I arrived with xyz before 11AM. David Jacobi was the only person there when we showed up and had been since about 9AM. One of the Manhattan Ron Paul Action group people (Mike?) showed up shortly after we did. We had 7 people I think before that second shift. At 4PMish the second wave came in which is when we left.

Notes on it all:

  • It was not well organized. People weren’t sure when others were to arrive exactly nor had their phone number. There was only 2 documents available for those walking by: Republican oriented Ron Paul slimjims and the Manhattan LP’s Serf City. This was completely unacceptable. Only a few people actually asked for info and half of them knew libertarians or were already but several people would have taken something had we had it. Perhaps get The Advocates’ Discover Liberty tabloid [PDF]. It’s not great but it’s something. A flier with the Libertarian platform would have been better than what we had. I’m just going to start bringing my own things when these types of events occur.
  • The OPH board we had was ancient as were some of the cards. We need to purchase a new one.
  • People are interesting:
    • An older woman, late 60’s, didn’t want to take the quiz. Said she knew where she stood and wasn’t going to let us try to sway her. ‘I know what you’re trying to do.’
    • Another 60 something y/o woman. Ranked fair high in the libertarian section of the diamond but was supporting Clinton because she wants to see a woman in office.
    • Several foreigners who scored fairly libertarian who were from socialistic nations.
    • Found 2 authoritarians myself, no 0:0’s though.
    • A wheelchair bound gentleman who scored a 100:90 but said he was currently supporting Rudy. Said that Paul’s foreign policy turned him off to him.
    • An older fellow who thought the questions were rigged to produce libertarian leaning results. Refused to acknowledge that there was a Maybe option or that it’s only meant to take but a minute to fill out and wasn’t going to be open ended. He argued with me about regulation of TV,radio etc. That of course you don’t want the government to regulate content but transmission was mandatory otherwise it wouldn’t work. He outright ignored my bringing up that his home cordless phone and access point use unregulated frequencies. That companies work together to create standard protocols and come up with new technologies (like UWB) to get around interference and frequency collision. Also arguing that conscription is necessary in case ‘there are unpopular wars.’ He ended up walking away informing me ‘I respected the libertarian movement until I talked with you.’ It’s obvious he had little understanding of the idea to begin with.

Overall it was a good amount of fun. Talked with some really open and nice people… argued with some staunch conservatives and liberals who weren’t so nice. I’d say maybe 50% of those I talked to knew who Ron Paul was… only 10% knew his platform. It’s going to be very interesting the 29th up in New Hampshire.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 12:55 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.