I’m Curious, How many Delegates are going to represent Ron Paul at the National Convention?
While I may disagree with Dr. Paul on how best to defend ourselves as Western Civilization is under siege, I like the energy and enthusiasm of many of his younger supporters. Unfortunately, there are a few elements of his supporters that have zero class. ( My good friend Indian Aaron had his motocycle vandalized and they left a Ron Paul sticker on the paint of his bike. Suffice it to say, that he is on the warpath, and I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of his wrath. He does not play well with vandals, thieves, or any other “recidivistic scum” as he calls them.) However, all in all, I was impressed with most of the new folks to the GOP at the State convention, and I was happy with how the convention turned out, even with a few rough moments near the end.
I had folks on both sides of some actions mad at me. Oh well, they’ll either get over it or they won’t…
One of the best parts of the whole convention, was that after it was obvious that Mr. McCain will be the nominee for the GOP, that many of the supporters of Ron Paul are not going away. This is a very good thing!
The addition to the GOP of many young and youthful Ron Paul supporters reminds me of the generational changes to the GOP.
Many liberal leaning folks still paint the GOP as Rockefeller Republicans, but they are so out of date in their thinking. Goldwater and his supporters changed the dynamic of the GOP, and it was a painful evolution for the Rockefeller Republicans, Same for the Goldwater Guys, as Reagan molded the GOP on his way to becoming president. Gingrich and the young freshmen representatives and Senators further modified the party in 1994.
Now, we are in the middle of the newest influx into the GOP. Similar to McCain, Ron Paul is an older Republican, He may take credit for the change in Party Dynamics, but the real modification will come from his young pro-individual liberty supporters. I suspect that they will have a new candidate to rally behind, and may be around for quite some time.
Many of the young supporters, who were not entirely thrilled with the outcome of the State convention threatened to run against long standing precinct committee officers. This is the spark that the old guard needs.
The deadline to register to run for PCO is this week. Don’t delay. I hope that I will have an opponent, too.
Why on earth would I want an opponent? Because I believe that many small races for PCO positions are good for the party. Those of us who have become complacent will need to get out and defend our long held offices, and those who want to shape the future of the party will find out what is involved in running campaigns at local levels. It will be good for all.
I disagree with about 20% of what the newest folks to the party believe. That means we agree 80% of the time. That’s good enough for me. I welcome the future and look forward to the influx of our newest members of the GOP’s Big Tent.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
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6 comments:
I'm really sorry to hear about Indian Aaron's bike.
I was curious of your take on the McCain delegations maneuver to stop the convention by removing quorum.
I expected some parliamentary hardball to be played, but I thought that was below the belt. Especially since those leaving refused to relinquish their badges to waiting alternates.
He is still pissed off enough to put the boots to someone, but he knows that you can't take it out on the whole group. He knows that it was probably some hangaround and not a Delegate.
Anyway, my understanding is that some kind of Unity deal was made between the Leadership of both camps. Then somebody from the Paul camp broke the deal and then the McCain folks walked out. I had folks from both camps mad at me.
One camp mad because I walked out, the other camp was mad because when I walked out I spent all my energy throwing a Lou Pinella style tantrum trying to get folks back in. Not how I want to see a convention end. Fortunately, folks came back in and the convention ended with a gavel, the way I feel that it should. (I do not speak on behalf of anybody but my own self interest.)
I was dissappointed with both camps as obviously, both camps were not thrilled with me.
If the Paul folks broke the deal, they were wrong. I think that the McCain folks response was wrong. Again, now that the Paul folks have blogged this, I think that they are wrong. Maybe it's a Jock thing with me, but it didn't need to be aired in he press, the disagreements and complaints should be aired out, but locker room style. The press should not have been involved. Close the doors to the locker room and let the folks have it out. maybe not as aggressive as Dibble, Myers, and Charlton vs. Pinella ( am I dating Myself?...)but a conversation should happen.
As for delegate buttons, one of the complications which arose was McCain folks not giving badges up, and complicating things were folks from the Paul camp taking badges from delegates from counties that they did not reside in.
Both sides were playing parlimentary games, and that dissappointed me. I'm not much for parlimentary games. That would be like two baseball teams having the ability to contest the same pitch for 2 hours. The game would never end.
More importantly I was thrilled to see so much enthusiasm for candidates, especially from the younger generation who was very motivated. Rossi, among others would benefit from that. I think that the Paul folks have a good chance to get Ron to be able to speak at National. I sure hope there is no truth to the rumor that Paul folks are going to support Obama instead of McCain as BHO is very collectivist and opposed to ALL that Ron Paul stands for. After the dust settles, my boy John McCain will need to be reminded that he is a conservative by Paul folks. Those who don't quote conspiracy theaory are being taken seriously.
Again, I am not representing anybody but my own personal greed and self interest.
