Good evening ladies and gentlemen and all the ships at sea.
Today they held the County Convention where I live. This year I had "political activism" unticked on my bucket list. So there I was. It was not a reassuring day, I will be right up front about that. But, in as much as I wanted to turn back around, drive all the way back home and hide under my covers, I was fascinated by one thing. There were oodles of XX chromosomes all over the place. It was a veritable Estrogenfest. Proving that the GOP War on Women was absolutely, completely wrong in the press and the Progressive Liberal talking points OR women flock to the GOP because it really does represent them better.
I signed in and the lady signing me in kept trying to give me the name card of the other lady in my precinct who was due any moment. She had my ID, watched me sign my name and kept calling me Deborah and handing me Deborah's name tag. After receiving my correct name tag (OK, I pulled it off the table and put my own string through it and put it on) I proceeded to where the local GOP Lady's Auxiliary was putting out cookies, brownies, small bottles of water and coffee. Mmmmm coffee!
No one introduced themselves. No one came up and spoke to me except a young girl who was having trouble folding t-shirts. I showed her how to do it quickly, efficiently and show the logo. She was cute. So I stood about before I finally got bored and went in to find my precinct seating.
Now, I'm not a stickler for ceremony, but I think the most logical seating arrangement would have been by precinct number starting at the lowest in the front to the highest number. I think that the precinct numbers should have been posted on the backs of the chairs so you could see them coming into the auditorium rather than having to walk all the way down to the stage, then finding your place and walking back up to your seat. I realize we're some pretty smart chicks in the GOP, but honestly, the guys handled the logistics on this and didn't see anything wrong with it. The Young Republicans did that bit. I weep for the future.
As well as the women being a surprise, despite my original impression that I'd entered an assisted living jamboree, there were many young people there. Young twenty-somethings that were engaged and involved. I quietly put my Geritol back in my purse.
I saw folks I already knew during the 'festivities', got to see a video from Senator Ted Cruz and then we got down to Robert's Rules of Procedures, I mean the Convention.
If you ever meet a Parliamentarian for anything, shake his hand and buy him a drink. His job is basically herding cats and the guy, Ed, who did it for us today deserves free tequila shots for the rest of his natural life.
Our Resolution Chairman had tried to ram all of the Resolutions we were voting on as read and passed (now I know that Congress was merely acting on a grassroots movement when they tried to ram Obamacare through). She was stymied when we made them back up and itemize, discuss and then vote on each one. It got a little feisty after that, especially when I refused to recognize the authority of the Resolution Committee of their Chairwoman to just throw stuff in there that were local issues. For you great unwashed out there, the Precinct and County conventions adopt resolutions that they take to the State Party level which are then discussed and voted on as State Party Plank in the State Party Platform. And then those go to the National Convention wherein they do the same thing again to make it the Party Platform.
It's politics. I'll wake you when I get to the booze and hookers.
Just kidding, there wasn't any of either. Psych!
We finally got the Resolutions voted on, then got to the State Delegate Nominations. It was not long but it was harsh in that a long-time party supporter was made an alternate. The fact that he had attended both the precinct and county conventions made this contentious when several people pointed out that many of the delegates were not present today and had not been present for their precinct conventions on Primary Night. Ouch. Would you guys like aloe for that burn, because you just showed your idiot hand. The guy being shifted to the alternate list is disabled, but a loyal party supporter and he just got ditched so you could include the mistress of one of our county judges (thought that one slipped by me? I was too busy considering how damned hungry I was at this point and didn't mention it on the floor)
So after that was done, so were we. I was glad.
So, my overall impressions of the McLennan County GOP. A bigger bunch of pretentious, self-righteous prigs I have never seen gathered together in my life. And I went to college. It was highly disorganized, even at the precinct level. The resolutions were not clear and the people who should have known more about them did not. Trying to shove shit down our throats like you did with the original 14 resolutions is exactly why the TEA Party is more and more popular, not less and less.
Oh, and calling me a firebrand is not exactly the way to earn my respect or regard. Asking me more about my stance and my philosophy would have gone a long way towards that. I just wish ONE person there had known what an Objectivist is.
But, I will return in 2016, and I will be loaded for bear. Trust me on this.
Today they held the County Convention where I live. This year I had "political activism" unticked on my bucket list. So there I was. It was not a reassuring day, I will be right up front about that. But, in as much as I wanted to turn back around, drive all the way back home and hide under my covers, I was fascinated by one thing. There were oodles of XX chromosomes all over the place. It was a veritable Estrogenfest. Proving that the GOP War on Women was absolutely, completely wrong in the press and the Progressive Liberal talking points OR women flock to the GOP because it really does represent them better.
