Could internet marketers get someone elected?
- Thread starter papajohn56
- Start date
Spot on evaluation of Ron Paul and his R3volution - I'm amazed at the amount of people that had their eyes opened by his campaign. Using the election process\platform as an educational campaign was a pure stroke of genius. Hope we see a Ron Paul 2012 presidential\educational run
Internet marketers already do get people elected. Just look at President Obama's internet campaign. It was massive.
How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
Won't ever work. He's too easily pigeonholed as a kook.
Not to say that we couldn't find an upstanding, honest, reasonably attractive young person with RP's same viewpoints that could lead a group of hungry people to the kitchen. There has to be someone out there willing to put up with the intense media scrutiny and character assassination, the temptations and loss of their private life. And willing to put up with the loss of prime earning years.
Honestly, I don't think we will see a push for libertarianism anytime soon. Life is too easy. There are too many distractions. Yeah, the government is taking 60 percent of my paycheck, but I've got a big screen TV and 5 more payments on my Kia.
Any revolution will be small and local. A smaller state. Idaho maybe. I'd like to see it. I'd like to help.
I've already been saying this, but the Paulnuts won't accept it. Peter Schiff, people!! If he could get elected in Connecticut, that would be amazing. To give an Austrian School economist the title of Senator and the influence that brings? It would be sick.
That'll be the hard part, getting enough people to agree to support the same candidate.
It would have to be revolutionary enough to have merit. Ron Paul got attention because he promoted radical common sense (that's my term for his ideology, not sure if anyone else would use that) but in the end he was trying to run on a Republican ticket and there's nothing extraordinary about the Republican party. Certainly not enough to gain the type of viral campaign you would need to actually bring a person to the presidency. I think for this to work you would need an independent. But then you would eventually run up against all of the indoctrinated issues stacked against an independent candidate.
Huge catch 22
Huge catch 22
There elections here are expected to be in a few weeks (I wish we had fixed terms), not much in it but the lib dems are marginally better than the other two and I think the best result would be a hung parliament, leading to Lib/Lab coalition. Tempted to do some stuff for my local candidate, be nice to see a Tory lose their seat but overall won't make much difference.
Maybe you guys should start with the senate/congress, seems like much more chance of getting independents elected there.
Overall though I think I feel the same apathy towards this that a lot of people feel towards voting. At least here anyway, until the system is changed there's little chance of getting anyone other than Lab/Con and they benefit from this system so aren't likely to change it despite making noise about electoral reform.
Maybe you guys should start with the senate/congress, seems like much more chance of getting independents elected there.
Overall though I think I feel the same apathy towards this that a lot of people feel towards voting. At least here anyway, until the system is changed there's little chance of getting anyone other than Lab/Con and they benefit from this system so aren't likely to change it despite making noise about electoral reform.
It would have to be revolutionary enough to have merit. Ron Paul got attention because he promoted radical common sense (that's my term for his ideology, not sure if anyone else would use that) but in the end he was trying to run on a Republican ticket and there's nothing extraordinary about the Republican party. Certainly not enough to gain the type of viral campaign you would need to actually bring a person to the presidency. I think for this to work you would need an independent. But then you would eventually run up against all of the indoctrinated issues stacked against an independent candidate.
Huge catch 22
Republicans were doomed in 2008 anyway due to Bush/Cheney for 8 years. Ross Perot had a good shot as an Independent without the help of the internet. Perot screwed himself in the end:
" In June, Perot led the national public opinion polls with support from 39% of the voters (versus 31% for Bush and 25% for Clinton). Perot severely damaged his credibility by dropping out of the presidential contest in July and remaining out of the race for several weeks before re-entering. He compounded this damage by eventually claiming, without evidence, that his withdrawal was due to Republican operatives attempting to disrupt his daughter's wedding."
If he had stayed in and not said this, we probably would have had Perot in office instead of Clinton.
"The public's concern about the federal budget deficit and fears of professional politicians allowed the independent candidacy of billionaire Texan Ross Perot to explode on the scene in dramatic fashion—at one point Perot was leading the major party candidates in the polls."
We may see another thing like this for 2012.
Winning an election means achieving >50% conversion rate on your electorate with full market saturation.
Trying to elect a GOP Congressman in San Francisco is like trying to sell eBooks on Wickedfire. Pick the right offer for the right market!
Aren't there alot of inherit bureaucratic biases against independents? I'm vaguely recalling something about debates? Also there's alot of issues at the State level... for example this just a few weeks ago for the primary vote in Texas You were REQUIRED to either vote democrat or republican. That's fucked up for so many reasons.
Anyway, I'm sure there's more red tape like that, I just don't know the caucus systems well enough to recall.
Regarding the debates - I think the only requirement is that you need to be polling at 15% or more. Have no idea where I heard that, so I could be wrong.
