Grassroots vs. the Establishment

The primary season is underway. We started a bit late this year, because of redistricting, which didn’t get settled until November. And Primary Election Day is March 1^st. So, despite attention rightly turning toward holidays the past few weeks, campaigns are starting to heat up. I’m involved in one particular campaign that I feel strongly about, so I’m writing about that today. Much of this is intended as an article elsewhere, but here I can add details of interest to me, and maybe interest to readers here. So here goes.

The necessary redistricting following the 2020 census has given Texas two new US congressional districts. One was placed around Austin. The other, the newly created Texas Congressional District 38, was plopped down in northwest Houston. That’s the one I’m in, after a decade in CD 2 where I pretty joyfully endorsed Rep. Dan Crenshaw in 2016. Anyway, the new CD 38 made changes mainly to the previous lines for CD 2, CD 7, and CD 8.

Redistricting map from FiveThirtyEight

If you live in this area and don’t know what district you’re now in, I suggest the interactive tool in the middle of this article. You type in your address, and it gives you your jurisdictions for US Congress and your Texas House and Senate districts. If you want to know which Harris County Commissioner Precinct you’re now in, go here and look up your precinct number. All these new districts will be shown on your voter registration card, which will be sent out to you sometime between now and early voting, so probably within a month.

Word is that CD 7 (which I was in the first decade of the century) is mostly being given up to Democrats while CD 2, CD 8, and CD 38 will lean even more Republican. (For the whole country, you can check out the redistricting maps and their expected leanings at FiveThirtyEight.) 

·         CD 7 will be D+24

·         CD 2 will be R+30

·         CD 8 will be R+26

·         CD 38 will be R+27

This means that these races will essentially be decided during the March 1^st Primary Election—or at least settled by any needed runoff on May 24^th.

For the brand new CD 38, this will be an opportunity for conservatives to get the representation they want and deserve.

There are ten candidates in the race. There’s one big name, supported by big money and being run from a distance—and the candidate, while Republican, doesn’t “speak conservative" fluently enough to convince close watchers that he’s a true “native” conservative. So the grassroots have been taking a look at the rest of the field.

Republican precinct chairs and other grassroots activists have held two forums, trying to get a feel for who these candidates are. (You can watch the videos of the first one here and the second one here.) At the end of each, they held a straw poll. Both showed Mark Ramsey as the clear winner.

In case you can’t enlarge it enough, every one of the long lines is Mark Ramsey.

Establishment pick Wesley Hunt didn’t show. The first event was because of a scheduling conflict; that’s forgivable. The second no-show was simply declining the invitation. At this point, people were starting to grumble about being snubbed. He was expected at a third event, the Cypress Texas Tea Party (I’m on the board), on December 18^th, and confirmed the night before. But he sent a representative, with word his daughter woke up with a fever. He didn’t, however, ask to reschedule for the next meeting. He’s been doing a few paid-donation dinners and an occasional meet-and-greet, plus some national media. But nothing that qualifies as reaching out to the grassroots. As a precinct chair, I’ve gotten phonecalls from his campaign asking for my endorsement. I say I’m still waiting to hear him in person. Then he doesn’t show at the events, and they call me again to ask for my endorsement. That does not show good listening skills.

For comparison, in 2018 I met candidate Dan Crenshaw three or more times before the primary, and multiple times afterward. He was generous with his time, and talked one-on-one and in small groups, answering questions—which he did rather well. He also ran the full length of the district (it was about 70 miles then), and helped muck out houses and do restoration in a less-affluent area near me following Hurricane Harvey, which happened just about the time he filed to run. Since becoming something of a media star, a fluke brought about by an SNL attack on him and the military, which he handled with grace and humor, he continues to reach out and do townhalls. And he does long-form discussions of issues on his podcast. He does words well; even when we disagree, I can understand his point of view. Wesley Hunt may be a friend to him, and also former military, but he’s not from that mold. He ran for CD 7 in 2020 (not my district, but I preferred two other candidates over him) and lost to the Democrat in the November election.

I gave my endorsement to Mark Ramsey before the second December forum, by the way. I’m an unpaid campaign volunteer, doing what I do (writing and editing), and I might even end up block walking with the best of them.

