Texas GOP Convention Report - Day 1

This week is the Republican Party of Texas State Convention... ie, a time for all the Republicans in the state to get together and ... um... yeah, I'm not really sure why other than to elect national delegates which could be just as easily done on line and at a much lower cost... but I digress.

Just for disclosure, I should mention that I'm more Republican than anything else, have run as a Republican candidate in the past, but people have still suggested that I am a Democrat plant. Think what you will... but read on!

The highlight of day 1... the Ron Paul Ice Cream Social. Now, most "good" Republicans, those who agree with the majority of the ever increasing platform, would not dare be seen at this event. And that right there is the problem with the Republican Party! The energy and passion in the room during Ron Paul's speech to announce he was getting out of the race was incomparable to any other political event I've been to. The dedication of those waiting 30 minutes plus before the event just to get a position close to the stage, the excitement of the hundred or so people who waited until after the event just for a 2 second handshake with the man, all that is now lost. Paul stated, "I am deeply moved and honored by your hard work and sacrifice on behalf of our cause... it is time now to take the energy this campaign has awakened and channel it into long-term effects to take back our country." But no was there to channel this into the Republican Party.

Where was the Chairman of the Texas party to say say "Ron, you had a good run, and you have been a strong congressman for the Republican Party serving a diverse area that should by all right be held by a Democrat." Or John McCain to say, "Ron, you have done an amazing job are rallying the next generation of Republicans who hold to our founding principles of small government and fiscal conservancy." James Pethokoukis, a political blogger for U.S. News and World Report knows where I am going with this, as he recent wrote an article about how John McCain's campaign knows it can't afford to have many disgruntled Ron Paul supporters.

Well, they were not there... in fact, short of a county chairman from some small TX country I've never heard of, there was almost no one there to represent the party or more importantly to give the passionate crowd someone to get behind for the November election. At this rate... with this attitude... I don't see how the party will continue to survive. Ron Paul is not "America's Last Hope" but he may be the Republican's Last Hope at holding on to the basics of the party and reaching out to the younger voters who care more about their money and taxes and less about trivial issues of semantics; such as if "God" should be in the pledge.

Due to our two party system, our choices are quickly becoming very similar financially thanks to ever increasing pork, and split on social issues... something that the federal government should even be dealing with in the first place!