CELEBRITY APPEARANCES AND THE GROUND GAME
“No, that’s not a cardboard cutout,” said Florida FAIRtax Congressional District Director for Florida Districts 4 and 5, Paul Livingston, “That’s the real Tucker Carlson (center) with my wife, Mary (left), me (right) and FAIRtax gear at a book signing.” Carlson came to a Books-A-Million store in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 6, 2018 to sign copies of his latest book, Ship of Fools. Carlson is a political commentator, reporter, author, and columnist who has hosted the nightly talk show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, on Fox News since 2016. The show averages 2.8 million viewers per night, ranking as the most watched cable program in the 9:00 p.m. Eastern time slot.
Paul asked Carlson to put on the hat. Unfortunately Carlson said that he can't endorse anything, but that he DOES love the FAIRtax!
Celebrity endorsements and statements of support are helpful if we can get them. We obviously had some success this time. We can say truthfully that Carlson is a fan of the FAIRtax, even if he did not give us his endorsement. Energy used reaching for the stars can be well spent if successful and can motivate the FAIRtax troops.
But the ground game is just as important – if not more so. An endorsement from a celebrity itself will not get a Member of Congress to co-sponsor the FAIRtax and get volunteers working. Numbers of constituents putting pressure on Congress over time will.
Our Northern Florida volunteers have a good ground game going. Here are some photos from the Sunshine State, starting with a photo of FAIRtax-er Red Martin at the Riverside Arts Market FAIRtax booth in Jacksonville. Red and team were there on average for a 5 hour day, and they got 30 new signups. It is important to get signups to Kyle Clark for Kyle to put into the database. When visitors to our booth who sign up start getting weekly FAIRtax news from us, the message starts to register.
And here is a photo of Paul Livingston posing with the stuff for a FAIRtax booth in front of his BMW X3, as published in the BMW Club magazine. Paul points out that a FAIRtax booth can be downsized to one person with a chair, clipboard with a sign-up sheet (name, street, city, state, zip, phone, and e-mail), and handouts from the FAIRtax Store such as palm cards and business cards with Prebate Schedule. Good places to set up are public places like post offices (check for rules about what can be brought inside and outside of post office property), parks and libraries.
Finally, here is a picture of FAIRtax-er James Kring with his FAIRtax van and trailer getting the brand out.
We would like to thank Paul Livingston of Jacksonville, Florida, for contributing this material. If you have ideas for getting your state or district organized to put out the word and get sign-ups, please send those suggestions in.
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CALL FOR PICTURES AND WRITEUPS
We need more of you to send in pictures and news. If you have anything to share, please send your material to me at jim.bennett@fairtax.org, or text me at (908) 578-4975, or fax me at (908) 598-2888. When others see your activity, they are inspired, and the process snowballs. When the process snowballs, Congress Members and Senators and, yes, even the President start to listen.