2008 Elections: Oh, Dear

The Wall Street Journal tells us today that the Nevada GOP is cancelling the state convention that they normally hold to pick the delegates that will go to the GOP national convention in September.

According to their official spokesweasels, the convention is being canceled for "lack of interest." Some 675 delegates are required for a quorum, and only 300 had sent RSVPs, therefore delegates will be chosen via a conference call, they claim.

It appears, however, that the real reason the convention is now a conference call is not lack of enthusiasm. But we'll let a credentialed delegate tell you what the deal is, in his own words:

Actually, this year’s Republican Convention had the highest attendance in Nevada history. Actually, the attendees were the most enthusiastic ever. The problem is that we were enthusiastic about Ron Paul and the Constitution. This is our crime. We did not bend over for the coronation of Sen. McCain. The establishment could not allow dissent within the ranks, so State Senator Bob Beers abruptly and illegally recessed the convention.

We did not hijack the proceedings. Sen. Beers did. Rather, we used parliamentary procedure and the party rules to elect delegates who would carry our cause to the national convention. If the GOP actually believes that this is “hijacking the party”, then it is not a truly “Republican” party. It is an oligarchy, and I want no part of it. Of course the GOP is in trouble. Under GOP leadership, government is bigger, more intrusive, inefficient, has more debt, and is less responsive to the Constitution.

Sean Fericks
Credentialed Delegate to the April 2008 Nevada GOP Convention
Comment by Sean R. Fericks (credentialed delegate) - July 18, 2008 at 11:35 pm

The proprietors of this fine blog agree with Mr. Fericks. There was a time when the Republican party represented the interests of independent types, small businesspeople, the man and woman on the street, people who liked their guns and didn't like nannyism and interfering busybodies. We could actually find ourselves in sympathy with many of that party's positions.

Then, in order to create a Thousand-Year Reich (or, as KKKarl Rove prefers to call it, a "permanent majority" &mdash a concept completely alien to a democracy, but the very linchpin of a fascist state, as any student of history will know), the Republican party sold itself out to two special-interest groups: big corporations (because that's where the money is), and extremist fundamentalists (because they bring out the voters who will vote against their own interests by the million because their leaders tell them to).

That unholy alliance gave us record-breaking deficits, staggering national debt, unacceptable levels of unemployment (good for reining in the inflation of increased salaries for workers), obscene levels of compensation for CEOs who were accountable to no one, the destruction of our civil rights, the desecration of the Constitution, the collapse of the national infrastructure, the breaking of our financial institutions, the deregulation of our industries and economy, and the breaking of our health care system.

That unholy alliance put into office an ex-alcoholic druggie fratboy who has never held a single job with any degree of success. An incompetent whose wealthy powerful father gave him everything he ever had, from admission to college to a ticket out of the draft to the funds for his first, and subsequent, failed business ventures, to, finally, the highest office in the nation. A bumbling fool who can't ride a scooter without falling, or eat a pretzel without choking.

An idiot with the reverse Midas touch that has brought this great nation to her knees, miring us in two wars with no definition of success while we lose blood and treasure and force our children to kill the children of other people by the million. The Republican party now supports agribusiness while putting small farmers out of business. It wants to snoop into the sex lives of every man and woman in the nation, but cannot give them an education or a job or a wage increase. This is a failed party, and please don't take our word for it. Go read the comments at the article. If Dr. Ron Paul did nothing else, he showed America just how far the Republican party has strayed from its ideals.

While we would prefer to see Barack Obama in the Oval Office, we're still disgusted by the attempts to suppress the vote of the people. Every citizen has, or should have, the right to vote. We will not all agree with who should win, but we should all be free to exercise that right. Ron Paul's supporters deserve our praise, not our condemnation, for their hard work and organization and eagerness to exercise their right to vote.

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