Fountain Of Lame
Posted by Andy on May 27th, 2008
Bring Your TinFoil Hats, Ear Plugs, And A Cushion; The Republican Party State Convention is this weekend.
Guess who’s coming to Minnesota on Friday. Ron Paul is coming to rile up his supporters for what could only be seen as more attempts at high jacking local parties for the losing cause that is Ron Paul’s Presidential run.
Ron Paul
Live and In Person!
In Rochester Minnesota
Friday morning, May 30, 7:30 AM
At the Mayo Memorial Park
Directly behind the Civic Center
Now I know that doesn’t sound like a candidate who can see the writing on the wall. It doesn’t look like a guy who is giving up. It doesn’t look like a rally to tell his troops to do what they want rather than the no holds barred tactics they’ve planned.
I loathe big conventions to begin with. I’d much rather volunteer for a committee spot or task the day of them then sit in the delegation listening to canned speeches (i’ve already heard) or lame parliamentary debates. This coming State Convention is going to be a fountain of lame for a guy like me.
There is not a contested State-wide race. The Platform debate is going to be a mess due to all the insane and petty way more specific then should be stuff that has made it this far (mostly Libertarian crap, gee, wonder who). I pray that the time sat watching people argue Republican platform resolutions is repaid in heaven, because it is like hell on earth most of the time. And it is all for nothing since the elected officials don’t simply place the platform on the voting button and actually use their own judgement.
Party platforms should be simple and based on core principles that one can grasp in 60 seconds by reading the few statements. You shouldn’t need a dictionary, encyclopedia, and 3 hours to figure out what it means to be Republican. And as specific as it has gotten, no one can possibly be 100% “pure”.
And what worse for a guy who really doesn’t like meaningless state conventions?
Yeah, it is 3 days long and down in Rochester. So this little event for the benefit of politicians and folks I could care less about right now in my life is going to cost me a few hundred dollars and prevent me from taking care of important business outside of the political world.
PS: I decided against running for National Delegate. I figure I’ve pissed off both sides about as much as possible. McCain’s slate is being set up by people who hate the fact that this blog and I even exist. And well, we all know how I feel about the book tour that is the Ron Paul campaign.
I’m just going to sit and wait and pray my dogs don’t drive my mom batty or ruin her house while I’m away. But of course there’s also the State Central Meeting which takes place immediately following the convention. From an email that came through to me this weekend, it seems that nothing is changing at the top, and the cover your ass strategy is contagious.
In other words, don’t get frustrated by the fountain of lame, go local and focus on MN & US House races.
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May 27th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Andy,
When I said you were invited, I meant it. I hope you will come. Then you can come back and post about exactly what you agree or disagree with. Open to all delegates and alternates.
Either way, see you in Rochester. Let’s say hello at some point.
Marianne
May 27th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
“I pray that the time sat watching people argue Republican platform resolutions is repaid in heaven, because it is like hell on earth most of the time.” Almost ejected soda through my nostrils on reading that. Funny because it’s too true. Resolutions drive me nuts. Resolutions probably drive everyone nuts, which makes it all the more frustrating to have the platform ignored. It’s very unpleasant business crafting that unwieldy document.
Andy - I have to wonder why you stood up to run for state delegate, but commend you for strapping on the fire-retardants and descending into Hell to do your duty now that you have been elected. The Ron Paul delegates evidently decided I was due for a demotion, so I’m not a delegate and will thus be spared the platform debates, but I’ll be there on behalf of Minnesota Majority.
Marianne - It’s my experience that the price of an audience with Andy is getting Enge to buy him a beer.
May 27th, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I hate Conventions even more than you do, but I’m not only the eternal optimist, but I have reason to be optimistic. I suspect platform debates are going to be highly limited, the platform is going to grow by very little, and it WILL be, to a greater degree than previous years, followed or at absolute minimum read by our legislative candiates and the Governor. I am also hopeful that the Ron Paul contingent will be either well-behaved or shut out entirely in their shenanigans. It’s what SHOULD happen, if they were really Republicans.
I wonder how many RP’ers will turn out for the rally Thursday night? See you there.
May 27th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
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May 27th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
and it WILL be, to a greater degree than previous years, followed or at absolute minimum read by our legislative candiates and the Governor
Huh? Did I miss something? What made you think that?
May 27th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Andy,
New to you blog I need to responde to 5/2 you wrote:
“They want to take the country back to the days of putting our head in the sand and fingers crossed homeland security. I’m not talking about Clinton years kind of ignoring the world. I’m talking about what lead up to Hitler’s rise to power and World War 2 where millions died.”
Hitler rose to power because he was able to exploit the treatment of Germany by the rest of Europe (and U.S.) resulting from the Treaty of Versailles. The clash with Japan was also bound to happen because of U.S. expansion into the Pacific with bases in the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii etc. War with Germany and Japan were hardly the result of isolationism.
And today’s “Hey, I’m willing to welcome y’all with open arms, but it just seems to me that this is still about Ron Paul, not growing the party.”
I do not believe it is about ‘the party’ even you believe in. The party has become bigger than its own platform and expect you to be a good soldier to support McCain because that is what the party wants of you. It should not be about the party, but who best represents the party.
May 28th, 2008 at 7:21 am
“Party platforms should be simple and based on core principles that one can grasp in 60 seconds by reading the few statements. You shouldn’t need a dictionary, encyclopedia, and 3 hours to figure out what it means to be Republican. And as specific as it has gotten, no one can possibly be 100% “pure”.”
That is the most common sense I’ve seen in one paragraph on my computer screen in a LONG time!
May 29th, 2008 at 9:32 am
“That is the most common sense I’ve seen in one paragraph on my computer screen in a LONG time!”
In that case, it’s already done. The State Party has thousands of the “Republicans believe” document that fits on one side of one page. Ask for one. Pass them out at your county fair. That’s what they’re for.
The bigger problem is, what do you do with the current resolutions/platform process? People come to caucus to “have their say” and “be heard” by their elected officials and candidates. They want to take a stand on the issues of the day and they’ve been told that resolutions are the way to do it. The problem with our current leadership is that those basic principles mean different things to different people, and real legislation often involves trade-offs between two or more conflicting principles. Doesn’t the party need, someplace, a means for the grassroots to tell our “leaders” (and I really don’t like that word) what our detailed policy preferences are?