The Sham That Was Democracy
Well, the Republican State Convention was quite an event. After being given the runaround over my credentials, I scanned over the Party propaganda packet and mentally prepared for the meeting.
The Chairman announced the Orders Of The Day, which was headed by opening the meeting in prayer. From that point, any semblance to an event with any shred of Christian influence was purely coincidental. Two days ago, the Party leadership illegally pushed through a couple rule changes that made the Party slate unamendable and undebateable, making it nigh impossible to nominate anyone not already on their list of approved and pre-screened "yes men."
When the time came for the nomination for National, Alternate, and At-Large Delegates to the National convention, the list was seconded and counted as accepted almost before the speaker had finished reading the names. Just like that, it was over. When a fellow called a Point of Order that the list of names required a vote, the speaker apologized for his oversight, rambled a bit about how skipping steps of Parliamentary Procedure was a danger when you are simply reading from a list, and then continued on to the next list of nominees--still without us ever having a chance to vote on whether or not we would accept the list of Party nominees! When the same fellow, and then another, tried to call out the speaker for still not following procedure, they were ignored.
When the time came to vote for the candidates for various committees, one sly old Ronzilla supporter spoke up and asked that the floor be opened for nominations. This was seconded and passed, and as soon as I stood and nominated our man for our District, I was made. The name wasn't an "official" name approved by the Party, and it was obvious to everyone in the room that I was "one of them". I did manage to get a second, but when the time came to stand for a vote, the few of us who stood in favor of that delegate made targets of ourselves. For the rest of the meeting, we were shunned and ignored.
Lunch was OK. I suppose you can't expect real Cajun food from a place run by a bunch of Asians in a mall food court. I could've given them a few tips on what Jambalaya should be, but I digress...
After lunch, we split up by Counties. Again, when those of us who are RP supporters voted against accepting the official list of names compiled by all the Districts, we were spotted by security, who thereafter kept a close eye on us. I was sitting in the back row for my County, and I overheard one say, "There's a bunch of Paulers here; about 7 or 8 of them. There's another knot of them over there, and another bunch on that side." I looked behind me, and saw at least half a dozen security guards lined up behind us not five feet away! :eek: I guess they thought we were going to be disruptive or something, because they sure looked like they were ready for business. As I looked around the perimeter of the Convention Hall, I saw several more groups of men in navy blue jackets, khaki Dockers and cheap black dress shoes--all security men; ostensibly ready to instantly squash any disruption by "those Ron Paul people." Later, Publius admitted that he got a real kick out of how afraid the Party leadership is of Dr. No supporters. They really did their level best to marginalize, frighten, and silence us.
At the end of the convention, the Republican Chairman addressed the crowd. He said that he knew there were a lot of us who were making this our first convention. He said he didn't understand why we voted against the Party slate of nominees, but he encouraged us to stay involved, but from now on to work within the party instead of working against it. In other words, "toe the line, you Ron Paul people."
It was oddly reminiscent of Bush's "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists," speech.
The absolute high point of the day was the nomination of Greg Zoeller for Indiana AG. I spoke with him at a pre-convention party, and Greg seems to be committed to the same Constitutional principles as Dr. Paul; small government, less government, protection of our Civil Rights, States Rights, and most importantly a return to the Constitution of the United States as our Rule of Law.
When I asked Greg what he knew and thought about REAL ID, he started out by saying, "Well, I don't know how you feel about it, but I have a few problems with it." He said that he doesn't liike it because 1) it is unfunded, which means the gov't intends to raise our taxes to pay for it, 2) "it would be a non-issue for the current administration if they simply secured the border like they're supposed to do" (yes, he actually said that), ended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "dealt with the illegal immigrant problem." 3) It is a logistical nightmare that places sensitive information in the hands of those who have no business accessing that information, and 4) that "the federal government is getting too big for its britches."
He went on to say that the Constitution makes no provision for something like REAL ID. He said that he sees a big part of the Attorney General's job as "being the stand-up guy for the State; the one who tells the Federal Government, 'Hey, this is where the line in the sand is; you're not going any further.'"