There have been rumors of interference in the race from faraway DC Republican leadership—what we call the establishment—who think they can choose our candidate without our say so. One candidate (who has since dropped out of the race) had hired three campaign advisors—the dream team, they were called, who had never lost a race when working together. They all quit, because of establishment pressure telling them they’d never work another congressional campaign if they did anything to oppose the NRCC Washington establishment anointed one. Other campaigns have found it nearly impossible to hire help and are struggling along on their own, or are combining with campaigns in other races to extend their reach and resources.

Meanwhile, Mark Ramsey’s campaign is picking up grassroots support. There's a snapshot of the current grassroots, measuring precinct chair commitment—which was the first step and the key to winning the three Cy-Fair ISD school board races this past November. Two of the three we ousted were long-time establishment Republicans, by the way. The same people who cared enough to block walk to tens of thousands of homes in order to get CRT and anti-family materials out of our schools are a formidable army. Anyway, in that snapshot, of the 70% of responding precinct chairs who have committed to a candidate, 75% have committed to Mark Ramsey.

In a primary election, the most dedicated voters tend to go to the polls. Precinct chairs can reach those voters in their precincts. Big money from far away might make sense for a tight general election in which the candidate needs to appeal to a broad swath of voter persuasions. But in this particular race, it might come down to who convinces the grassroots that they hold their values.

It is with good reason that Mark Ramsey is leading the grassroots battle right now. He is a tried-and-true conservative. He has worked in grassroots politics for decades. The state platform looks the way it does—categorized according to state Senate committees—because of his innovations. Many of the planks—the ideas and/or their wording—came from his efforts. The state Legislative Priorities, which he chaired in the last state convention, was an invention coming out of Senate District 7’s platform committee while he was chairing that committee, an idea he then carried to the State Republican Executive Committee. He served as the SREC Committeeman for SD 7 from 2012-2020, the end of his term limit. During that time he chaired multiple state committees, as well as additional local committees. This is all unpaid nitty-gritty volunteer work. A look at his endorsement list shows that his work has been well appreciated by true conservatives—although maybe not by party establishment, who often consider conservatives a thorn in their side.

That's me and our editing team—Mark Ramsey was the Platform Committee
Chair—taking last-minute edits from delegates at the 2018 RPT Convention.

Big-money guy Wesley Hunt—and most of the rest of the field—have been MIA from all this citizenship heavy lifting that needs to be done in order to get the government we want. Some of them don’t even vote in the primaries, according to their public record.

I got the graphic above from Ramsey’s website. A friend sent me the one below, one less election cycle, but all the candidates. (David Hogan, by the way, is a precinct chair and has been participating with the grassroots. He calls himself a young Mark Ramsey. I hope he sticks around and runs again for something else in a few years.)

One of the biggest thrills for Ramsey was getting to be a 2020 Presidential Elector. That year he also wrote, defended, and passed a resolution—the first in Electoral College history—condemning the Supreme Court for refusing to take the Texas election integrity case.

Ramsey had a long and distinguished career in oil & gas engineering, and is honored for his ability to pass along his knowledge and experience. He authored a peer-reviewed technical book, Practical Wellbore Hydraulics and Hold Cleaning, © 2019. He received the “Distinguished Instructor Award” as an Exxon employee, and was named a Charter Member of the Texas Tech Academy of Mechanical Engineers “for outstanding contributions to the profession.”

Mark Ramsey and wife Pauline have been married for 40 years and have three grown children and four grandchildren. His commitment to God is how he lives and breathes; they worship at WoodsEdge Community Church.

Unlike his Washington establishment opponent, Hunt, who favors the UN’s global plan on climate change, Ramsey believes in free-market solutions to climate issues, and in returning the US to that “shining city on a hill.” Hunt also dismisses CRT in schools as a non-issue; it’s not. Mark Ramsey helped craft the language in our platform instructing our legislature to get CRT out of our schools—and we got legislation done on that, HB 3979, requiring that civics teaching must include the moral, political, and educational foundations of America. Also, in the previous session, taking a leave from his O&G career, Ramsey served as a legislative staffer where he authored a bill requiring that high school graduates be able to pass the same test about America that legal immigrants are required to take.

