ODonnell On Politics
columnist: Jim ODonnell

Topic: Presidential Campaign 2008
Ron Paul Surge – Real Shock & Awe

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Special Thanks To EJ Mossa For Helping Me With This Idea

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by Jim ODonnell
(libertarian)
Saturday, December 15, 2007

First read his excellent article on Nolan Chart here: Let Them Hear the Silence

Thanks EJ, you have managed to crystallize in my thick skull what has been right and wrong with both the official campaign and the multitude of voluntary Ron Paul supporters.

All the voluntary people with a few exceptions [more later] are all over the place, helter skelter, dashing off emails to media organizations, blaming each other, and a multitude of other non-productive things. This is wasting a lot of energy and accomplishing just about nothing. Let's treat this whole political battle as if it were an actual military engagement, but one in which there was no actual "killing people and breaking things."

There are two basic opponents "individualist" [Ron Paul] and "collectivist" [All Other Candidates]. There are various forces aligned on both sides which for the sake of simplicity lets call them: Candidate, Official Campaign Staff, Volunteers, and Information Media. The target of the battle is the American people and to get their votes. Traditional elections rely on the old "tried and true" methods which need not be detailed here. What first must be recognized is that this is not a "traditional" campaign.

How can we implement the Ron Paul Surge and cause the maximum amount of "shock & awe" in the opponents and cause them to lose their balance and maybe even their heads?

Well one way is to recognize a general psychological truth: Individuals are not bothered by silence but collectivist go absolutely apoplectic if everyone ignores them. So EJ's entreaty to "Let Them Hear the Silence" is a devastating tool when used against the opposition.

Now we should not use this on the American people which are our targets, but against the opposition candidate, official campaign staff, and their information media. Actually we should target their volunteers, few though they may be, but in a positive way just like with the American people in general.

Before getting into this a little military stuff. I bet most know about the branch of the military called Psychological Operations or "Psy-Ops" for economy. The official emblem worn by members of this branch which describes very well their general method of operation is: A chess knight superimposed over crossed swords made of lightening.

I'll give you my personal interpretation of this symbol. A chess knight in that game is the most unpredictable piece on the entire board. It can move in any direction but in ways that may seem strange, jumping as it were all over the place. Thus "Psy-Ops" is unpredictable. The crossed swords made out of lightening represents to me "Sudden & Instant Death."

Those who may have always thought of the military that they were all Gomer Pyle's are totally incorrect as "Psy-Ops" is probably the most effective branch of our military.

Now let's look at the current situation and figure out what can be done to improve things. Let's keep everything simple and in military terminology here is the current situation:

Everyone is lined up facing each other and engaging head on. Other than "infighting" by the opposition between candidates, staff and traditional media organizations it is a "head on" battle.

The major difference here is that there is a new component in this battle: Ron Paul Campaign Volunteers. You will notice that they are a very large group but are kind of "fuzzy" and now serve as both a buffer and a target for the opposing forces.

There are great components of the volunteers like the moneybombs, blimp and meetup groups but there are also targets like a few "kook" elements and also those who are in general disorganized but trying everything that they can think of to do. Let me address the disorganized part first. The traditional media could not care less about you and your emails of complaint as their real object is to use repetition and phony polls to convince the American people to vote for their guy, whoever that may be at the moment and it doesn't matter to them since they are all the same.

Confronting them head on is wasteful and not effective as they don't care what you do. The worse part is that you only serve to elevate their circulation or ratings and make them more powerful.

This is where EJ's genius comes into play "Let them hear silence." Because they don't have the faintest idea of your capabilities they will think that you "went away" which will make them very happy.

If you are seemingly removed from the battle field then it will be Ron Paul and staff against the whole world, or at least that is what they will think. No problem, in order to attack him they will have to cover him and talk about him which is what is wanted in the first place. He is a very strong man and will have no problem at all dealing with this situation.

Well where did you guys go? Here is a new unconventional "Order Of Battle"

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©2007 Jim ODonnell, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Saturday, December 15, 2007
Last modified: Tuesday, December 25, 2007

The views expressed in this article are those of Jim ODonnell only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jim ODonnell is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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