Dr. Carolyn McClarty on the Republican National Convention

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carolyn mcclarty, oklahoma national committeewoman, republican national convention, republican national convention rules vote, rnc rule changes, romney campaign

What we witnessed at the Republican National Convention the end of August was certainly an interesting story.

Monday evening, Oklahoma’s National Committeewoman, Carolyn McClarty spoke at our county meeting.

The issues that happened at our National Convention can be a hard situation to talk about, because it wasn’t all pretty. But, I believe Dr. McClarty did an excellent job of laying the facts out for people to understand what happened. I will do my best to share what she went over.

Dr. McClarty was on the platform committee at the RNC, so she had to go down to Tampa a week before the Convention. She was pleased with the platform that was put together. She said a plank was put in against Obamacare. It is one of the most conservative platforms the Republican Party has had.

Then Carolyn went on to talk about the rules changes. She talked about how the RNC Standing Rules committee has put lots of thought and work into the rules presented to the RNC Convention Rules Committee. The Convention Rules committee doesn’t have as much time to address rule changes. So, that made it easy for Ben Ginsberg, who Carolyn noted is Romney’s attorney, to push through a large amount of new rule changes.

Carolyn noted that Mr. Ginsberg came well prepared to shove through all these new rules. She was not happy with the rule changes – both Rule 15/16 and Rule 12. She said it was “egregious” to have a rule that would allow a presidential candidate to unseat duly elected delegates. This, therefore removes the will of the people of each state. She also noted that the rule changes completely run over the grassroots.

Dr. McClarty worked quickly to try to change these rules while in Tampa. Within a short amount of time, she was able to work to get an emergency meeting together of the RNC Standing Rules committee to address these issues. Ultimately it took them a few days to address these issues, and Carolyn was glad that the Convention was postponed for a day due to the storm, so that they could address the rule changes.

She noted that Rule 16 was changed, although it was still not the greatest rule. But, Rule 12 was not changed.

Carolyn spoke of Morton Blackwell, from Virginia, who had the Minority Reports. She talked about the bus transportation issues and how he was unable to present the Minority Report. Mr. Blackwell stated in his letter, which Dr. McClarty quoted on Monday evening, “One should not attribute to conspiracy what can adequately be explained by incompetence.” She read that quote and really left it up to the audience to decide for themselves why exactly his bus had such major transportation issues.

She spent much of the time discussing the rule problems and how that went down. She also noted the vote on the rules at the Convention and how the chairman had read a teleprompter.

Because she said it was “egregious” to have a rule which would allow a campaign unseat duly elected delegates, I asked her what she thought of what happened in Maine. By her answer I could tell she was not well educated or informed on the case, and she just answered with what she had heard while in Tampa.

Overall, Carolyn gave a very fair and unbiased report about what happened at the National Convention. I appreciated her openness on discussing the rules issues and who pushed those bad new rules through. As I told her Monday night, thank you for giving a good report & simply stating the facts, about what happened at the Convention.

-Qadoshyah Fish

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Tuesday, the Sham of a Convention

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Delegates, fair convention, gop not following rules, national delegates, Republican Conventions, republican national convention, republican national convention rules votes, RNC, rnc votes on credentials, rnc votes on platform, rnc votes on rules, roll call votes of presidental nominee, ron paul was nominated, six states nominated dr. paul., Tampa, Uncategorized and tagged disenfranchise voters

Wow. Where do I begin with what happened on Tuesday? It was such a full day. Emotions were high.

After going to bed very late Monday night because of all the last minute strategy we were doing, we got up bright and early on Tuesday to head to the Oklahoma delegation hotel. We were planning on catching the bus to get into the Convention, but at the last minute were informed that only one bus was coming and delegates were to get on first. A second bus was supposed to be coming, but no one knew how long it would be before it arrived.

Once we got parked and walked into the Convention, we got situated up in the nose bleed area. The Convention came to order at 2pm. No order of business happened for a few hours.

There were two big problems with the new rules that the Rules Committee put together.  Rule 12 and Rule 15. A lot of delegations were against these new rules. Many of which were not even Ron Paul delegates.

