2012 Texas GOP Convention Report, Part 3

Ron Paul

There were a lot of Ron Paul supporters at the Convention.  Some people see that as a bad thing.  I do not.  Most of my discussions with other Republicans have gone something like this:

Me: I really like Ron Paul. I agree with probably about 85% of what he says.
Other Person: Me, too.
Me: His foreign policy scares the crud out of me, though.
Other Person: Me, too.
Me: I may not want him as President, but I wish we had about 250 of him in the U.S. House and 60 in the Senate.
Other Person: Me, too.

To be fair, there are some who find Paul to be completely scary and maybe even crazy.  Typically, those folks are what we fondly call "Establishment Republicans."  Traditional Conservatives and Tea Party types actually have far more areas of agreement with Ron Paul than they have areas of disagreement.

I am not thrilled with some of the deceptive tactics undertaken by the Paul supporters in their efforts to get elected as delegates to the National Convention, but I can understand their frustration.  If they tell the whole truth, they have almost no shot of being selected, and that would also be unfair.

The Republican Party needs to figure out how to reach out to Paul's supporters to bring them into the fold.  These folks will not be co-opted, so if that is the plan, it is doomed to fail.  Imagine how great it would be if we could harness that enthusiasm going forward.  On the other side, the Paul supporters who take the "nobody but Ron Paul" position should not be surprised when other Republicans aren't too enamored with them.

Ron Paul has pointed out some significant problems with the way we do government at the Federal level.  His proposed approach would be too much, too fast, but he is one of the few who stays true to the ideal of limited government, and that should be embraced, not feared.

2012 Texas GOP Convention Report, Part 1

There are so many things I could talk about relating to this year's Texas Republican Convention.  These thoughts will be somewhat random and will appear over the next several posts.

I was nominated by by State Republican Executive Committeeman (SREC), John Cook, to serve on the Temporary Rules Committee.  This meant that I was involved in the meetings that went on before the Convention actually opened on Thursday.  I was supposed to be there Monday at noon, but because of some mis-communication, I wasn't aware I had actually been appointed to the Committee.  I finally got there Tuesday afternoon, which was early enough to be involved in the discussion about most of the substantive rules.  I found myself on the minority side of a 22-9 vote on an issue that I felt pretty strongly about.  It was, and still is, my opinion that the then existing rule caused our Party to violate a provision of the Texas Election Code.  There are 31 Senate Districts in Texas.  Each one has a Caucus at the State Convention.  At the first meeting of that Caucus, each SD elects representatives for each of the Permanent Committees (Rules, Platform, Credentials, State Nominations).  I was elected without opposition, so I got to return to carry on with our work.  Four of our colleagues from the Temporary Committee had been defeated at their Caucuses.  After a few tweaks to allay some of the concerns from folks who had been on the Temporary Committee, the proposed rule change was presented again.  This time, my side was in the majority 17-14.  I was thrilled that we made the change to allow us to comply with the law.  I was flabbergasted that 14 people were more worried about practicalities and potential power plays than with complying with the law.

The major changes to the rules took out the term limits for Texas' members of the Republican National Committee; changed the procedure for the State Convention (the one I mentioned above); and eliminated one round for which our Delegates to the National Convention will remain bound to their pledged candidate.  The Ron Paul supporters had wanted us to change that rule to make our Delegates completely unbound at the National Convention.  First, even if we had, it would not have applied this year.  Second, there was no way we were willing to do that.  I'm not sure who in the room was actually fond of Mitt Romney, but none of us were willing to undermine the will of the majority of those who voted in the Texas Republican Primary.

The obligatory "catching up" post

It truly shocked me to see that I had not blogged since December 2010 (and that wasn't a real entry).  I blame Facebook.

Since my last real post, several things have happened.

Most importantly, my fifth daughter, Claire, was born in December 2010.

For those who followed my posts about marathon training, you should be pleased to learn that I did, indeed, complete the 2010 Dallas White Rock Marathon.  I also completed the 2011 Rock and the 2012 OKC Memorial Marathon.  I am currently training for the 2012 NYC ING Marathon in November.

I lost my job at the Dallas DA's Office at the end of 2010 and spent a few months trying to find a new job before deciding to open my own solo law practice.

My weight loss journey started back up again last fall.  During marathon training in 2010, I had lost 20 pounds.  When I took a few months off before kicking it back up in 2011, I had gained 10 of that back.  I thought I would be able to lose that 10 again just as easily as I had the year before, but it was not to be.  In fact, over the first 3 1/2 months of training last year, I gained 3 pounds to get back up to 250.  In September, I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app for my phone and started tracking my daily caloric intake and burn.  I got down as low as 193 in April.  Right now, I'm back up a little because I haven't been as diligent as I need to be.

So, what inspired my return to this corner of the blogosphere?  I was a Delegate to the 2012 Texas Republican Convention last week.  Although I am not particularly thrilled with who wound up as the GOP Presidential nominee this year (sorry to my Ron Paul supporting friends, it really is a done deal at this point), the convention (as tiring as it was) renewed my enthusiasm for politics.  Thus, you can expect a decidedly political focus going forward.  That's not to say that I won't mention other things, but politics will be the primary subject.

Republicans and Limited Government

To hear some Republican establishment types, the raison d'etre of the G.O.P. is to reduce the size of the Federal Government. This has been the basis for some of the criticism of Mike Huckabee in the Presidential race. The truth is that the only candidate with any credibility on this issue is Ron Paul.

And just how many of those establishment types are supporting Ron Paul?

Exactly!

So, the next time you hear this attack aimed at Huckabee, you can ignore it because you know it's insincere.

Ron Paul

If you read a lot of political writing (like I do), if the online story allows for reader comments, it usually doesn't take too long before the Ron Paul supporters start flooding the comments with their opinions about how Paul is the only electable Republican for President and how the MSM is suppressing him and his message. I always seek out the Liberty Caucus booth at the Texas Republican State Convention, and I am somewhat libertarian leaning, but I don't support Ron Paul's Presidential campaign.

Why?

Partly because despite his devotees' insistence to the contrary, he would be crushed in November 2008.

Mainly, however, because we don't need one Ron Paul in the White House. What we need is about 218 of them in the House of Representatives. Fifty-one in the Senate would be nice, too. We need serious, dedicated Constitutionalists in Congress. Right now, we have a handful. If we accept that a candidate could not get the endorsement of the Liberty Caucus without being mostly right on the Constitution, we have about 20 members of the House of Representatives who fit the bill.

The Ron Paulites remind me quite a bit of the Constitution Party folks. They want the White House, but they would be better off working toward electing candidates to lower offices. That would lay the groundwork for a President down the road.