About 2020 election integrity problems and what to do about them, he says those who committed election crimes should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. And we should increase penalties to the point the crimes are no longer worth it. Engineers, he points out, are problem solvers. He suggests having three independent counting systems: one by Democrats, one by Republicans, one by someone else; all three have to agree, or they have to figure out where the discrepancies are. It’s a built-in audit system. He has been citizen-lobbying the legislature to get better election integrity for years.

Asked what should be done when he believes SCOTUS makes the wrong call? From Congress, do everything to nullify or reverse that opinion. And, he reminds us, Congress can exclude the courts from jurisdiction over certain areas where they have no business stepping in and inventing law.

All of the grassroots candidates see themselves as running to make a difference for conservatives, to represent the people. Ramsey is the one who stands out as the proven person who understands how to solve the problems our government has caused.

For more information, see RamseyForTexas.com. And consider donating time or money if you’re from around here or interested in the success of our conservative grassroots efforts. One thing I hope we've learned by now is that we can't sit back and let people far away—even people from our own party—make decisions for us.

 

 

Grassroots and Rules

I’m back. I spent all of last week in San Antonio, at the Republican Party of Texas convention. The main convention was Thursday through Saturday, but temporary committees handle much of the business—of rules, credentials, platform, and legislative priorities—before the body convenes. I had a behind-the-scenes assignment with the Platform and Resolutions Committee, editing and getting ready for print.

The convention logo, on the big screen

It may take me some time, over two or three blog posts, to debrief. Let me just say that, although it’s a messy process, Texas does grassroots better than maybe everywhere else.

“He who knows the rules rules the world.”

That was said by our senatorial district’s Rules Committee member, Clint Moore, on Thursday, during our senatorial district caucus Thursday morning. I wish I’d recorded his speech, but one thing that struck me was the comparison to Florida and Ohio, both battleground states, neither of which has a state convention—because they don’t have a rule that calls for a convention. That means the state party, whatever that consists of, has all the control over what the party does.

That’s not how we do things in Texas. We do grassroots.

Here in Texas, we have a precinct convention, after the Primary Election, in which our business is to choose delegates to the next level up, the Senatorial District Convention, and we put forth resolutions for the platform. That is, we submit ideas that we would like to have in our platform. At the district convention we put together a list of platform planks to pass along to the state. I have twice worked on the district level platform committee, putting together the resolutions we receive from all the precincts into a form we can submit to the state Resolutions and Platform Committee. At the district convention we also choose delegates to attend the state convention.

It may be different in some places around the state, but where I’ve been, if you show up at your precinct convention and want to be a delegate to the district convention, there will be room enough for you to do that; you won’t have to run against anyone for the privilege. Depending on how many attend the district convention, you can fairly easily become a delegate to the state convention, although there are fewer places available as you move up levels. For each delegate, however, you’re allowed an alternate, who only votes if a seated delegate is away during a vote. Chances are good that, most people sent as alternates will become delegates once at the convention, because of people who were elected as delegates but ended up not being able to come. So, if you’re only an alternate at the district level, you should still come to the state convention and plan on full participation.

During presidential years, we choose delegates to the national convention, in a Congressional District Caucus (all delegates who live in a US Representative’s District). But we didn’t do that this year, because it is an off-year election. We did, however, choose a state party chair, which is a story for another day.

Anyway, you can see that platform ideas really do percolate up from the grassroots. And nearly anyone who wants to participate can come and have a voice. During a presidential year (maybe any year), the Texas Republican State Convention is bigger than even the national convention. This year well over 8,000 delegates attended. That’s a pretty big army to spread across the state and spread the word.

Our rules guy was saying that, in Florida and Ohio, imagine how much more likely they would be to turn strong Republican, if the people had a process for having a voice. Here in Texas we have general rules that pertain to all conventions and meetings, general rules pertaining just to conventions, more rules that pertain specifically to precinct level conventions, district level conventions, and then related specifically to the state convention. Forty-four rules in all with a lot of sub-rules and details. It’s like a small code of laws that we are required to live by as a party. Because these rules exist, we have a process for connecting the grassroots to the state party and what it does.