A Virginia delegate who was on the rules committee was one of the biggest opponents to the new rules and he had a minority report to get it changed. But, for some reason, Virginia’s delegation bus was rerouted, making it so that they would not be there when rules was voted on. This meant that the Ron Paul campaign had to scramble and get enough signatures for a new minority report and get it submitted asap. I got a text from a friend telling me to come down to another floor of the convention to help get calls for signatures. So, down we went to the floor that Ron Paul’s campaign was on. Ron Paul walked right past me and I found myself working with the campaign to make calls for signatures from rules committee members.

I believe it was around 5pm when the actual order of convention business started. John Boehner was the convention chair. Credentials came first.

This is where things were to get interesting.

Remember all the talk of Maine amending the credentials report and then possibly putting a credentials amendment through for Oklahoma? Brent Tweed is Maine’s delegation chair, therefore he was ready at his microphone to offer the amendment.

But, Priebus never asked for amendments to the credentials. He just went on to approving the credentials report. So, obviously, MANY delegates from MANY states opposed the credentials report.

It was a voice vote. The ayes and nays were SO, SO, close. There was absolutely no way for the chair to know which one had it. But, shockingly the chair ruled the ayes had it.

Immediately there was Division called for by an extremely large amount of delegates – they were chanting “Division!”

When that fell on deaf ears, what seemed like the entire room started to chant “Seat Maine Now!” It was AWESOME. Awesome in the sense that we had such an enormous amount of delegates who wanted Maine seated that the Convention was actually stalled for a little while, because of the overwhelming chant. Yet no one cared.  I mean, the convention was entirely and completely out of order, the chair should’ve stopped and recognized the delegates.

The chair ruled that the ayes had it, as if nothing had just happened. Come on! It was shocking to watch.

 

During this time, Brent Tweed was calling for Point of Order, because he had a speech to give for an amendment to the credentials report. He was never recognized. Yet, he gave his entire speech, even though the microphone was never turned on for him. No one escorted him out, surprisingly. So, when his speech was finished, he walked out with the rest of Maine’s rightfully elected delegates.

Then came the adoption of the Convention rules. Again, a voice vote was taken on this. Everyone who was watching the video (and has since watched it) says the nays had it by 5-10%. If anything, it was not clear who had it and therefore a different vote should’ve taken place.

 

Yet again, the chair ruled the ayes had it (because it was already written in their script!), so a massive amount of delegates began to chant “Point of Order!” for a long while. We were really giving it to the Establishment! This went on for awhile. So much so, that Priebus wanted to just continue on and adopt the rules, yet he could not because this was so loud. So, instead he says “Please show respect.”

Seriously, dude? Priebus has the guts to ask an enormous body of delegates to show respect when he is just running right over the will of the delegation present, as if they are all robots!

I’ve heard the stories about the National Convention and how it’s very likely that we would have no success there, but I didn’t think it would be this bad. It was as if not a single delegate was present. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for any of those delegates to be on that floor. It was already pre-written and scripted with what was going to take place. It would’ve been better for all those chairs to be filled with dummies, because that’s how the delegates were treated. The RNC didn’t care at all about the voice of the people who elected those delegates from each state. The RNC did whatever they wanted to do.

Platform was then done, which was pretty smooth and then came the nominations for president and vice president. It was explained that anyone can nominate a person for these positions, so they took nominations. A man got up there and gave a nomination speech for Romney.  And they acted as if they would open the floor up for other nominations.

I knew we had the states to nominate Ron Paul, so I was just waiting for the mic to be turned on for Wayne from NV to nominate Dr. Paul. But, it never came. The RNC just went into taking the roll call from each state.

This was such an absolutely sickening process. Each state delegation announced their results over the microphone and then a woman on stage would repeat the votes. But, she *never* recorded the votes each state had for Ron Paul. So. Absolutely. Sickening. The agenda she and the RNC had was obvious.

Iowa & Minnesota were absolutely awesome when they announced their votes. Yes, Ron Paul won those states outright. No questions about that. But, then the only votes repeated by the woman on stage were the couple for Romney. Come on, RNC. How much more in your face hatred for Ron Paul can you get?

Nevada gets its own recognition. I worked extremely hard for months with Jay Lake & Wayne Terhune from Nevada to get Ron Paul’s name into nomination. We were extremely successful. It was not an easy task in the slightest. When I heard Nevada announced as the next state to cast their votes, I was waiting in anticipation for what Wayne would say.

