The Minnesota GOP is Hemorrhaging

I was asked by another blogger to write how I would have conducted the state convention if I were in charge. I plan to do that sometime this week. But after the unwarranted personal attacks on me at the State Central meeting by party leadership yesterday, I have a few other topics to get off my chest first.

It is my opinion that the Rochester GOP Convention will go down in political history as the day the Minnesota GOP began to bleed to death. Believe me there was heavy bleeding everywhere. It didn't have to be this way if this party had sound leadership.

Unfortunately, it does not. After opening the convention urging that all Republicans become united, the GOP leadership did everything in it's power to further divide the party. Time and time again this weekend the party establishment leaders proved their ineptitude, incompetence and total lack of any leadership skills. This party leadership suffers from severe paranoia of imagined threats to it's power base from within and without. So much so that it continues to blame everything negative that is said or that happens on the Star Tribune or party activists that do not espouse their spin on events.

Look at the polls from Minnesota and across the country. America no longer trust the Republican brand. The folks that promised smaller government, lower taxes, a higher standard of integrity, more personal freedoms, a sound energy policy and family values have squandered, lied and spent money like drunken sailors. Now, those same elected officials who once called themselves "Conservatives," tell us we are out of touch and have to be "Democratic Lite" to get Republicans elected. All you have to do is look the candidates the GOP is fielding to understand why the rank and file are so unenthusiastic and fleeing in a state of revolt.

So what did we learn this weekend. First, that their are a lot of Republicans willing to act like lemmings and blindly follow their MN GOP leaders over the cliff of oblivion for a third disastrous election cycle. Second, the this state leadership can manipulate the rules to suit their power grab agenda without any checks or balance by the party faithful. Third, rules matter if you want to run for a national delegate spot, but only if you are in the opposition. Finally, the only people that matter are the elected officials, special interests and the big money folks that pony up the expensive signs and brochures.

Lets look at each one more closely. The party leadership screamed alarm because of a fraction of Republicans convention attendees, 25% according to statements to the Star Tribune by Chairman Ron Carey, supported Ron Paul. It seems that the Ron Paul people were trying to get some names on the ballet to run as national delegates. So what does this leadership do? Instead of sitting down and discussing how the problem could be settled, the party chair spent the last month and a half belittling "these people" as outsiders, unworthy, and unwanted. Now that is a perfect example of great leadership technique on how to unite the party when one of every four at the convention was one of "these people." To make sure that the rank and file stayed in line, red capped party storm troopers complete with ear pieces and two way radios roamed the halls and byways holding signs to tell the lemmings how to vote.

Second, this party leadership imposed draconian style rule changes to the State Constitution, all in the name of controlling "these people." The rules change was not so much an attempt to control the Ron Paul people as it was to signal the party faithful that if you step out of line like the two BPOU's that sent Senator Norm Coleman letters saying they could no longer support his reelection, you will be stripped of your elected BPOU positions.

Thirdly, the party in a premeditated action stacked the deck of the nominating committee to insure "these people " who applied for a national delegate position would not meet the requirements imposed. Leadership structured hard and fast rules that applied to "these people" but not to some of the highest ranking elected Minnesota politicians. What is more shameful, is that a majority of the convention goers, who are very good people, actually went along with this charade and voted down a proposals that would have done the right thing. It is amazing how fear and hate can motivate good people to do wrong things. Selective rules are no rules! But what can we expect from a group that believes a tax is really a fee.

Finally, the grassroots be damned, only high ranking elected officials and their big buck backers are all that matters. It's all about the power baby! Follow the money folks. Just who is the "Minnesota Conservative Delegate Team" really? Certainly this new Edina based group are not "Conservatives," they are just using the word as a smokescreen. Some in this group belong to the most liberal wing of the Republican Party and are responsible for Edina turning "Blue." How did they afford enormous signs in the auditorium, mass mailings and a 30 page glossy brochure? Who picked up the bill? Not authorized by any campaign or candidate? Then why did Ben Golnik, John McCain's man in Minnesota take the microphone and say that the slate proposed by the Minnesota Conservative Delegate Team were approved by the McCain election committee? These items didn't come free. Someone in power felt incredibly threatened to pony up this kind of money. Who was it? What party rules were violated? What FEC rules were violated? I guarantee you that there are a lot more questions then answers.

The convention was an utter failure. This party came away more un-united then ever. Where are the young people with passion going to come from to do the grassroots work to win this election in November. Too many, including myself a national delegate, feel more disenfranchised then before the convention. Lord knows I'm no Ron Paul supporter. But I believe in honesty, fairness and civil treatment for all who don't attack me. That was not practiced by this parties leaders in Rochester!

Sadly, this pathetic party leadership is thumping themselves on their chest saying what a great victory they had in Rochester. With their delusional bunker "us against them" mentality, these idiots don't realize that they only won a fixed battle while they were losing the entire war.

