doing my duty to gop and country
Apr. 28th, 2012 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoeleveni spent this morning at delaware's state republican convention. it was... odd. i've never been much for party politics, but there are Very Secret Reasons why knowing a bunch of rich, white guys could be a good investment for me.
in any case, the convention started with the district caucuses. er, well, technically, those were before the convention started, since the purpose of the convention is to nominate a bunch of candidates, but there they were. since i wasn't a delegate, i was also technically supposed to stay out of the caucus rooms. however, the delegation from sussex county ("proud to be the northernmost county of dixie!") was so large that it was meeting in the main auditorium of the rehoboth convention center... which is where the official part of the convention was held, and was the only place to stash us gop.randoms.
so, a couple dozen of my closest friends and i got to hear the sussex caucus, and now i can tell you what goes on in the double-dog dare-you secret part of the convention: the candidatespander deliver speeches to the district delegations.
as i pretty much expected, the candidates pandering to the sussex crowed wore their specific christian denominations on their sleeves. no need for a dog whistle with that crowd; the bullhorn seemed barely adequate for the purpose. i'm pretty sure the candidates mentioned other things that distinguished them from the other wannabes, but i can't remember any now.
that did set the tone for the convention; i don't think i've heard so many references to god and jesus at one time since the überbrother married into a catholic family. inclusive? yes, the party is inclusive: they'll take any christian. (is there any need to point out that the convention was held during shabbos shacharis?) much to my surprise, it looks like they will take colored folks and even wimmin-folk too! (ok, i exaggerate. slightly.) i've heard rumors about them even tolerating certain naughty things that good christians don't know anything about, but it's not like anybody was wearing a rainbow lapel pin.
OTOH, there was a guy wearing a priest's get-up with a lapel pin in the shape of the crossed-keys insignia of thepapal states vaticorp vatican city. so, it does look like they take agents of foreign governments, so long as they're the right foreign governments.
so, right, the convention... it opened with (in order) the lord's prayer, the pledge of allegiance, and the national anthem. i was all ready for a banner to unfurl bearing the image of saint ronnie, so we could salute that too, but i was disappointed.
OTOH, i did get to see that the wounds from last years' example of democracy inaction haven't quite healed yet. the usual pro forma ratification of the state's delegation to the national convention had to be voted on... twice, once for the slate itself, and once on a procedural matter relating to it. according to my mouthpiece, who was there as a delegate, it seemed to be an alliance of paulistas and and cranky sussex county types, the former apparently wanting more guys sympathetic to their cause, and the latter annoyed that mike castle was one of the national delegation (see link if the name means nothing to you). there was also some discussion of the slate of electors, and the party chairman had to emphasize that delaware is a winner-take-all state, and romney *won*.
so it was with some amusement that i waited to see who or what would be nominated for various state offices, and by whom. the sussex county contingent nominated only two guys, and they were handily voted down. but man, wowie-pazowie! did the folks nominating them go heavy on the god! one guy actually read from the gospel of john in support for his prophet, er, candidate.
er, yeah, so we don't have a republican primary election here. we caucus... which means that the party faithful pick the candidates.¹ oh, sure the losers can still run, but not as republicans, and definitely not with any party resources. since i'm not really sure how the delegates get chosen, i am a little puzzled by this set up as it relates to normative ideas of representative democracy. (maybe if i'd gone to more any party meetings, i'd have an idea.) OTOH, by caucusing, we ditch the problem of state-sponsored elections for what ought to be private organizations. win?
edit: whoops! i apparently misunderstood what the party chair meant by "can't run as an endorsed republican™". according to my local fishwrapper's article on the convention, the only effect of not being an endorsed candidate is not being an endorsed candidate. well, that and the whole "no party support" bit. so there may be a primary after all... but since the two guys who lost the contested nominations were soundly thrashed, i can't see that they'd have much more hope in the primary, since they'd have to spend their pennies against the DE GOP's (and RNC's?) megabucks. /edit
1: oh, so since i was just a gop.random, my formal contributions to the process limited to adding my voice to aye-or-nay outcry voting. this appeared useful only once, on a small procedural matter, where there were some nays on what should be a pro forma vote. with the addition of the peanut gallery, the objectors appeared to be shouted down. the party chairman looked thoughtful about that, then looked at the leader(?) of the nay faction for support. it seemed like mr. nay shook his head for "no, we're not gonna demand another formal vote.", and that was the end of it, so i guess it sorta works.
the other interesting bit was that even though there are still bruises, if not open wounds, from last year's debacle, the party does seem to have gotten the clue about the whole "winning elections" thing. the formal "message" suitable for delicate, er, democratic ears -- we're outvoted 30%-50%-20%, the last being independents -- is entirely secular. it's the economy, stupid, with a side order of bashing the corruption afflicting nearly every level of government here, most of which are firmly in democratic hands. there was, after the nominating, even a party-unity group photo, with all the candidates, national delegates, and folks in power -- all with smiles firmly plastered on -- to drive home to message.
