Monday, June 11, 2012

~~~THE TEXAS STATE CONVENTION~~~

THE TEXAS STATE CONVENTION!!!  DOWNTOWN FORT WORTH CONVENTION CENTER!

Wow!!  All I can say is WOW!  This was the coolest thing I have done in a long time.  For the past several days, I have been involved in one of the most interesting political events I've ever come across.  The Republican State Convention.  I was there Wednesday of last week all the way til Saturday evening.  15 hour days with about 5 hours sleep in between each of them.  I would have been blogging about this while I was there but I have no FREAKIN' COMPUTER!  My home computer has 22 new viruses on it (shout out to my son - ROSS!) and I can't even get to my word program much less the internet.  Thank God for Wifi!!  That kid, I swear.  One of these days, he's going to turn into a giant Barney and skip off into the world of Give Me a Break!  I keep telling him just because things are flashing or you see monkeys blinking does NOT mean you can click on it!!!!!   So tired of seeing a pop-up of Paris Hilton giving me the come hither look when I try to google something like pretzles and peanut butter.   ANYway............


So I get there on Wednesday.  Two days after it all started but when you have a full time job, it's hard to get an entire week without having to take vacation days.  I don't take vacation days unless it's for vacation.  Period.  Wednesday, I sat on my first day of the Rules Committee which is held by the SREC (state republican exec. committee) that basically sets the rules of the republican party of Texas.  These are guidelines and bylaws that are adopted will become rules of the Republican Party of Texas.    There are 42 rules.  Too many to get into here.  There were also meetings for the Republican Party Platform which is basically a set of platforms and ideals that we stand by as Republicans in the party and there is the Credentials Committee that gets to decide who gets to be a delegate and an alternate delegate at the State Convention as well as the National Convention.  A delegate is someone who has earned the right to represent their senate and congressional districts in their state (usually their area of town) and can vote in all the voting proceedings in the general session and the caucuses.  The alternate delegates are there so that in case a delegate does not show up, they will be seated in the place of said delegate and will be voting with the others.  We placed our votes for National Committeeman and Committeewoman, at-large delegates and alternates, state chairman and members of the SREC.  There were other administrative votes that I can't remember as well.

It really was very interesting to sit in on these meetings and the committee members were well aware of the eyes that were watching them throughout the entire week.  One of the goals of our group was to amend the rules so that video recording were allowed at any and all GOP events and committee meetings, if someone so chooses to record.  It's never been not allowed in past meetings but it's always been frowned upon and people were made to shut off their recording devices.  Jeremy Blosser, our group trainer and "leader" (he *hates* being called that but I think it's fitting, lol) was the one to spearhead this amendment and we won!  We won because we were there.  This was a good win for people who want to be able to see what goes on in these meetings and how their representatives are voting in their behalf.  Any committee meeting or GOP meeting of any kind needs to be recorded to make sure no one breaks the rules and that there is more transparency.  They tried to take out term limits when it came to their group and there was a lot of discussion about that!  Some were for, some were against it and one man even went so far as to say that even though he was fine with it, he didn't DARE vote for it until he took it back to his caucus to get their input, LOL!  Greatness!! 

During the General Session, which is where we all come together and debate the new changes and vote on them, I actually swallowed my fear of public speaking to get up and talk about why we should keep term limits when it comes to the SREC - they didn't want them, remember?  Well, I wasn't the only one that had the idea that it was absurd that on page 6 of the GOP Platform, term limits was something our party insisted on when it came to the house and senate and the White House.  They just didn't want to hold themselves to the same rules.  But some woman beat me to it so I sat down.  Blast!  I was almost there.  Finally, I got up to make a motion to amend rule 42 that pertains to the SREC members.  I got right up to the mic, took a deep breath and waited for them to call on me.  Shaking in ma SHOES, man!  Just as I was about to say "Mr. Chairman..."  they shut it down.  DONE!  Made me so mad, I was shouting "POINT OF ORDER, POINT OF ORDER" and they kept ignoring me!  OMG, LOL!  It was so disappointing.  The Parliamentarian was mad, too.  He was telling me to say this and that but it didn't work and I wasn't the only one they did that to, he said.  That's the kind of fuckery we're trying to make stop!  Now I know, though, that I can get up there and make a statement and not get the faints!  :-)

Hey, check out this cool car!  Hell yes!  I could get used to that!  lol.