Minnesota a purple state? Get real! In November the DFL is going to paint this state solid "blue."

Like the DFL blogs are saying, their secret weapon is - Ron Carey.

Comments

[dtaijo174]

Wow! Great Article. I was there and can honestly say for those who were not, this blog is actually going a little easy on Mr. Carey. It left out gory details for every rule broken by the elite. Never the less, great blog.

[Steve Olson]

Joe,

Thanks for writing this. I have been involved off and on in the Republican Party since 1989. I've seen my fair share of dirty tricks. I saw Grunseth shredded (I think it was Carlson who did it, but I can't prove it), I saw Kevin Knight run out of town, I was present when Boschwitz funded Moreno and split the conservatives at the 1996 state convention to block endorsement of Bert McKasy, but what I witnessed on Friday May 30th 2008 in Rochester Minnesota was the worst thing I have ever witnessed in Party politics. It was the cold calculated orchestrated intentional disenfranchisement of 40-50% of the delegates on the floor.

I am the Ron Paul SD 35 coordinator. Why I got involved with that is too complicated to answer here. But, regardless, I was prepared to spend time and possibly money this summer helping Kline and Beard as well.

But after what I witnessed at the convention, I don't think I can support any Republican again. Sure Ron Carey's tactics bother me and they don't surprise me, but what disturbs me most and makes me question ALL elected Republicans is how so many of the rank and file failed to stand up and challenge the party leadership. They acted like a bunch of zombies with voting cards. There was no integrity at Friday's convention.

I've been preaching to people for years about how they MUST get involved in the Republican Party, because our system in Minnesota is set up to include the grass roots. In the Republican Party the average person gets a voice if they are duly elected by their peers. I believed every word of it until Friday.

What can I say now? I was wrong. We don't count.

I walked out, which may or may not have been the right thing to do. But I want to say for the record, I walked out because I refuse to participate in a kangaroo convention with a scripted pre-determined result. We have conventions to make decisions as a group. If my side loses when all votes are counted, I can live with that. But when you deny delegates the right to vote for their candidates, you have destroyed the integrity of the party, and I won't be involved in a party which lacks integrity.

Unity isn't the forced denial of dissent. That is the opposite of unity. Unity will only happen voluntarily.

[markus]

Joe,

I think your comments are entirely accurate. I went as a Ron Paul supporter and was castigated by those around me as one of "those". I have to say that once I was able to articulate my views to some of those who were unsure of whether they should accept me as a peer, they seemed to understand that I was there to advance my ideas and not Ron Paul per se.

There were still those that couldn't get over the fact that I like Ron Paul. What is with that? He embodies many of the views that the Republican Party has traditionally held. Most of us that were there understand that he has no chance of winning the nomination and many of us have been involved in the party for years. Twenty in my case. To get Ron Paul the nomination was not the primary reason I was there. Advancing his (and my) ideas was.

I've carried my fair share of water for the elephant, but that doesn't seem to matter. Since I don't like the direction the party is heading, I was accused of not uniting behind our presumed nominee. I've held my nose and done that the last two election cycles. I'm not going to do that any more.

Since when should the advancement of the Party trump the advancement of traditionally conservative ideals? The power grab by the Party leadership will come back to haunt them soon enough. I can only hope that those people who were involved for the first time are not permanently turned off. They are the only hope this organization has of ever returning to the principles most of us hold dear. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

[Libertas]

Same thing in Honolulu.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?952d1664-7578-4c49-9626-d551e7560920

[Gregory K. Sloat]

Joe,

GREAT article. I was in Rochester as a delegate, after we sent all Ron Paul delegates to the national convention from CD-5. I think this chaps Ron Carey's hide more than he can stand, and he was determined to punish us all for our "insubordination" in failing to bow at the altar of the "presumed nominee" (I wish I had a buck for every time I've heard THAT). I support Ron Paul, because for the first time in my 57 years, I have found a candidate worthy of my support. I am one of those who will no longer hold my nose and vote for "our" guy, because he's not as bad as "their" guy, NOR do I subscribe to the "MY party, right or wrong," philosophy (wrong is wrong, period).

It seems evident that the people who control the Republican party (not only here in Minnesota, but everywhere), are more interested in desperately holding on to their (now tenuous) power, than they are in saving our country and returning to the Constitution. This is how I would expect Democrats (i.e., Liberals) to behave, not Repubicans. I don't get it.

PEOPLE (addressing the party), we are Americans FIRST. You do what's best for America, FIRST. That didn't used to be a problem, because Republican values WERE America's and American's values. Now, it seems that the party of Goldwater and Reagan has been hijacked by those who don't care what happens to anyone else, as long as they have THEIRS.

We (those of us who realize what's at stake, and are determined to keep our liberty and this country) ARE going to take this country back. It's going to start with taking our own PARTY back, when that should be the LEAST of our concerns. However, we ARE going to do it, and we've already started. I only hope we have enough time.