FWIW, the party nominated:
jeff cragg for governor
sher valenzuela for lieutenant governor (trying to address their demographic problems, i guess, since she's hispanic; also: different parties can hold gov and lt. gov.) edit: added link
kevin wade for senator
tom kovach for representative
ben mobley for insurance commissioner
the last guy was trying to channel churchhill in his acceptance speech. apparently, we will fight them in the black churches; cynically, i'd say that front was his main contribution to the party slate.
hm... this appears to be the semi-official(?) DE GOP footube channel, which has videos from the candidates. (please watch; i'm sure gügle makes good money analyzing who watches political videos. ;) )
one other oddment: the party made a big deal of valenzuela and wade having built successful businesses from humble beginnings... but it seemed like the were studiously ignoring actually naming said businesses, which seemed odd to me. what, they run furrier & hives, motto: "proudly clubbing seals since 1857"?²
so, i checked with Very Secret Sources, who tell me that the companies are first state manufacturing and philadelphia control systems, respectively, assuming my sources know that they're talking about. they seem like perfectly legit companies, so i can't see why they wouldn't want to name them. in fact, valenzuela seems to have gotten an award from the small business administration for hoopiest businessnon-gendered-term of the year. you'd think they'd wanna talk that up...
in any case, since the party is running on a "no dodgy, backroom deals involving conflicts of interest like the democrats routinely engage in" plank, i'd think the voters are entitled to know who owns what (or vice-versa). it doesn't seem that either company does any business with the state now, but i could see first state getting plum deals for re-upholstering the local state-owned bus-monopoly's fleet, assuming 2nd banana here has that sort of power.
and guess who showed up at the convention? my local ¬witch! i was worried for a bit that somebody from the sussex diocese would nominate her for something, but they didn't, and she just quietly hung out at the back of the room.
so, in summary, the state GOP is a land of contra-- it was a curious experience. OT1H, it seems good that we're actually clear on the whole electoral victory thing, but OTOH, i'm frankly not convinced it's gonna get us very far, even with the economy, stupid, and the endemic corruption. the party historically hasn't been very good at convincing the voters its worth the trouble, and i'm not sure that's gonna change overnight.
2: OTOH, while driving home, i glanced at my driver's-side mirror and noticed that a 747 was about to pass me. i'm not entirely used to that -- i mean, i once i got a really good look at a C-5's landing lights while landing myself, but that's another story -- so i looked at it for a bit. ok, dover AFB has an approach path that runs parallel to DE-1 just south of dover, and the 747 was inbound and was a freighter... and was bearing private livery for atlas air. anybody got any idea why a private freighter would be landing at dover AFB? emergency spare parts for one of the heavies? (given the size, an entire engine or two.) mobility command subbing out dual-use goods heading to the cold and mountainous place? really extraordinary rendition?
in any case, the convention started with the district caucuses. er, well, technically, those were before the convention started, since the purpose of the convention is to nominate a bunch of candidates, but there they were. since i wasn't a delegate, i was also technically supposed to stay out of the caucus rooms. however, the delegation from sussex county ("proud to be the northernmost county of dixie!") was so large that it was meeting in the main auditorium of the rehoboth convention center... which is where the official part of the convention was held, and was the only place to stash us gop.randoms.
so, a couple dozen of my closest friends and i got to hear the sussex caucus, and now i can tell you what goes on in the double-dog dare-you secret part of the convention: the candidates
as i pretty much expected, the candidates pandering to the sussex crowed wore their specific christian denominations on their sleeves. no need for a dog whistle with that crowd; the bullhorn seemed barely adequate for the purpose. i'm pretty sure the candidates mentioned other things that distinguished them from the other wannabes, but i can't remember any now.
that did set the tone for the convention; i don't think i've heard so many references to god and jesus at one time since the überbrother married into a catholic family. inclusive? yes, the party is inclusive: they'll take any christian. (is there any need to point out that the convention was held during shabbos shacharis?) much to my surprise, it looks like they will take colored folks and even wimmin-folk too! (ok, i exaggerate. slightly.) i've heard rumors about them even tolerating certain naughty things that good christians don't know anything about, but it's not like anybody was wearing a rainbow lapel pin.
OTOH, there was a guy wearing a priest's get-up with a lapel pin in the shape of the crossed-keys insignia of the
so, right, the convention... it opened with (in order) the lord's prayer, the pledge of allegiance, and the national anthem. i was all ready for a banner to unfurl bearing the image of saint ronnie, so we could salute that too, but i was disappointed.
