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The Political Revolution Will Not Be Televised
[The Occupy Wall Street movement may not know it yet, but Ron Paul is their candidate. You would never guess this is so from the mainstream media's aloof, retrograde reportage of the campaign season. In the essay below, my wife, Marilyn, explains why the TV networks and the New York Times are missing a grassroots groundswell that will be seen as a Political Revolution by the time the 2012 rolls around. If this proves to be so, look for a shot across the bow when disaffected young people switch their affiliation to Republican so that they can get Rep. Paul nominated. RA]
No one questions that “something” is brewing, or rather simmering beneath the surface in America. The discontent, having finally reached the heretofore silently and sublimely disaffected youth who are occupying Wall Street and any other street in any other town you might mention, is a phenomenon that has every journalist and blogger on the planet analyzing their heads off. Is the OWS movement the left’s Tea Party? Will progressive politicians regret throwing in with the legions of urban campers? Do these people have a platform? Who is supporting them? (Well, we actually know that Soros and the unions are doing that, because they’ve pretty much told us)
These are the questions everyone is pondering, and yet the most obvious issue – one that hasn’t been much written about — is how, and, much more importantly, where will this whole revolution-in-the-making play out? Don’t bother reading the New York Times or tuning in to the nightly news, or even punching up talk radio on your way to work. By the time any of them is onto the latest “breaking story,” the social networkers have already tossed it into the rerun heap, having dissected it to death in the preceding three days. This revolution is happening online, and the average American doesn’t see it. Yeah, we know Obama was elected by “the connected.” But, that was an “early adopter” phenomenon, like the kids on American Bandstand who “voted” for this week’s best dance tune because it had a good beat and catchy lyrics. Obama’s “youth” revolution was merely a well-timed call-to-arms – a call to people who were just then learning how to answer. They liked the hope-y, change-y message because it had a good beat and catchy lyrics.
What is happening now? Well, for one, we have had two grassroots developments in the last two years, wherein people came together to fight “the man.” Sure, in the instance of the
Party it was a very well-defined MAN, and what was being attributed to said man was a level of spend-thriftiness that a portion of the American populace was no longer willing to tolerate. What can be said of the latest incarnation of American fed-up-ness, the Occupy Whatever brigade? Well, they are mad, too. However, they are slightly less informed and mostly less organized than their Tea-bagging brethren. They just want rich people to turn over their riches to them – pay their student loans, pay their mortgages, pay to rebuild their roads and bridges, bring their teachers back to the classroom and their firefighters back to…the fire?
Evening News Is Stale
I know this because I was fighting a bad case of the flu for about ten days earlier this month. Bedridden, I kept abreast of the news of OWS, Greece and the gathering Eurostorm, and other topics of the hour. In every case, the news that I imbibed didn’t even make it to TV for about three days. Seriously. All the YouTube diatribes by hopped up anti-Semites in NY, all the police brutality accusations, all the protests moving to the homes of B of A’s top brass — all of it made it to the evening news…three days after-the- fact. Doesn’t the mainstream media have “online” specialists – people who are supposed to be right on “the pulse” of the young, the hip, the at-the-ramparts people who are…making the news? Apparently not. The TV networks just trudged along, well after the fact, to weigh in on something that had lost most of its relevance in the intervening days.
What does this mean? At a basic level it means just what it illustrates: that mainstream media people are completely out of touch with the electorate. By the time ABC News reports that there might be evidence of anti-Semitism at Occupy Wall Street, the YouTube video of a clearly hopped-up young “protestor” yelling “Jew!” over and over and over again at an elderly man in a yarmulke – a man who evidently erred in thinking he could have a conversation or debate with his young co-protestor — had already made the rounds of every social networking site and was already a tiresome “rerun” put out by people who check their wall once a week and share everything with their 100 friends, who share with their 100 friends. You get the picture.
