Reflections of a Political Neophyte

I went to my first political convention the past two days. I attended the Texas State Republican Party Convention in Dallas as a first time delegate.

For a little background, I have never been politically involved. I have tried to stay informed, keeping abreast of issues, but I never felt the need to get involved. That all changed as a result of the recent economic difficulties, the 2008 election, and the efforts of the current President and Congress to remake the United States into a socialist country.

My wife, who has been neither politically informed nor involved, and I were angered and frightened by the horrible decisions and actions coming out of Washington – TARP; the stimulus; the nationalization of AIG, GM and Chrysler; the bank bailouts; etc. We attended the Dallas Tea party rally on April 15, 2009, joined the Tea Party, attended the March in Washington last 9/12, and ramped up our reading and study on all aspects of what is going on in the country politically, economically, and culturally.

All this led us to decide that the only way to make a difference and to make our voices heard as conservatives was to get involved with the Republican Party (we are not the only ones – more on this later). We do not want the Tea Party to split the conservative vote by putting up its own candidates (thankfully, the leadership of the Tea Party agrees with us).

So we voted in the Republican primary, and attended the Denton County Republican Party convention. While at the county convention, the call went out for people who wanted to be delegates at the state convention, so we decided to try. And, basically by showing up and letting people know we were interested, we were selected to be state delegates.

Neither of us had any idea what to expect, and less of an idea of how things work. Now, after the convention, we still are not sure how some things work, but we have a much better idea, and will continue to learn more.

So, here are some of my thoughts on what I saw, what I learned, and what I expect as regards the Republican Party of Texas.

Newcomers – there are LOTS of newcomers to the Republican Party. By my wholly unscientific estimate, between 40% & 50% of the people attending the Denton County convention were new and my guess is that newcomers made up 30% to 40% of the state convention attendees. The new people my wife and I talked with all said the same thing when asked why they were there – they all are worried by the direction the country is being pushed by Washington and want to take the country back. Oh, and I think a great many long-time Republican leaders are surprised by the influx of newcomers. I have no real proof of this – just a thought based on the looks on faces when newcomers were asked to identify themselves.

Social vs. Fiscal Conservatism – it struck me that the old-line Republicans are more concerned with the social conservative issues (abortion, homosexuality & its attendant issues of gay marriage and overall gay rights, and religion and government) than with fiscal issues. The social issues were the first ones brought up by the state leadership – not the candidates, but the party leadership. While I think the social issues are important (and anyway I disagree with some of the planks in the Party platform about these issues), they have to take a back seat to the fiscal issues. The battle with the left over the social issues has been ongoing for years, with much back and forth and little change. They are not going to be settled in the near future. We have an excellent chance on the 2010 elections to make huge changes to the power structure, especially in Washington, and as long as we make sure our elected officials do as they’re told, we can start ripping the Washington bureaucracy to pieces, stop and roll-back the overblown spending, repeal that awful health care bill, and start getting the country back to its constitutional roots.

What happens at the Convention – I don’t know why I was surprised, but the convention consisted mostly of listening to politicians blather on. We heard from every elected Republican official and candidate, and they all said the same things – as they should have. Some were much better speakers than others, but we heard from them all, ad nauseam. The only “meat” was the election of the State Republican Election Committee persons (done in the Senate District caucuses) and the Party Chairman and Vice Chairman (started in the caucuses and completed – this time – with a floor vote). All the other important stuff, like determining the party platform, the rules, etc., was done beforehand by the various committees. I was surprised to learn that if you want to have any input in anything the party does, you have to start at the precinct level, and try to get on a county committee. This has to be done long before the convention. In fact, if we want to have an effect on the state party for the 2012 election, we have to start now.

The Old Boy Network appears to be alive and well – It seems that party insiders have been playing fast and loose with the money and the rules. There was talk swirling around the delegates that the party money has not been handled well. The old party chairman, Cathie Adams, had refused to open the books. And one amazing revelation was that the only cities willing to host upcoming conventions are Fort Worth and Houston. Other large Texas cities have said NO! The explanation I got from a member of the Rules committee (and I could tell he really did not want to talk to me), was that the monies the cities (and the large hotels) had provided to past conventions had been misused. For example, the large hotels around the convention site are asked by the party to provide discounts for rooms for delegates. It seems these discounts were given to a third party by party leaders, and they were sold to delegates for a lesser discount – to the profit of the third party and whoever else has their hands in that particular pie. I would really like to know a lot more about this.
There is a new Party Chairman, Steve Munisteri, who is not part of the old leadership. Hopefully, he is an honest man and will not repeat the mistakes and shenanigans of the past – we will see.

The Party Platform means little – the head of the state Party platform committee presented his report to the party on the floor and made a remarkable statement – that the platform document is used as “trash can lining” by legislators. There seems to be a large disconnect between what the party wants its elected officials to do, and what they actually do. They tend to ignore the platform and do whatever they want – ad we keep electing them. If this is the case, why bother with a platform? This is another area where the new Party leadership has to make changes.

Immigration – although there was little to no talk about it at the convention, the party platform make a big deal of immigration. I cannot disagree. If the federal government will not get control of the border, and they have done very little in this regard, the states will have to. The left has and will continue to label any action a state makes to control illegal immigration on and within its borders as racist, and they will continue to use emotional race-baiting arguments to inflame the Hispanic population. So be it. We still have to do the right things, close the border, quit giving illegals free stuff, and deport every illegal immigrant as they are identified – a bus to the border each day would work well.

Final quick thoughts:

• The convention was a great experience – our system at work.


• The convention was pretty well organized – no major snafus of which I was aware


• The convention chairperson didn’t seem to know what she was doing – neither did the convention secretary. They both seemed confused and lost at times, and didn’t seem to understand parliamentary procedure.


• Floor votes need to be explained clearly, there were a couple of votes that were not well understood by the rank & file.


• The new Vice Chairman of the party has a really hard time uttering a coherent sentence.


• The first day of the convention, at least the general session, was a waste of time.


• The platform and the rules changes need to be communicated to the delegates much earlier than they were. We got them at the start of the second general session, and had to read and digest them while on the convention floor with music blaring, politicians speechifying, and delegates talking to each other, then vote to accept them with little time for debate.

Overall, it was an eye-opening and education experience. I encourage everyone to get involved, no matter the party. The only real way to make a difference in the political like of this country is to get involved. I intend to continue working in the Republican Party, and I intend to make my voice heard.