Some of y'all have asked me to explain the caucus and what it does and means.   Thursday, Friday and Saturday were caucus days which meant that all of us that were in a certain congressional or senate district ( I am personally in SD 10, CD12) would go to a room with a couple of other districts and we would nominate people we wanted to run for the new openings on the executive committees or to unseat someone.   We stayed in those rooms discussing and debating these nominations for hours and hours.  Then we would go to the General Session (held in the convention center arena) which is where all of the SDs or CDs would go to discuss the business that the rules committe had voted on or changed and adopt our new and final rules and platform issues.  So basically, caucusing is just a group that gets together and debates and discusses all the shit that's gone on the previous 3 days.  :-)  Got that?

We got to hear the likes of Rick Perry, John Cornyn, Kay Bailey Hutchison, David Dewhurst, Ted Cruz and a bunch of other lousy politicians give their big, feel good speeches while the people in the audience cheered!  Why are these people cheering the ones that voted for NDAA?  Don't they know what that means?  What they did to us?  It's amazing how truly stupid some people are!  Ron Paul was also there but we were still caucusing so we didn't dare leave those rooms until the nominating and voting was finished.  I saw a whole 4 minutes of RP speak.  And that was ok.  I saw him, I heard his voice and I heard him talk about LIBERTY!   It reminded me of why I was there and how many of us were tirelessly working to make good changes.

I talked to so many people about what they believed in and I met so many other like-minded people and made a lot of new friends! 

I cannot imagine never going back to another convention.  I cannot imagine not going back to any of the conventions to make sure people are doing what they are supposed to and holding the bad ones accountable for their actions.  It's still a clique, though.....the older ones don't want us newbies there and they think we're trouble.  They won't allow us to participate if they can get away with it but they will have to come to the realization that we aren't going anywhere and that we are going to keep up the fight for this country.  It starts at the bottom with precinct chairs and it ends with the White House - it actually never ends, though.  We can never stop or go back to sleep, not even for a little bit.

This last picture says it all - this is what we're working for - this is why we should all get involved and stay involved.  These establishment GOPers and the liberals are running scared.  They know they're being replaced at breathtaking speed and they know who's doing it - WE THE PEOPLE!

and WEE the People, too!

10 comments:

  1. Not all of us "older ones" (not chronological age in my case but years of being involved) are scared of the newbies. I want to find a way to reach out to the Paulians and bring their enthusiasm into the party; not drive them away.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cal, you're rightt. Not all of the established members are afraid of us but most of them are. I did notice that the very old that were around in the 40s for WWII really like the paulians and we had a lot of them as supporters but those that have been involved witht the party for the last 20-30 yrs just refuse to even speak to us. Personally two well known, establishment women glared at me all evening on friday and we have nwver even met before. They couldnt stand that i had an idea that i wanted to propose to the committee. Its disheartening to say the very least. :-(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sorry for typos. Im on my dang phone again

    ReplyDelete
  4. I must be the exception. I've been involved since 1984. In my early 40s.

    Oh, and in case you didn't recognize me without the beard, I'm the Rules Committee guy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. !!!! Omg!!! MARTY!! :-)

    I thought that looked like you but wasn't sure. How are you my new friend?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Doing well. The pic is my acting headshot. I was also about 30 pounds heavier when that was taken.

    I'm going to do a series on my impressions of the Convention on my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Jen, great blog! Thank you for taking the time to break it down too! :) Glad you had a great time and I appreciate and thank you for all your voluteering efforts to get this Country back on the right track!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for typing this all out. I didn't want to go do sleep Saturday night until I made notes because I forget too many details after a few days.

    Good to meet you in person too. (Dave C's friend) -Brian

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was nice meeting you, Brian. Thanks for reading.

      Delete
  9. Good for you for being a good voice for us, good for u for being there. I'm glad y'all got the videoing approved in those meetings. It's all apart of "advancements in communication, can bring about change"

    ReplyDelete