[Peace-discuss] road trip to Iowa for Ron Paul?

[Robert Naiman]

Thanks, Carl. There's a lot that people can do without any traveling:
basically, time and money.

Time: calling potential voters in Iowa. As I understand it, the Paul
campaign is focusing its outreach on "Republicans." That means there
is a huge group of potential peace voters that the Paul campaign is
not reaching out to. We can get voter lists and call.

For example, we could get the voter list for people who voted in the
2008 Democratic caucus - a lot of first time people who told pollsters
that ending the Iraq war was their top issue - and we could do this in
particular areas where peace voters tend to congregate: university
towns. Ames, Iowa City, Cedar Falls.

The call script would be simple: if you want to end the war in
Afghanistan, if you don't want war with Iran, if you want to cut the
military budget, vote for Ron Paul in the Republican caucus.

People are more likely to do this if they do it collectively, because
it's more pleasant. So there could be a calling party at someone's
house.

Money: I am working to get some of the national peace groups to
cooperate on an "Iowa voter guide" - where do the candidates stand on
war with Iran, ending the Afghanistan war, cutting the military
budget? Then we would publish this in the Des Moines Register and
other newspapers. Folks could donate money to this project: the more
we raise, the more we can distribute.


On Wed, Nov 16, 2011 at 9:30 AM, Carl G. Estabrook
<galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
> Bob--
>
> I wouldn't be able to participate but I would contribute/fund-raise for the
> effort.
>
> The difference between Paul and the other Republican candidates (and Obama)
> on war issues couldn't be more obvious. I'm delighted to see that you're
> doing something about it.
>
> The two most important things the federal government does is kill people and
> transfer wealth from the majority to the rich.
>
> The Obama administration has proved itself even more brutal and efficient at
> those tasks than its predecessor. It has expanded wars in the Mideast and
> Africa, and has conducted a good-cop/bad-cop charade on government spending
> with the Republicans to attack social supports. And the beneficiaries of
> Obama's policies are the 1%, whose wealth has increased at an accelerating
> rate, even after the financial crisis - as more and more Americans are
> coming to recognize.
>
> Ron Paul of course votes consistently against Obama's wars, on ethical and
> political grounds. And he commendably voted against Obama's mendacious debt
> deal.
>
> Unfortunately, on economic policy Paul is a notorious believer in the debt
> and deficit malarkey peddled by both parties. What Paul believes as a matter
> of "libertarian" conviction is being used by others - often cynically - to
> scare Americans into accepting the elite's austerity program. (Wealth is so
> concentrated in America that an emergency tax of 15% on investable assets
> over $1 million would make the deficit disappear  - and 99% of American
> would not be subject to the tax.)
>
> Nevertheless Paul votes correctly - against both the wars and the debt deal
> - and is the only major party candidate to do so.
>
> Best wishes for your efforts,
>
> Carl
>
>
> On Nov 15, 2011, at 8:21 PM, Robert Naiman wrote:
>
>> In December 2003/January 2004 - when I was a graduate student - I
>> spent the winter break in Ames, Iowa, as a volunteer for Kucinich,
>> coordinating the campaign in Ames.
>>
>> I am thinking of doing something similar now - for Ron Paul.
>>
>> The Iowa Republican caucus is essentially an open primary. You just
>> have to show up, register as a Republican, and then you can vote.
>>
>> A new Bloomberg poll shows that the race is a four way statistical
>> tie: Cain, Paul, Romney, Gingrich.
>>
>> This means that any mobilization effort could tip the balance.
>>
>> What if we got a group of people from C-U, picked a target where we
>> thought we could be useful (the Kucinich campaign sent me to Ames
>> because it's a campus town), rented an apartment for a month, and
>> worked on mobilizing peace voters for the caucus on January 3?
>>
>> --
>> Robert Naiman
>> Policy Director
>> Just Foreign Policy
>> www.justforeignpolicy.org
>> naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
>> _______________________________________________
>> Peace-discuss mailing list
>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net
>> http://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss
>
>



-- 
Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org