The Rules Committee added a point under general rules for the state convention, inventing a new committee encompassing what I did: State Grammar, Spelling, Formatting, and Punctuation Committee. This committee is appointed “for the purpose of reviewing non-substantive grammar, spelling, formatting, and punctuation of the language included in the Reports and shall incorporate the necessary corrections.” That’s what we had been doing unofficially. But suddenly we were official, with this added requirement: “Upon completion of their work, the committee will report back to the chair with their revisions for vote by the convention.” This was announced Saturday afternoon, during the Permanent Rules Committee Report. I put a little star by it in my printed copy. Interesting, I thought. For next time.

But then, during the Permanent Platform and Resolutions Committee Report, which happened next, and is where there is actual debate before the body concerning the various planks in the platform, this rule was called to be in effect right then. So, in front of the 8000+ people, I and my editing partner were called by name to be on that committee. We had intended to do one more final final edit, after the close of the convention. But at that point we were both sitting out in the convention hall with everyone else. We didn’t have access to our computers, or the live file that was being amended or approved by the body.

So, right after the platform business, during discussion of the Permanent Legislative Priorities Committee, we met with the Platform Committee Chair at a little cafeteria table, and took notes as people brought editorial issues to our attention, which we listed to handle on the computer later. And then the Chair reported back those changes to the body, as required.

There we are, the new State Grammar, Spelling, Formatting, and Punctuation Committee,
learning from a delegate that the same plank appeared in two sections,
which we were able to correct, thanks to her.

That was a surprise. There’s not usually a lot of drama in the life of a wordsmith. And certainly not a lot of notice by name.

I’ll have more about some of the details of the platform another day, but there were a couple of innovations this year that I think worked quite well.

Transparency was big. Six weeks ahead off the convention, the resolutions were available for study online—even the scans of the original documents. And two weeks ahead they were listed on a spreadsheet for easier organizing. In past years, the committee didn’t get access to the resolutions until they arrived at the convention. There are thousands of resolutions submitted from around the state. That’s a lot of reading to comprehend, digest, recognize duplicates, and identify new ideas. The process was also online throughout the week. More on that below.

Organization of the committee was another innovation. In the past, the platform had six subcommittees. There are 31 committee members, representing the 31 state senatorial districts. They would be divided up into one of the six subcommittees. This year the Chair recommended organizing the committee, and thus the platform itself, into nine subcommittees that relate fairly closely to the State Senate committees—because a major purpose of the platform is to direct the state legislature to enact the will of the people. Each of the 31 committee members was assigned to two subcommittees. It worked out that almost all were able to be on committees of their choice, or at least among their top choices. That helped each committee to be made up of people well versed in the issues it would face, and it gave each of them more issues than in previous years. Four subcommittees met and completed their work on Monday. The next five met and worked on Tuesday. Each committee took testimony pertaining to issues before them—which included the platform planks from the previous platform as well as the resolutions sent in.

Then, they came up with a report—a list of platform planks worded as they thought best. Then, on Wednesday, the Committee of the Whole (all 31 committee members back together) met and covered the whole platform.

The increase in public testimony was another innovation. They had time in every subcommittee, both days (more than an hour per subcommittee), plus more time during the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, and two or three more hours during the permanent committee on Thursday. Testimony wasn’t just a formality; it was essential to the process.

Here’s more about that online innovation I mentioned above. The subcommittees were all livestreamed. I believe the live subcommittee documents may also have been online for viewing. I know the document was live online during the Committee of the Whole’s work on Wednesday; enough people were tuning in that we temporarily shut down the Google server.

I worked live on Monday in Health and Human Services, and in the background all day Tuesday and late in the night (actually 3:45 AM Wednesday) to edit the document in preparation for the Committee of the Whole. The CofW took more testimony Wednesday, and then finished their report. Our edits were approved by the committee members by the time we began work on Thursday, but we were still working to incorporate approved changes as they got underway.