Wayne announced to the world that Ron Paul was nominated by 6 states. It brings me to tears just typing this out. I was so excited to hear Wayne tell this to the whole.entire.RNC and the world. We succeeded by God’s grace.  Wayne then went on to declare Ron Paul’s win from the delegates in Nevada.

It was the highlight of that time.

 

I will forever be thankful that I was able to be involved in this task of nominating the man who has fought for us for so long. We did everything we could. We fulfilled our duty as delegates for Ron Paul.  The RNC just did not care. The RNC rejected us. They put road blocks in our way, time and again, yet we were still able to get 6 states!

-Qadoshyah Fish

Was Ron Paul Cheated Out of the Nomination?

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Media, ron paul placed into nomination., Tampa and tagged dr. paul nomination

There’s a discussion on the facebook group Making Friends Through Ron Paul talking about the RNC.

The thread is getting under my skin, because of everything I witnessed last week. But, there are a few points being made on there and I want to address them:

1) Ron Paul did not get cheated out of the nomination

This is a hard blow to those of us who worked very, very hard to get Ron Paul’s name in nomination. Ron Paul did get cheated out of the nomination and it goes way back.

All he needed was 5 states to have his name placed into nomination. That would’ve earned him a 15 minute speaking spot as a candidate. 6 states nominated Dr. Paul. Those nomination papers were submitted to the secretary of the RNC.

Ron Paul should’ve been able to speak for 15 minutes. But, the RNC does not care. They don’t care about cheating.

Had the RNC truly cared about the rules and allowing a fair process, Ron Paul would have had at least 9 states place his name into nomination. Those states were cheated out of that, because the RNC doesn’t follow the rules.

Maine had just enough of their delegates unseated so that they could not have a plurality for Dr. Paul. They had signed the form, but then the contest committee threw out half of Maine’s rightfully elected delegates. State #7.

Oklahoma should have had 25 at-large delegates unseated because they were not rightfully elected. Those 25 delegates would’ve been replaced with delegates who just happened to be Ron Paul supporters.  State #8.

Louisiana had their rightfully elected delegates unseated, just like Maine. Those unseated delegates just happened to be Ron Paul supporters also. State #9.

Those 3 states were cheated out of nominating Dr. Paul. It was very clear in the contest committee which side they favored – Mitt Romney. They didn’t care about the rules that were broken at these various conventions or why these contests were present. All they cared about was making sure Mitt Romney was nominated – even if it took breaking the rules.

The 6 states who DID nominate Dr. Paul were cheated out of it, because the RNC never allowed for his name to be placed into nomination. They never opened the floor for other nominations.

If Ron Paul had been given the 15 minute speaking slot, the entire convention could have been different.

I witnessed what happened at the Texas State Convention when Dr. Paul was able to speak. People came out of that Convention saying “I was duped.” Just being able to hear Ron Paul speak for a few minutes changed people’s minds. I’m convinced that if he would have been able to speak, the hearts and minds of delegates there could’ve been changed.

And Dr. Paul could’ve potentially won the nomination.

But, instead the RNC cheated, broke their own rules time and again and scripted the entire thing to insure that Mitt Romney got the nomination.

2) Santorum & the other candidates are the ones who got cheated out of the nomination

Sure, I can see the argument that Santorum got cheated because his name wasn’t placed into nomination and he won so many states. But, ultimately it doesn’t come down to how many states the candidate won in the primaries, but it comes down to how many states signed the presidential nomination form and submitted that to the secretary of the convention.

We did try to get Santorum nominated. I know people (Ron Paul supporters) in my state tried to get Rick Santorum nominated in Oklahoma, because we were unable to nominate Ron Paul. We tried this in multiple states. But, it failed.

Santorum’s delegates could’ve stood up and fought to get him the nomination, as we did with Ron Paul. But, where were they? They had been deceived into believing Mitt Romney had to be the nominee.

There’s a difference between Santorum’s delegates & Ron Paul delegates. We fought hard up until the last possible minute. We did everything in our power to get those nomination papers signed and turned in. And we had success.

So, I ask again, where were Santorum’s supporters? If they really wanted to have a chance, “all” they had to do was get that nomination paperwork in.

3) The rules change didn’t cheat Ron Paul people, but cheats all GOP voters.

This I agree with. The new rules cheat all GOP voters and all people who may want to be delegates in the future.