Those “in the know” online have more influence on how this movement is developing than do the countless liberal sycophants like Michael Moore, or over-the-hill actresses like Susan Sarandon – or even OWS financier George Soros or perpetual foot-in-mouth VP Joe Biden. If you don’t believe me, look at how the protestors’ signs are mutating from “Pay my Loans” and “We are the 99%” to a more reasonable “End the Fed” and “Obama is bought by Wall Street too.” How did this happen? Easy, people who watch the videos online and see how desperately ill-educated the “protestors” are, go down there and try to knock some sense into these people. One person who is particularly adept at it is Adam Kokesh, the former Marine and Libertarian bellwether for countless Young-ish, recently converted Austrian economics students, who, in countless self-produced interviews with protestors, is able, usually in 8-10 minutes, to completely annihilate the faulty reasoning of his “Capitalism is evil!”-spouting victims. About a third of the time he gets them “thinking.” The other two-thirds simply get too frustrated at being made the dupe over and over again and simply storm off, with or without a snarky comment about Kokesh himself.
Backed by Soros
Kokesh has appeared on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show on Fox News. He has a huge following on the internet. But he’s just one of many people who have ventured to Occupy Wherevers around the country to try to get people to see that the problem isn’t capitalism, the GOP, the banks (in isolation) or greedy rich people. The problem is The Government — just as the Tea Party said it was two years ago, before they came up with a plan to get the bums out and replace them with nominally-more-tolerable bums. The OWS-ers, and their comrades in cities around the country (I don’t much care about Occupy Belgrade or Occupy Melbourne, to be honest), started this whole exercise with nothing more than time on their hands and a desire to live through something resembling the exciting sit-ins, stand-ins, sleep-ins and various other sex- and drug-fueled “ins” that their parents were so lucky to attend. They got their free food, their free signs, Wi-Fi access and, in some instances $600/week from the Soros-backed or union-backed goons trying to run the show and dictate the terms of the “debate” – as it is.
The people who are getting through to the hordes, people who at least say that they have gotten others to listen to reason, seem to have similar experiences with the protestors’ modus operandi: “These people just seem to like force.” “They just, I don’t know, they just think that the answer to everything is more government control; just more government in general.” “ Maybe it’s because they learned in school that only the government ‘protects’ us – maybe that is why they believe that government is the only solution.”
Winter Is Coming
How much they get through, and to how many, remains to be seen. With winter coming, the movement may well have to move indoors. Rumor has it that they (Soros and the unions) have secured the first floor of…gasp! – a bank building to house their electronics station when inclemency sets in. But, the longer they stay, the more likely someone will confront them with a solid and reasonable message – maybe just that they ought to be occupying the White House and Congress, for starters. Even now, the signs indicate that is already happening. Do they sense any irony in the fact that Obama’s cabinet is packed with people who, prior to coming on board with him, occupied offices in the very buildings standing above their encampments? One thing they do know: The interview they are doing right now will go viral by sundown. It will be picked and shredded like a Boston Butt days before Bill O’Reilly or Rush or Anderson or Rachel even get a whiff of it.
How will this play out in November of 2012? The election could prove to be the most interesting fallout from the seismic shift in American political discussion, from mainstream media to social media: namely, that what we are seeing on debates, in the recaps and in the seemingly endless parade of panel discussions about Perry’s N-word rock, Romney’s cult membership, Cain’s pizza-price tax plan or Gingrich’s grinching, is all but irrelevant when we ponder the question of what is actually about to happen. The presidential election will be decided by this social media crowd, and those who get their news from television and the New York Times will be the last to realize this.
Crossing Over to Nominate Paul
With the primaries coming, how will we know that this tectonic change is indeed happening if we don’t read about it in the Times? The first indicator will be the number of people who in just the past few months have changed their party affiliation from “X” to Republican just so they can make a difference in who the GOP runs against Obama. Who are they going to vote for: Ron Paul. Yes, the old man with the charming drawl and the dorky shoes has gained a level of online popularity that I haven’t seen since Tay Zonday’s “Chocolate Rain” sensation on YouTube a few years ago.