The Chairman announced the Orders Of The Day, which was headed by opening the meeting in prayer. From that point, any semblance to an event with any shred of Christian influence was purely coincidental. Two days ago, the Party leadership illegally pushed through a couple rule changes that made the Party slate unamendable and undebateable, making it nigh impossible to nominate anyone not already on their list of approved and pre-screened "yes men."
When the time came for the nomination for National, Alternate, and At-Large Delegates to the National convention, the list was seconded and counted as accepted almost before the speaker had finished reading the names. Just like that, it was over. When a fellow called a Point of Order that the list of names required a vote, the speaker apologized for his oversight, rambled a bit about how skipping steps of Parliamentary Procedure was a danger when you are simply reading from a list, and then continued on to the next list of nominees--still without us ever having a chance to vote on whether or not we would accept the list of Party nominees! When the same fellow, and then another, tried to call out the speaker for still not following procedure, they were ignored.
When the time came to vote for the candidates for various committees, one sly old Ronzilla supporter spoke up and asked that the floor be opened for nominations. This was seconded and passed, and as soon as I stood and nominated our man for our District, I was made. The name wasn't an "official" name approved by the Party, and it was obvious to everyone in the room that I was "one of them". I did manage to get a second, but when the time came to stand for a vote, the few of us who stood in favor of that delegate made targets of ourselves. For the rest of the meeting, we were shunned and ignored.
Lunch was OK. I suppose you can't expect real Cajun food from a place run by a bunch of Asians in a mall food court. I could've given them a few tips on what Jambalaya should be, but I digress...
After lunch, we split up by Counties. Again, when those of us who are RP supporters voted against accepting the official list of names compiled by all the Districts, we were spotted by security, who thereafter kept a close eye on us. I was sitting in the back row for my County, and I overheard one say, "There's a bunch of Paulers here; about 7 or 8 of them. There's another knot of them over there, and another bunch on that side." I looked behind me, and saw at least half a dozen security guards lined up behind us not five feet away! :eek: I guess they thought we were going to be disruptive or something, because they sure looked like they were ready for business. As I looked around the perimeter of the Convention Hall, I saw several more groups of men in navy blue jackets, khaki Dockers and cheap black dress shoes--all security men; ostensibly ready to instantly squash any disruption by "those Ron Paul people." Later, Publius admitted that he got a real kick out of how afraid the Party leadership is of Dr. No supporters. They really did their level best to marginalize, frighten, and silence us.
At the end of the convention, the Republican Chairman addressed the crowd. He said that he knew there were a lot of us who were making this our first convention. He said he didn't understand why we voted against the Party slate of nominees, but he encouraged us to stay involved, but from now on to work within the party instead of working against it. In other words, "toe the line, you Ron Paul people."
It was oddly reminiscent of Bush's "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists," speech.
The absolute high point of the day was the nomination of Greg Zoeller for Indiana AG. I spoke with him at a pre-convention party, and Greg seems to be committed to the same Constitutional principles as Dr. Paul; small government, less government, protection of our Civil Rights, States Rights, and most importantly a return to the Constitution of the United States as our Rule of Law.
When I asked Greg what he knew and thought about REAL ID, he started out by saying, "Well, I don't know how you feel about it, but I have a few problems with it." He said that he doesn't liike it because 1) it is unfunded, which means the gov't intends to raise our taxes to pay for it, 2) "it would be a non-issue for the current administration if they simply secured the border like they're supposed to do" (yes, he actually said that), ended the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and "dealt with the illegal immigrant problem." 3) It is a logistical nightmare that places sensitive information in the hands of those who have no business accessing that information, and 4) that "the federal government is getting too big for its britches."
He went on to say that the Constitution makes no provision for something like REAL ID. He said that he sees a big part of the Attorney General's job as "being the stand-up guy for the State; the one who tells the Federal Government, 'Hey, this is where the line in the sand is; you're not going any further.'"
Labels: Enemies Of Liberty, Sons Of Liberty
posted by armed_and_christian | 23:27
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