Those of us in the liberty movement have a big voice. We are well organized. We are motivated. We are here to change this party for the better.  If we want to be involved again as delegates, the candidate who is the potential nominee now has the authority to remove us as delegates because we don’t agree with him. That is bad news. This cheats everyone and should have never been passed.

The bottom line is that Ron Paul’s delegates were cheated out of participating in the process. Ron Paul was cheated out of a 15 minute speaking spot. His delegates were cheated out of being seated. The list goes on.

I witnessed what happened last week. What was done to Ron Paul wasn’t right. What was done to Ron Paul’s delegates wasn’t right. We were cheated. He was cheated. There’s no other way to explain what happened last week.

-Qadoshyah Fish

The Hard Day At Credentials: Maine & Oklahoma

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committee on contests, credentials committee, Delegates, duly elected delegates, GOP Committee Meetings, maine credentials appeal, oklahoma credentials appeal, Republican Conventions, republican national committee contests, rnc committee of 9, seat maine now, Tampa and tagged appeal to RNC committee on contests, unseat delegates.

What a whirlwind the 12 days have been. I discussed our impending appeal to the Credentials Committee a week and a half ago. Yesterday I put up a blog doing a general post about what happened. But, I wanted to go back through and address each day.

Since then, I’ve never had so many extremely late nights, with early mornings. So many nights and days of hard work to prepare for the convention. So many interviews. So many parties with Ron Paul supporters. I’ve never talked and yelled so much either. My voice is still thrashed!

But, to back things up…

The Credentials Committee met Friday, August 24^th. There were 3 credentials appeals being heard that day: Maine, Oklahoma, & Oregon. As we waited for Credentials to start, I met Jay Lake from Nevada who I had been working very closely with regarding Ron Paul’s nomination for the past few months. Jay was also on the Credentials committee and was planning on helping us in the committee, so we had some things to discuss prior to the meeting. While we were waiting, I also met Eric Brakey & Brent Tweed from Maine. It was nice to put some faces to names that I had seen on Facebook.

Credentials started and Maine was the first appeal to be heard. It was nice to be able to be in there and listen to this before our case. Each side had 30 minutes to present their case and then the committee members could ask questions regarding the case. Maine took about 2 or 3 hours, but they ultimately agreed with the Committee on Contests.

This committee was a committee of 100+ delegates (2 from each state).  I thought they would use their brains and listen to the arguments being made before them. As I sat there and listened to the arguments against Maine, I was shocked. They were trying to unseat Maine for the *exact* reasons we had our contest against Oklahoma. Many delegates on the committee stood up for Maine, yet when the vote was taken, I was shocked to see the overwhelming majority who voted against Maine.

This committee of 100+ delegates voted to uphold the decision of 9 people on a Contest Committee. By doing this, they decided that 9 people from states other than Maine, should be the ones who decide the delegates for the people of Maine. They ruled that the voice of the people of Maine who rightfully elected all those delegates was worthless. Shocking. Do these people have brains? I mean, seriously. They were all so sheep like and could of cared less regarding the will of the people of Maine.

Even though I knew that the likelihood of Oklahoma winning in this committee was slim, I was hopeful because Maine was thrown out for the exact reasons we were trying to unseat Oklahoma. As much as I wanted Maine to be seated, I thought, “well, if this committee is going to be consistent, Oklahoma should be unseated and we should win.” Yeah, right.

Mike presented our case before the credentials committee, as Porter Davis wasn’t able to be there. Anna Flatt & I were there as witnesses if needed. Again, each side presented their case for 30 minutes and then it was opened up to the committee for questions.

Jay Lake, one of about 12 Ron Paul supporters who were on the committee, is the only one who stood up for us. Jay, you are our hero and will always hold a special place with us for what you did! Thank you so much. Not a single other member on the committee stood up to ask questions. Once Jay was done, someone just made a motion to accept the contest committee report regarding Oklahoma. So, so, shallow. They really don’t care. I know Maine would’ve stood for Oklahoma had they been seated, but they had just lost and therefore couldn’t participate on the committee anymore.

Even though I didn’t really expect a different outcome, I still had a small glimmer of hope. To see the last glimmer of hope completely disregarded, was very angering and discouraging. I cried my eyes out the rest of the afternoon.