During the Permanent Platform Committee meeting, Thursday afternoon and evening, I did live work with them, and my partner continued to do work in the background on that file. We were working with Google Docs (new to both of us, so we were suffering from old person learning curve, but doing pretty well, I thought). In Docs, you can have multiple simultaneous contributors. So we used Suggestion mode, which identifies the contributor of the change. That meant our names were all over the place in front of everyone present or tuning in online. Yep, that was really us. 

The Permanent Platform and Resolutions Committee,
getting ready for the meeting to start, Thursday afternoon.
This is one half of the view from where I sat at my computer.

For the live work, I would type in suggested amendments in suggestion mode, until voted on, and then that change was either deleted or accepted and became part of the document. I really enjoyed doing that part. A couple of times I was able to make wording suggestions that made things go smoother. (During the less formal subcommittee meeting, I struggled a bit to keep my mouth shut, but I mostly managed.)

Everything with the whole committee is handled with parliamentary procedure, no direct person-to-person debate. And there wasn’t complete agreement, by any means. I’ll talk about details of the platform, as I said, another day. I just want to say, when you’re dealing with ideas, even when there’s a lot of emotional intensity related, it’s different from the politics of swaying people to one person or another. I really enjoy working in the idea realm, rather than the political realm.

Another innovation, related to those nine subcommittee sections, is that, during floor debate, instead of handling the entire platform as a whole, it was handled section by section. Each section had an allotted time. One issue-related group might dominate that section, but once time was out, they couldn’t dominate the rest of the discussion.

There is a preliminary section, handled by the Committee of the Whole, with a preamble and basic principles. While there were suggested changes, this section remained unchanged from the past couple of platforms, 2016 and 2014. Anyway, because of this segmentation of debate, we had planned to begin discussion Friday afternoon, and maybe get through two or three sections. But that time was preempted by some political shenanigans I’ll talk about another day.

When we finally got to debate on the platform, Saturday afternoon, we got through only the Preamble and Principles plus the first six sections. But, if we’d had Friday, we would have covered the whole thing. As it was, it was the most orderly and satisfying platform debate I’ve ever seen at a state convention. So I’d say that change will continue. Because of the possibility of debate starting Friday, we had to get printing done for Friday—a day earlier than previous conventions. (This required yet another very late and intense night. Sorry for the few errors we didn’t catch.)

Yet another platform innovation, which began in 2016, instigated by party Vice-Chair Amy Clark (term just ended), was to have up-or-down voting on each plank of the platform. After the platform is accepted as amended, all the delegates get a Scantron sheet and a number 2 pencil, and vote “include” or “do not include.” This included voting on Legislative Priorities, the platform planks, plus one resolution included after the planks. Then those were tallied by machine right after the close of the convention, and results were online by the time I looked, after traveling.

None of the planks had a majority of “do not include” votes. But neither did any receive 100% approval. But we can take those planks to the legislature and say exactly what percentage of the delegates really wanted this to be done. That has some power.

Legislative Priorities is a new committee this year. We had been adding a list of legislative priorities at the back of our district platform list, the last couple of times. And that good idea made its way up. This will take some refining, but I think it gives extra power to those issues that we most want to call to the attention of the state legislature.

So that’s how grassroots work. The people together actually do some pretty good work. I was honored to be a part of it. And, for any state that doesn’t have good grassroots participation, I suggest using Texas as a pattern.

Establishment and Grassroots

Sometimes there are words we assume we understand, but that aren’t clearly or easily defined. Establishment and grassroots are two of these. They are supposedly opposite, but lately establishment has been used as an epithet to silence disagreement from elsewhere in the grassroots, which is the exact opposite of what grassroots is about. So, let’s define and examine for clarity.

The term Establishment identifies an amorphous controlling elite. Lately this refers to those in the Republican Party, particularly in Washington, DC, who have a different agenda than the rank-and-file Republican citizen. Assumed to belong are the party leadership and leadership in the US Congress and Senate. Sometimes Paul Ryan, recently chosen to replace John Boehner as House Majority Leader, is included, and sometimes he’s exempted. He was chosen because he was acceptable to both the establishment and the non-establishment.