Ron Paul has touched a nerve in the collective psyche of the young for very simple reasons: He’s been right about practically everything AND he doesn’t take money from PACs – not a penny. Add to that a 30-year track record of principled ideology; a pro-life stand that is grounded unassailably in his experience as a physician; support from active military personnel that is unrivaled; and the ability to raise $2 million in just two days from college kids at $25 per, and you start to see the idea. The young are hungry… no, desperate for a leader who isn’t like the moral-relativist teachers they’ve had for 16 years. They know what integrity looks like, even though it’s been politically-corrected out of their lives. They like simple honesty. They’ll pay for it; they’ll vote for it. All while the news media blather on about Romney’s cult and Perry’s rock.
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Of course you are projecting and speaking for yourself and your death wish
You are so right. I sincerely hope you are able to abort all your babies and the babies of all like minded friends. That way the dark ages will be avoided fer shure.
Women (including your mother and wife/girlfriend) are much better off now than we were back in the dark ages, so you have us to thank for that. Keep up your support of our efforts and your daughters will thank you.
Did you in fact live in the dark ages or are you just spewing more nonsense?
What about Joan of Arc, Eleanor of Aquitane, Lady Godiva and more than a few others who did not resent their fair sex or men?
http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/middle-ages-women.htm
"Pro-life always = anti women" How about when the soon-to-be-terminated fetus is female?
Not just Marines however
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/10/us-government-issues-more-takedown.html
Ron Paul seems a bit of a stretch. He has been lurking around Congress for about 20 years sucking on the government's teat. Would classify him as more of the problem than the solution.
weak
With clueless, uninformed drivel like that.....I'd say you are more part of the problem.
If you think that all he's been doing is lurking for 20 years that means you haven't read any of his writings, watched his speeches, or done any research into what the man is about.
I would classify you as more of the problem than the solution.
Brilliant contribution. We'll let you know when we are debating how man created carbon.
Dirtbagger Troll, you simply do not know what you are talking about:
"As a physician, Paul routinely lowered fees or worked for free and refused to accept Medicaid or Medicare payments.[16][17] As a member of Congress, he continues to refuse to sign up for the government pension that he would be entitled to in order to avoid receiving government money, saying it would be "hypocritical and immoral."[18]
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ron_Paul
RP may not be able to win, but he can force a brokered election (who was that other guy from Texas) and maybe we can do away with a POTUS at all
Ron Paul is winning most of the straw and real polls corporate monopoly media are embargoing, hence 'The Political Revolution Will Not Be televised.'
None of the monopoly media candidates can beat 0.
Wait until GOP delegates vote for Ron Paul in Tampa.
They are only committed for the first primary round...
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2011/10/yes_that_is_a_banker_hang...
Rick should stick to picking stocks (something he's very good at)... wonder what kind of meds he was on when he penned this mess?
I hesitate to begin to debate your theories Rick, but can't resist a shot at the hidden backer bullshit... interesting how you missed the Koch Bros led Tea Party "take over!" OWS is nothing at all like the corporate TP movement, it has majority support across the political spectrum (x politicians), will not be bought by either side or be allowed to sink to the level of manufactured, politically motivated distractions like the birthplace of the president.
Epic fail Rick!
Yeah! Fuck the tea party! Their membes haven't been enslaved to fiat and big government since birth, they're the lazy looters! And fuck the Kock brothers - damn libertarians. Who are they to tell me I can think for myself? How dare they? And fuck RA and his lousy article which is somewhat encouraging and rings basically true to most sane people. Fuckers.
Reading for comprehension:
Rick's wife Marilyn wrote the essay...
Occupiers are not able to find a solutions yet b/c occupiers are part of the problem.
The key difference between Tea Party and OWS is that tea people are forced into a big government chosen by the other mob voters. Tea people are against such nonsense but get overwhelmed in the election.
Many occupiers OTOH are fooled into believing big government can provide Housing/Eduction/Health Care for everyone. They think that's the express lane to prosperity and equality so they vote for it, which then creates this GOVT-injected demand that can be met only with either low quality H/E/HC or exorbitant H/E/HC the general public could not afford. They dig themselves in.
I ain't trust OWS movement very much til they start admitting own fault a little bit.
Funny editorial in WSJ about how the OWS folk are now learning what it's like to be 'the man'. They've been complaining that the homeless are coming in there an using their facilities and taking their food, and the homeless aren't contributing to the cause.