The next day, Saturday, we held a delegate meeting in the parking lot of the fairgrounds outside of the PaulFest. Maine let everyone know that they were planning on offering an amendment to the Credentials report at the Convention on Tuesday to seat Maine’s delegation with the rightfully elected delegates.

In this meeting, they asked me to get up there to tell everyone what Oklahoma was planning. We had gone back and forth on trying to amend the credentials report. At that time, I said we were still thinking about it and I’d let them all know. The entire delegation of Maine was so, incredibly supportive of our plight. Because of them, it encouraged me to continue on and try to offer an amendment to the credentials report.

We talked with Eric & Brent from Maine to make sure that we would not jeopardize Maine being seated if Oklahoma also offered an amendment. We went back and forth on whether to do this or not. It was a very hard decision. Not because we didn’t want to keep fighting, but because of various technicalities. Wayne Terhune from NV was ready and willing to offer this amendment for us also.

I prepared the amendment with the list of names to replace the wrongfully elected delegates from Oklahoma and sent it down to the Convention floor (since I couldn’t go on the floor, due to not being seated) on Tuesday to get it into the hands of Brent, so that if things went well, he could offer it up. Ultimately no amendments would even happen. But, we were ready. More on how that exactly went in another post.

The support from Maine for Oklahoma’s case will not be forgotten. Eric, Brent, Ashley, Erin and the rest of Maine’s delegation, I can’t thank you all enough. I know I thanked you all multiple times this past week when we hung out. But, there is a special bond between Maine & Oklahoma because of what we went through these past couple weeks. To know that we are in this fight for liberty with you all, is so encouraging. We will continue on and by God’s grace, He will bless our efforts to change the terrible course this party is on. I’ve shed many tears this last week, but to have the support of you all, makes it so encouraging to continue on.

These words from the song written for the “Oklahoma Parking Lot Convention” have run through my head time and again the past 9 days.

And it’s a sad picture

The final blow hits you

They break their own rules and burn us again and

You know it’s all the same

Another time and place

Repeating history and you’re getting sick of it

We press on fighting for what is right in the Republican Party!

-Qadoshyah Fish

We’ve Fought So Hard. Where Do We Go From Here?

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republican convention, RNC, Tampa

We’ve all been through a lot the past week (or two, for some of us). It has been a roller coaster ride of emotions. I will put up some blog posts detailing exactly happened in the Convention, but below is a quick synopsis with my thoughts on where we go from here.

For some of us, like Maine & Oklahoma, it started a week before the actual Convention, with the Contest Committee. We all came down to fight for what was right. To fight for being seated. To make our voices heard. Yet, we were denied and turned away time and again.

Yet, we pressed on.

We pressed on to the Credentials committee. We stood tall and presented our cases again here, yet we were blatantly rejected. Rules were clearly rejected. The will of the people was disregarded.

A group of 9 people were the ones in charge of seating delegations with challenges. They cared not about rules being broken. All they cared about was which side the contest came from – was it from the Romney camp or the Ron Paul supporters?

If the arguments against a delegation came from the Romney, or I should say, establishment, side the contest committee and credential committee members would hear it and agree with it. If the same.exact.arguments came from the people who just happened to be Ron Paul supporters (as was the case with Oklahoma), they were thrown out.

Should this be a surprise to us? Not really, because we’ve seen so much corruption in the party up to this point as it is. Seriously, the entire reason we even had to be there for these contests was because of corruption in the party. If everything was run just and upright, we wouldn’t have been there presenting those cases.

We worked extremely hard for the Republican National Convention for months. Since May, it feels like that is all I’ve done. There were so many areas that had to be worked on. Whether it was from problems that arose in our state of Oklahoma, or national things that needed to be done – like the nomination of Dr. Paul – there was constant work.

When Tuesday finally came, the big day of the Convention, and everything was railroaded through, it was very disheartening. I stood there in utter disbelief and disgust for what I was witnessing.

I watched as this forum full of delegates asked for Maine to be seated. As the room called for Division. As the entire room called for a Point of Order regarding the Rules. But, everyone was completely ignored. It was as if the people on the stage had no idea anyone was in the forum screaming at them.

Like they were in a bubble of oblivion.

I mean, there are no words to describe how insane the people running this “convention” were.

