she would have in his or her own pocket - the freedom of choice such a return of capital would entail.
He defined himself on the Colbert Report at one point as a "constitutionalist" - but I would much rather hear him define himself as an "American."
Ron Paul is an American - the best kind of American. He believes in the resilience of the American spirit, in Yankee Ingenuity, in the private enterprise that made America great. He believes that the America that once was - the America of free-markets and limited government - can arise again. With the help of the Internet, that is occurring even now. So Ron Paul is not wrong about it, and his candidacy is not a hopeless case at all.
But from what I saw - and I know a bit about marketing - Ron Paul has got to go on a "charm offensive" if he is truly "break through." When he's asked a question, he has to be positive, put it into terms that the voter can understand from a "what's in it for me" perspective.
If he can push his message in that direction, he'll be even more effective. Instead of "sending a message" he may well win enough votes to send a real "shot across the bow" of the monetary and power elite that are hoping both the Internet and pols like Ron Paul go away. Not a chance. Now all the good doctor has to do is "make 'em believe."
School's out. Give 'em red meat and they'll line up at the door. The message is right. It just needs a bit more in the way of vitamins. Go to it, doctor! -Anthony Wile
I watched presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex) on the recent Colbert Report and some thoughts occurred to me from a marketing point of view.
First some background. Ron Paul is a "constitutionalist" and free-market candidate for president in the United States, the only one for a number of years, perhaps since the mid 20th century. As such, Free Market News Network itself has been covering him closely - as it should.
Ron Paul's message, indeed the very fact of his candidacy, does Americans a favor by exhibiting the fault lines of what is left of their republic. That it is still a republic at all is a miracle considering that its leaders seem to want to merge the country with Mexico and Canada as fast as possible.
But this may well take some doing - and Ron Paul is daily exposing the truth of what the Republic should be, even as the media and the other well-corrupted candidates illustrate all-too-well what it has unfortunately become.
With both the media and his own party apparently set against him, Ron Paul soldiers on, winning Internet polls by wide margins and giving himself the chance, at the very least, to win a primary such as New Hampshire.
But to do so, I believe he should continue to position himself not just as "Dr. No" - someone against the $3 trillion obscenity that is the US Federal government, but also as Dr. Yes - as in 'Yes, I am an American,' and "Yes, here's what doing away with these wasteful programs means to you."
In watching him on the Colbert Report, I could not help but see how far he had come in terms of a humorous and warm public persona. But his message still relied on negatives - programs he would do away with. I could almost hear the average American wincing as Ron Paul ticked off program after program that he would "disappear" - as the media often seems to be doing to the good doctor's appearances themselves.
Instead of just talking about what would "go" - Dr. Paul should be emphasizing what the disappearance of so many government "services" would mean to the individual American. How much more money he or she would have in his or her own pocket - the freedom of choice such a return of capital would entail.
He defined himself on the Colbert Report at one point as a "constitutionalist" - but I would much rather hear him define himself as an "American."
Ron Paul is an American - the best kind of American. He believes in the resilience of the American spirit, in Yankee Ingenuity, in the private enterprise that made America great. He believes that the America that once was - the America of free-markets and limited government - can arise again. With the help of the Internet, that is occurring even now. So Ron Paul is not wrong about it, and his candidacy is not a hopeless case at all.
But from what I saw - and I know a bit about marketing - Ron Paul has got to go on a "charm offensive" if he is truly "break through." When he's asked a question, he has to be positive, put it into terms that the voter can understand from a "what's in it for me" perspective.
If he can push his message in that direction, he'll be even more effective. Instead of "sending a message" he may well win enough votes to send a real "shot across the bow" of the monetary and power elite that are hoping both the Internet and pols like Ron Paul go away. Not a chance. Now all the good doctor has to do is "make 'em believe."
School's out. Give 'em red meat and they'll line up at the door. The message is right. It just needs a bit more in the way of vitamins. Go to it, doctor! -Anthony Wile
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