OTOH, i did get to see that the wounds from last years' example of democracy inaction haven't quite healed yet. the usual pro forma ratification of the state's delegation to the national convention had to be voted on... twice, once for the slate itself, and once on a procedural matter relating to it. according to my mouthpiece, who was there as a delegate, it seemed to be an alliance of paulistas and and cranky sussex county types, the former apparently wanting more guys sympathetic to their cause, and the latter annoyed that mike castle was one of the national delegation (see link if the name means nothing to you). there was also some discussion of the slate of electors, and the party chairman had to emphasize that delaware is a winner-take-all state, and romney *won*.
so it was with some amusement that i waited to see who or what would be nominated for various state offices, and by whom. the sussex county contingent nominated only two guys, and they were handily voted down. but man, wowie-pazowie! did the folks nominating them go heavy on the god! one guy actually read from the gospel of john in support for his prophet, er, candidate.
edit: whoops! i apparently misunderstood what the party chair meant by "can't run as an endorsed republican™". according to my local fishwrapper's article on the convention, the only effect of not being an endorsed candidate is not being an endorsed candidate. well, that and the whole "no party support" bit. so there may be a primary after all... but since the two guys who lost the contested nominations were soundly thrashed, i can't see that they'd have much more hope in the primary, since they'd have to spend their pennies against the DE GOP's (and RNC's?) megabucks. /edit
1: oh, so since i was just a gop.random, my formal contributions to the process limited to adding my voice to aye-or-nay outcry voting. this appeared useful only once, on a small procedural matter, where there were some nays on what should be a pro forma vote. with the addition of the peanut gallery, the objectors appeared to be shouted down. the party chairman looked thoughtful about that, then looked at the leader(?) of the nay faction for support. it seemed like mr. nay shook his head for "no, we're not gonna demand another formal vote.", and that was the end of it, so i guess it sorta works.
the other interesting bit was that even though there are still bruises, if not open wounds, from last year's debacle, the party does seem to have gotten the clue about the whole "winning elections" thing. the formal "message" suitable for delicate, er, democratic ears -- we're outvoted 30%-50%-20%, the last being independents -- is entirely secular. it's the economy, stupid, with a side order of bashing the corruption afflicting nearly every level of government here, most of which are firmly in democratic hands. there was, after the nominating, even a party-unity group photo, with all the candidates, national delegates, and folks in power -- all with smiles firmly plastered on -- to drive home to message.
FWIW, the party nominated:
jeff cragg for governor
sher valenzuela for lieutenant governor (trying to address their demographic problems, i guess, since she's hispanic; also: different parties can hold gov and lt. gov.) edit: added link
kevin wade for senator
tom kovach for representative
ben mobley for insurance commissioner
the last guy was trying to channel churchhill in his acceptance speech. apparently, we will fight them in the black churches; cynically, i'd say that front was his main contribution to the party slate.
hm... this appears to be the semi-official(?) DE GOP footube channel, which has videos from the candidates. (please watch; i'm sure gügle makes good money analyzing who watches political videos. ;) )
one other oddment: the party made a big deal of valenzuela and wade having built successful businesses from humble beginnings... but it seemed like the were studiously ignoring actually naming said businesses, which seemed odd to me. what, they run furrier & hives, motto: "proudly clubbing seals since 1857"?²
so, i checked with Very Secret Sources, who tell me that the companies are first state manufacturing and philadelphia control systems, respectively, assuming my sources know that they're talking about. they seem like perfectly legit companies, so i can't see why they wouldn't want to name them. in fact, valenzuela seems to have gotten an award from the small business administration for hoopiest businessnon-gendered-term of the year. you'd think they'd wanna talk that up...
in any case, since the party is running on a "no dodgy, backroom deals involving conflicts of interest like the democrats routinely engage in" plank, i'd think the voters are entitled to know who owns what (or vice-versa). it doesn't seem that either company does any business with the state now, but i could see first state getting plum deals for re-upholstering the local state-owned bus-monopoly's fleet, assuming 2nd banana here has that sort of power.
and guess who showed up at the convention? my local ¬witch! i was worried for a bit that somebody from the sussex diocese would nominate her for something, but they didn't, and she just quietly hung out at the back of the room.
so, in summary, the state GOP is a land of contra-- it was a curious experience. OT1H, it seems good that we're actually clear on the whole electoral victory thing, but OTOH, i'm frankly not convinced it's gonna get us very far, even with the economy, stupid, and the endemic corruption. the party historically hasn't been very good at convincing the voters its worth the trouble, and i'm not sure that's gonna change overnight.
2: OTOH, while driving home, i glanced at my driver's-side mirror and noticed that a 747 was about to pass me. i'm not entirely used to that -- i mean, i once i got a really good look at a C-5's landing lights while landing myself, but that's another story -- so i looked at it for a bit. ok, dover AFB has an approach path that runs parallel to DE-1 just south of dover, and the 747 was inbound and was a freighter... and was bearing private livery for atlas air. anybody got any idea why a private freighter would be landing at dover AFB? emergency spare parts for one of the heavies? (given the size, an entire engine or two.) mobility command subbing out dual-use goods heading to the cold and mountainous place? really extraordinary rendition?
