The Patrick Henry Democratic Club 2008 Grass-roots Motivator of the Year Ron Paul

The most organized grass roots movement came from the Presidential Campaign of Ron Paul. While the media and leaders of the two major parties determine who their nominations will be, the grass roots supporters of Ron Paul put forth the best grass roots efforts in furtherance of getting their candidate the nomination. Both Obama and McCain were top down candidates, with Obama being sold by television networks to the American people. In Ron Paul’s case, the campaign came from the grass roots and average individuals made Paul famous. Although Paul’s Congressional base is in the Galveston, Texas area, his signs were in every county in America. No other candidate had such a prominent grass roots campaign. Supporters of other candidates learned about sign making from watching videos put together by Paul supporters to inform other Paul supporters about sign creation. Paul’s signs weren’t just numerous. His people put together very large signs that couldn’t be missed in every county in America.

The media tried to close Paul out of debates and the Republicans chairman, surprisingly, interceded and demanded that all the candidates be included. As a result, Ron Paul won Louisiana and came in at least second, and arguably first, in Nevada. Because the Republican Party is a top down party, there was little chance for the grass roots to alter the final result of the convention. However, Paul supporters did the best with what they had. A great many Democrats reregistered as Republican to vote for Paul in the primary. In speaking to these new Republicans, it was clear than many hated the Republican Party and would have never dreamed of registering Republican, but for Paul. There also seemed to be an alliance between Kucinich, Paul and McKinney supporters that resulted in mutual support for the three candidates. Currently, many Kucinich and Paul supporters are calling on the two candidates to have a joint ticket in 2012. Neither candidate has agreed to this, yet.

When the Republican top-down Convention tried to close out the Paul supporters, the Paul supporters had somewhere else to go. During the September Republican Convention in Saint Paul, the Republicans had to go out on the streets to try to recruit attendees. In the sister city, Minneapolis, organizers had no such problem as Ron Paul’s September 2^nd Convention outdid the Republican Convention in attendance.

This year, major parties hoped that the supporters of primary candidates would come home. One candidate refused to play ball with the corrupt leadership of his party. That was Ron Paul, who held a press conference at the National Press Club with Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Chuck Baldwin, and Bob Barr, for the purpose of telling the public to vote independent. Though fear and a desire to rid America of Republican rule led most Americans to vote for Obama, many others voted independent. Because independent votes are the ones most often left uncounted, we may never know how many followed Paul’s advise.

The grass roots efforts for Ron Paul did not stop with the election. Ron Paul’s grass roots are busy educating Americans about the Federal Reserve, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization, the Trilateral Commission and other groups that determine what happens in the economy and which nation will be the target of the next war.

Young Dems