Can you say "irony"?
Also, some guy was bitching because now there is a fee to drum in the limited time of the drum circle, and they're calling it a tax now and complaining that it's too much tax to pay.
Deja vu
Imagine what could happen if Americans voted for the most qualified candidate who defended our Constitution most of his 76 years and was the only member of Congress to ever hit a home run in the Annual hardball game (this summer)?
I've imagined it many times. We'd get a well-meaning and completely ineffectual President.
The machine which is the Military/Financial complex would steamroll right over him.
He'd probably be impeached and spend 4 years on CSPAM answering stupid questions about whether he ever accepted gold as payment for abortions.
Blunderdog, you ARE part of the problem
Have you ever watched Dr Ron Paul outperform all other candidates in the so-called debates, despite the paucity of attention and time the corporate monopoly media handlers allow him?
RP's been around DC over a score of years, understands Foreign Policy and Financial Services better than Biden and Frank, and knows where the bones are buried. He has the support of an energized Freshman Class in the House led by Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan. He understands Boehner will have to go like all Albatross Repubs and Demoncats who sold out their Constitutional principles for campaign funding.
Maybe this will wake you up until the next debate on CNBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htF0LaaU4FY 13:04
Maybe not
Based on your description, he sounds a lot like a "hope and change" candidate.
Sure, I find the enthusiasm endearing: if your boy RON PAUL is elected, he'll CHANGE THINGS. He'll stamp out corruption! He'll end empire! He'll restore our government's adherence to the Constitution!
You actually believe that? You think changing one man is going to turn this country around? REALLY?
BTW--don't think that I'm opposed to him being elected. I like the guy and would rather see him in that office than any other candidate. He's obviously one of more intelligent Senators out there, and I admire his consistency.
But he has a Chinaman's chance of winning, and even if he does, our government is already so completely dysfunctional that IT DOESN'T MATTER who you put in the White House.
My suggestion is to move beyond the idea that our government is going to "fix" things. That's what prevents you from solving your own problems. And don't waste your time on me. I was supporting Paul for POTUS in the '90s. I'm familiar with the guy's work. He's just like the football Lucy used to tee up for Charlie Brown. He performs well in debates, caucuses, and straw polls. And THEN....
...as soon as the party machinery goes to work, he drops off the face of the Earth. This will happen again. It will probably continue to happen until he's dead, because he has the look of a guy who's going to remain active up to his last day above ground.
(You setting up to blame ME in November when he's not on the ticket?)
Have to question your "intelligence", Ron Paul is a Representative, NOT a Senator!
Hey, good point. The fact that I'd made such a stupid mistake is pretty strong indication he's going to get the nom and win the election.
(No, wait, that's stupid.)
I wonder what kind of rating this "article" would get, if it wouldn't promote RP. Actually, i wonder what kind of message the article would send, if one would ignore the RP-stuff in it.
Well, your "shield" isn't working on me: 1 star, asshole.
bulls-eye
Forget your prejudices! He had a lot to say.
Yes, Ackerman is a deflationist, too, and he might be right on that one, too.
She, Marilyn Ackerman, Master in Rhetoric...
the MSM really has little or no influence. as the President hangs on his teleprompter, he loses influence as well. the internet has largely replaced the traditional media. bloggers are better at fixing their audience, than traditional analysts.
if Obama has proved anything it is that policy extends beyond any one man or one party. Bush ran as a traditional conservative but governed like an autocratic, free spending liberal (FDR), and Obama hasn't challenged anything Bush left undone.
summary: the young people who voted for Obama care more about personality than policy, and Ron Paul is a challenge to existing policy, and has a less accomodative public image. (he doesn't speak to them)
unless you are over fifty and you have been on Facebook you don't understand the NEW generation gap.
but something is in the works, perhaps a hookup with Julian Assange and the OWS movement? hard to imagine this directionless horde will remain disengaged much longer. and cyber attacks are their best strategy.
the right information on Obama could send him out of the WH faster than any ten fire breathing GOP wannabes.
so youth will be served, and Obama turned out to be a lousy waiter. for the record Bush won both terms of office by cyber attacks on the electronic voting machines. but don't expect that to go unnoticed by the current bunch of activists.
meanwhile the anchors on the MSM make a lot of money for doing nothing, but they aren't the only ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF35aR1aqcg 0:24
Soon only CEO jobs will be left here.