It was also shocking to sit there and watch the establishment delegates dance to the jazz band they had playing at the breaks. They seemed so oblivious to all the serious things going on around them. So oblivious to the hours, days, weeks and months of work all of these Ron Paul delegates had put into this. It was as if all they were there for was to party (which it was).

This was not run as a convention. This was run as a pre-scripted, already coordinated and planned gathering. They happened to have people there who were supposed to be playing the role of delegates, but instead …. I don’t really know why they were there. The RNC never let them act in the way a delegate should be able to act: with a voice, and with a vote.

The horror continued as the roll call of the states came in and the speaker continually only counted the votes for Romney. It’s not like these votes were recorded secretly and no one knew how many votes each candidate received. No, each delegation chair announced to the world how their delegation voted. Yet, if a state went for Ron Paul, or even had a couple votes for him, they weren’t counted.

How blatant can you get? How about you just say Ron Paul was never in the race…because that’s the way the RNC acted!  They didn’t care he had never suspended or ended his campaign. Or, the fact that he was right.there.in.the.forum!  Or the fact that 6 states DID NOMINATE HIM!!

I hope the Republican Party realizes what they did here. They outright stripped the nomination from Dr. Paul. Whether he had enough delegates to win, doesn’t matter. He had enough states to be nominated and that is what counts.

Wayne from NV was waiting at the mic to nominate Dr. Paul, yet they never allowed the opportunity. So, instead he had to announce it when Nevada gave their votes. The RNC completely stripped the rights of those delegates who nominated the man who has fought for them for so long.

Do you realize how hard we all worked to get his name into nomination, just to have it be completely ignored!

How utterly and completely careless. Who do you think you are, GOP? It’s so sad to see that you would do something like this to a man who has fought for YOUR freedom for 30+ years. But, you don’t care.

He was a c-a-n-d-i-d-a-t-e still who actually had enough states to have his name placed into nomination and make this an actual convention! But, no…you would never want that, because then people might actually get to hear Ron Paul speak and change their minds.

Sigh.

This world is so messed up.

As I stood there and listened to all the garbage for those few hours on Tuesday when the “Convention business” was proceeding, it was all I could do to hold back from breaking down and bawling. I knew the likelihood of the Convention being completely railroaded was very high, but to see it first hand, it was a lot to handle.

I couldn’t hold it together after so long, so the tears kept coming.

I had an intense conversation with some women (“Establishment types”) after the proceedings had ended. I was sick of it all and I wasn’t going to sit there quietly and let these people go by and think this was the absolute greatest thing that had just happened.

How in the world does the Republican Party expect to win when our party cheats like this? When they just ignore their own rules? When they just script an entire convention? When they say the ayes have it, and indeed they don’t? When they completely ignore the voice of the delegates? When they don’t allow other nominations? When they don’t even count votes for other candidates, unless he’s their “already-won-because-it’s-scripted” candidate?

Yes, I am a Republican. But, I’m not going to sit quietly by as our Party railroads a national convention like this and makes themselves look like complete fools.

These women I talked to said, “oh, we don’t make ourselves look bad.” Really? Wow. If you think this party is all wonderful when they do things like what happened this week, you have some serious issues.

So, where do we go from here?

I know a lot of people left that day feeling like it was over (the Republican Party really killed themselves that day). People left saying they are done with the party. They are switching to another party. Or, they’ve given up completely.

While I understand exactly where these people are coming, I’m not about to give up.

What the Republican Party doesn’t realize, is that what they did to us (as in the People!) only united us to work harder to fix this party. It didn’t make us go away. From their point of view, they might be disappointed in our response to this.

Why? Because it united us and reenergized us all.

The following two days after that terrible day of Tuesday, August 28^th, proved that. We united as a strong group and made our voices heard.

Don’t go away. Don’t give up. The only way we can continue to make a difference is to stay involved. Please stay involved in the Republican Party and let’s win it over to bring it back to where it should be – as a true constitutional & truly conservative party.

Get involved at the local level. You can make a difference. If all of us who care about freedom & the constitution leave, the Establishment will get what they want. They will win. The corruption that is so incredibly steeped in this party will only get worse. We made a dent in the Convention this week, because our numbers have grown so much.  If we stay involved, we can get stronger and we can root out the corruption that is in this party.