I am not some Rodney King type who wants to know if we can't all get along, but if I had any pull, I would have liked to knock the heads together of the leadership of both sides. (We're all on the same team, right? I would be just as cranky if I heard that one side or the other was refusing to back the winning candidate and jumping ship to the collectivist party.)
I did enjoy the post convention rally by the Paul supporters.
I am happy with the platform. I got my reminder of the 2nd Amendment in, with support of both camps.
PPP, Interesting rumor you heard about Paul people going to support Obama. I haven't heard that from any of them, but then again Paul was able to rope in some liberal supporters who were solely anti-war so maybe they would go back and vote for Obama. Most Paul supporters I know would have as equally a hard time voting for Obama as they would for McCain. It seems like most are considering writing in Ron Paul. I've tried to convince them otherwise based on this information. Instead I say they should consider all their options and then choose the best candidate. In my opinion that probably means voting for Baldwin or Barr.
I think these conventions should be open and publicized as much as possible because it would lead to the most fair and honest results. If the convention had been televised or streamed from the WA Republican Party website then I believe you would have seen less parliamentary tricks being played. Also, I knew a number of people who were very interested/curious as to what was going on at the convention that could not attend. People being interested in whats happening in the Republican party is always a good thing. Who sounds like an isolationist now ;)
Hammer,
Try TVW.
the convention was being filmed for TVW.
I'm not sure if it is .com or .gov or .org
check it out.
my point is that the leadership members should have it out with each other, but the press should not be allowed in the locker room so to speak.
why is the 95% of the convention that was great not news?
if it bleeds, it leads...
Great suggestion about TVW. I found the videos as well as audios. You mentioned that the Ron Paul people "broke the deal". Can you go into the specifics of that deal a little and what part they broke? From what I can tell from watching the video, I'm sure the Paul side of the deal was to vote to accept the list of party candidates for the convention, I'm guessing so they can have a chance instead on discussing the platform and suggested resolutions. But from what I can tell from watching the video, McCain supporters were voting to put aside parts of the platform for silly or no reason in order to silence any debate on the substance and then walked out when it came time to address the stack of resolutions. It definitely doesn't look like the Paul camp was "paid back" for their willingness to go along with the McCain/Party provided convention/elector list.
It may be all about perceptions.
Both camps apparently percieve the other camp to have broken the Unity proposed by the McCain Leadership. I was not in the loop with either camp, so I'm not sure exactly what the Unity deal may have been about. That is why I am curious as to how many delegates or alternates are going to be for McCain or Paul. From my perspective it appeared that the parlimentary game was initiated by my friends in the Paul Leadership, early on in the convention, (My thought was the attempt to remove an entire county's delegation from the floor was the first strike.) and the McCain camp ultimately was a little more experienced at the game. What they didn't count on was that there are many individuals who even though they felt McCain was a done deal, did not want to leave with what appeared to me to be a spontaneous walk-out. Looking back, it seems more reactionary than pre-planned. I may be wrong, but I don't think that I am.
Here's my perspective about where some of the problem may lay.
Supporters of both camps appear to percieve "our people" and the "Paul people" or "our people" and the "McCain people".
My intention is not to sound like Little Mary Sunshine, but in my delusional perspective, we are all on the SAME TEAM, and the convention was a practice game between the two squads. From my perspective, the Paul campaign leadership was preparing for quite some time with parlimentary delay strategies, and the McCain campaign leadership was planning contingencies for these same strategies and tactics. I must admit that for playing from a point of being in a minority delegatewise, these parlimentary tactics may have been the only chance for the Paul campaign to achieve it's goals, as the numbers were there for the McCain campaign to easily have a 2/3 majority on most issues.
As I think I stated previously, I'm not a big fan of parlimentary games, or arguing balls and strikes.
In a nutshell, I found the Paul leadership to have really worked hard on parlimentary strategies and tactics during many county conventions, and the McCain leadership to have been reactionary in it's response to percieved strategies and tactics expecting similar tactics to be used at the State convention.
Anyway, that's how I sees it, for whatever it's worth. Now it is time for the leadership from All the GOP Campaigns to get in a room and Bang Heads to come up with a Victory Plan to defeat the Collectivist party this year. So no more of "our people" and "their people" 'cause we are all individual little opposable thumbed primates looking out for our individual liberty, and now we have to get these individuals to play as a team against a team that has no concept of rugged individualism and loves the collective and wants to assimilate us all.
I may be the rare person in politics who views it as an athletic event, and that we win some, we lose some, and we don't take it personally, and we get back in the game to win and support our team to win where it matters most. We prepare for next season, revamp our leadership, our team, and come back to play the game to win for what we beleive in next time around. Reagan, Metcalf and others never won in their first game. But look what both finally accomplished. Not only elected but re-elected.
For us in Washington the real game now starts. And our opponents will throw beanballs, have vaseline under the brims of their hats and play legalistic and parlimentary games that makes Elephants look like rank amateurs.
Elephants vs Jackasses.(hey, I didn't pick their mascot...)
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