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/home-depot-sending-jobs-offshore/nFNcC/
"U.S. firms are quietly moving high-paying accounting, finance and human resource jobs offshore.Local companies, like Home Depot, are among them. The company built an international chain from one store in Atlanta. Now it's moving white collar jobs offshore."
"Atlanta-based Equifax is routing calls and credit files to an overseas contractor in places like Jamaica, Costa Rica or the Philippines. Equifax is sending more than just credit card information there. It’s also sending credit histories and social security numbers."
The anit-capitalism is a joke-Just ask the 99% of the Chinese over there in communist China, not the 1% Communist Ruling Party. It's Socialism of the rich that's the bitch of it all. Here is a video about the Chinese Bull this week.
http://www.youtube.com/user/zedgehero
Too late now Bastiat
Thug cops are war on civilians ,families,troops,basically everything
As stated many times before ...Shooting the Marine with hands at his side,the powers that be declared war.
Pissed off the wrong people--we'll see how pissed off they are soon enough. Cover-up investigation won't fly on this one. If they want to keep order, they'll be charging somebody soon. The video of Olsen standing there, silent, with his hands at his side, 15 to 20 feet from those cops is just too compelling. Bullshit artist on the media can fool the average clown who has not grasp on reality anymore about it being an accident but they won't fool ex-servicemen or anyone else with weapons experience and training.
http://dailybail.com/home/marines-to-oakland-police-you-did-this-to-my-brother.html
I get this image of dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of former marines in their garages and basements, cleaning their weapons, getting back in shape . . .
You would be right Bastiat
I doubt Mayor Quan has ANY IDEA what she is dealing with. If she did, she'd be throwing that cop under the bus like a hot grenade. If the Feds know what they are doing, they will get involved and make it happen. How many ex-marines in Oakland PD I wonder . . . that's gotta be getting interesting . . . the cops know just who did it.
Many ex-Marines cops everywhere, particularly big cities
Once a Marine, always a marine
If that guy does get disciplined, he may get fragged like Serpico
Semper fi
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps
"Many Former Marines, cops everywhere..."
fixed
Semper Fi
We may finally get to find out if the Corps is going to outlive the USA. Heh.
Depoliticize
Decentralize
Recivilize
sorry for the red one i thought i was voting for decentralize. repoliticze, and decivilize (civilization is a process which increases violence)
I have come to view all the protest movements - including Arab Spring - as instances of The Fourth Turning.
Then read this moron Earl of Chiswick
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/10/marine-navy-army-and-airforce-vet...
if OWS is less organized, it's only because it *is* a grassroots movement. It's not a production of the Koch Brothers.
As for less-informed. WTF? It's the exact opposite! How many of the tea party "protesters" were up in arms over "socialized medicine" but wanted the gov't to keep their hands off their Medicare and Social Security?
These people, largely, don't want handouts, they want jobs paying a decent wage like their parents were able to get after college (and before the best paying jobs were sent overseas in the name of corporate profits)
Was debating a friend of mine who is very conservative (so he thinks) about who he will be voting for, apparently he is a huge Perry fan because Perry, in my friend's view, has done a great job of creating employment and growth in Texas, and that is a great leader. After barfing all over myself I asked why not Ron Paul? Apparently Paul is too anti-military (my friend seems to think that being police of the world is in our best interest), and when i tried to explain all the economic and financial implications of this and how our financial system needs to be turned around and capitlism restored and the fed put in its place, I suddenly got no answer. So, i guess, as long as you don't actually use your own brain to think about your candidates, those other Republican candidates are great choices....drives me fucking crazy, though I won't have the chance to vote for any of them, so I'll be expecting to despise every option I have at the polls next year...
I believe EVERY state allows you to write-in a candidate of yer choice...