It’s going to take time and lots of work, but other states have already had success doing this. So, we all can do it by God’s grace.

That’s what we need to do. Who all is in it for the long haul with me?! Let’s go for it!

I think these lyrics from Jordan Page’s song Pendulum are apropos:

And the pendulum swings from the left to the right.

It’s momentum increases the need for the fight.

-Qadoshyah Fish

Like the OKGOP The RNC says Rules Don’t Matter

It has been quite the eye opening experience these last several months being involved with party politics in Oklahoma.  I first got actively involved the last presidential election cycle and have been active in the party since.  I got involved due to the direction our country was and is heading feeling that it is my duty to at least try and make a difference in the party espousing my beliefs.

Then as now I have had many tell me I was wasting my time or ask what I thought I could accomplish.  To those I give the same answer, “It is good to do right even if it is likely doomed to failure.”  Thankfully I had found the skepticism unwarranted to a large degree.  That is, even though the party’s actions (particularly our candidates) had strayed so far from our beliefs, I found that I could have an impact on the process and make a difference.

Myself and many others had come home to the Republican party trying to bring it back to its ideals and holding it accountable for its espoused beliefs.  I was quite thankful to find many friendly people in my local party that welcomed my help and activity even though I had come into the party supporting Ron Paul.  Don’t doubt that there were disagreements and discussions, there were.  There was however always courtesy and respect in our relationship which made working together possible.

I’ve stayed engaged in party politics and grown even more so over the last 5 years.  I intend to continue that involvement even now after seeing more fully the dirty face of politics being revealed.  We’ve often heard that politics are dirty.  Many even think that politics are dirty.  After these past many months, and especially last few weeks I KNOW that politics are dirty.

What started as a fight in our state to get liberty minded activists elected as part of our At-Large delegation to Tampa soon turned into a fight over the very heart of Republicanism within our party.  The road I and many others have been on since then has ripped away the veil of honesty and legitimacy from the process of party politics revealing the ugly face of power beneath.  Seeing the extent to which those in power will go to hold power and suppress opposition has been an eye opening emotional roller coaster.

Violations of our state party and state convention rules lead us to challenge our state party before the RNC.  Understanding that the rules are there to protect the integrity of the process we naively hoped to find redress and accountability meted out by the RNC Challenges Committee.  I will not go into details here as others have well accounted the story of what we faced.  Oklahoma Disregards The Rules & Therefore The Delegates Are Challenged   By the time we were through with two hearings before the Challenges committee and one final appeal to the Credentials Committee we had learned that the RNC held no regard for party rules and were unable to deal with the issues at hand in a well reasoned manner.

This was born out by their ruling which basically amounted to “So they didn’t do it according to the rules.  Show us how following the rules would have made a difference”  followed by questions from the committee on issues unrelated to the actual challenge.  The OKGOP tried to and apparently successfully turned their breaking of the rules into a Ron Paul vs OKGOP issue in the minds of the Committee, totally distracting from the facts of the challenge.

One committee lady’s question to us amounted to “Why should RP get any delegates to the Convention when he did not break the 15% threshold to get delegates by OK state law?”  My mouth dropped at the ignorance inherent to such a question.  The challenge had nothing to do with the binding of delegates to candidates, Ron Paul or otherwise!  The 15% law was totally irrelevant to the case at hand and yet this kind of nonsense was what the committee dwelt upon in their deliberations, not that actual rules and integrity of the process.

Instead of dealing with the matter of the rules the Committee raised a new challenge to the Contestants.  They wanted us to prove the outcome of something that never happened.  As in, if we can prove that voting by the rules would have made a difference then they might see a need to enforce the rules!  How can you prove the outcome of a vote that didn’t happen I ask?

I started this piece right after the committee meetings to share with fellow grassroots activists and fellow republicans back home and elsewhere.  So much more has transpired since then shining light on the corruption that is in the leadership of our party.  From the challenges to the Maine delegation, ignoring the votes from the floor while pushing along with the convention script, to the rules the Chair declared passed when they were not.  There is so much more to share regarding this Sham of a Convention and it will be told.

We Republicans can not support or cooperate with this sort of corruption if we are to ever have hope in restoring our nation to the liberty once granted it by God’s grace.  To close for now I will share with you a slogan I saw on a button while down in Tampa.  RINO season is now officially open.