I signed in and the lady signing me in kept trying to give me the name card of the other lady in my precinct who was due any moment. She had my ID, watched me sign my name and kept calling me Deborah and handing me Deborah's name tag. After receiving my correct name tag (OK, I pulled it off the table and put my own string through it and put it on) I proceeded to where the local GOP Lady's Auxiliary was putting out cookies, brownies, small bottles of water and coffee. Mmmmm coffee!
No one introduced themselves. No one came up and spoke to me except a young girl who was having trouble folding t-shirts. I showed her how to do it quickly, efficiently and show the logo. She was cute. So I stood about before I finally got bored and went in to find my precinct seating.
Now, I'm not a stickler for ceremony, but I think the most logical seating arrangement would have been by precinct number starting at the lowest in the front to the highest number. I think that the precinct numbers should have been posted on the backs of the chairs so you could see them coming into the auditorium rather than having to walk all the way down to the stage, then finding your place and walking back up to your seat. I realize we're some pretty smart chicks in the GOP, but honestly, the guys handled the logistics on this and didn't see anything wrong with it. The Young Republicans did that bit. I weep for the future.
As well as the women being a surprise, despite my original impression that I'd entered an assisted living jamboree, there were many young people there. Young twenty-somethings that were engaged and involved. I quietly put my Geritol back in my purse.
I saw folks I already knew during the 'festivities', got to see a video from Senator Ted Cruz and then we got down to Robert's Rules of Procedures, I mean the Convention.
If you ever meet a Parliamentarian for anything, shake his hand and buy him a drink. His job is basically herding cats and the guy, Ed, who did it for us today deserves free tequila shots for the rest of his natural life.
Our Resolution Chairman had tried to ram all of the Resolutions we were voting on as read and passed (now I know that Congress was merely acting on a grassroots movement when they tried to ram Obamacare through). She was stymied when we made them back up and itemize, discuss and then vote on each one. It got a little feisty after that, especially when I refused to recognize the authority of the Resolution Committee of their Chairwoman to just throw stuff in there that were local issues. For you great unwashed out there, the Precinct and County conventions adopt resolutions that they take to the State Party level which are then discussed and voted on as State Party Plank in the State Party Platform. And then those go to the National Convention wherein they do the same thing again to make it the Party Platform.
It's politics. I'll wake you when I get to the booze and hookers.
Just kidding, there wasn't any of either. Psych!
We finally got the Resolutions voted on, then got to the State Delegate Nominations. It was not long but it was harsh in that a long-time party supporter was made an alternate. The fact that he had attended both the precinct and county conventions made this contentious when several people pointed out that many of the delegates were not present today and had not been present for their precinct conventions on Primary Night. Ouch. Would you guys like aloe for that burn, because you just showed your idiot hand. The guy being shifted to the alternate list is disabled, but a loyal party supporter and he just got ditched so you could include the mistress of one of our county judges (thought that one slipped by me? I was too busy considering how damned hungry I was at this point and didn't mention it on the floor)
So after that was done, so were we. I was glad.
So, my overall impressions of the McLennan County GOP. A bigger bunch of pretentious, self-righteous prigs I have never seen gathered together in my life. And I went to college. It was highly disorganized, even at the precinct level. The resolutions were not clear and the people who should have known more about them did not. Trying to shove shit down our throats like you did with the original 14 resolutions is exactly why the TEA Party is more and more popular, not less and less.
Oh, and calling me a firebrand is not exactly the way to earn my respect or regard. Asking me more about my stance and my philosophy would have gone a long way towards that. I just wish ONE person there had known what an Objectivist is.
But, I will return in 2016, and I will be loaded for bear. Trust me on this.
1 comment:
I'm sorry no one introduced themselves to you. I'll mention it to the chair of the committee so they will do better in the future.
It was the vice-chair of the party, Jeb Leutwyler, who made the seating chart.
It was the county chair who wanted to vote on the resolutions list as a whole. He counts on people not paying much attention sometimes. Dianne was going along. She's a good person and very smart. She was being rushed.
The quality of the resolutions was in large part due to the quality of the submissions. We tried not to change them too much. You know, that whole "of the people" thing.
The nominations to state were a mess. There are certain precincts that are allowed to have a certain number come from there. The rest were to be at-large. I don't think it was done that way. My friend was very much insulted because she was purposely put at the very bottom of the alternate list and then they specified that the alternates would be seated in that order. I would put the work this woman has done for the party up against anyone. Political payback not for anything she did, but for who her associates are and their failure to roll over on command.
People were added to the nominations list who did not fill out the paperwork and who did not wish to be considered to go to state for various reasons.
The nomination committee was stacked with those close to the chairman and others who would not fight what they had to say.
In this county, the tea party is not necessarily separate from the county party.
Curious about who called you a firebrand and this thing about a mistress. Please share when, how, and if you wish.
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