But it can’t be that being in a particular position automatically makes someone establishment. That would require, instead, some beliefs and attitudes in addition to position. Otherwise it would be pointless to try to elect people who share grassroots ideas into positions of leadership.

So, for our purposes, maybe we need to identify the beliefs and attitudes. There’s not an overriding authority, so this is from my observations.

The GOP Establishment consists of House and Senate members, sometimes including leadership, who focus on party power more than on party purpose—plus some lobbyists, crony capitalists, and various opinion makers who share an agenda with the rest of the establishment. Sometimes the difference in beliefs is as slight as wanting to go the right direction, but wanting to do it slowly and incrementally rather than suddenly. In other words, change slowly rather than radically.

But sometimes it’s more a matter of wanting to keep the status quo—quite a lot of power in Washington, DC, regardless of authority from the Constitution. And sometimes it’s a matter of going along with Democrat ideas because the media makes it seem that is what the public wants, so, to maintain power, going that direction but slower than the Democrats go there.

Staying where we are or going further the wrong direction are not acceptable to the grassroots.

Came across this on Facebook;
can't locate origin, but found here

Grassroots ideas, or political movements or campaigns, start and grow from the local community. This includes the grassroots of a party. I need to repeat that: the grassroots include ideas, movements, and campaigns within a party. The definition includes where the movement comes from: from local people in communities. They share the idea—or word about a candidate—with friends. This could look like local clubs and meetings, like my local Tea Party, where we hear from candidates and speakers, plus share ideas with each other. Or it could be what we do at precinct meetings, when we elect delegates for the next level up and propose ideas that we’d like to have included in the party platform. It might also include sharing our opinions on social media, or going around to people in our precinct to get them educated and registered to vote.

Grassroots ideas tend to come from people dissatisfied with the status quo. So they’re likely to disagree with any establishment in the “maintain our own power” camp of keeping the status quo.

Grassroots in the Republican Party is conservative in ways outside the status quo box. The Grassroots want smaller government—like you’d get if you actually followed the Constitution. Grassroots want lower taxes and less government spending. And less regulation interfering with innovation and entrepreneurship. Or interference with personal beliefs and opinions—like those listed in the First Amendment and the other Bill of Rights amendments.

It’s possible for grassroots movements to be extreme. Most associated with Democrats are. But it is not extreme to value the basic law of our country—the Constitution.

Grassroots tend to be made up of people committed to their communities, and to taking action to make things better. So, at the local level—precinct chairs, for example—you’re likely to find conservative grassroots ideas being shared around.

At least that has been my experience everywhere I’ve been involved. I started going to precinct conventions (by another name in a different state) as soon as I was old enough to vote. I first became a delegate to a county convention in 1984. Then we lived briefly in a couple of states where I never figured out how to get involved. Then, in yet another state, Mr. Spherical Model became a precinct chair. Both of us were delegates at the county convention. He went to the state convention several times. In Texas I started attending precinct conventions—and district and state conventions—as soon as I figured out how. And now I’m a precinct chair.

So I’m involved in my party. And I have been for decades. When the Tea Party showed up in 2010, I started attending, to make connections and to educate myself as a voter. But it has turned out that I also get to express my opinions quite a lot. During the past three legislative sessions I’ve led a group of us in following legislation and expressing our opinions to Texas lawmakers as citizen lobbyists.

Not all Tea Party people have been involved as long as I have. Some just woke up after Obama’s election and imposition of atrocities like Obamacare. And we have a range of opinions, although I’d say they’re nearly all in the Republican-to-Libertarian range, with not much (if any) overlap with the Democrat-to-Socialist range.

But the reason for my post today comes from a misunderstanding—or misrepresentation being exploited—by some newer to politics who think anyone involved with parties is corrupt establishment.

Some of this misrepresentation comes directly from the Trump campaign, which might indicate whether it’s actually grassroots or not. But they’re trying to convince the relatively new “activist” followers of Trump that no one who disagrees can be trusted.

About a contested convention, which happens if no candidate gets over 50% of the total delegates before the convention, there are no “brokers,” or establishment powers who get to override all those delegates and the voters who sent them to the convention.

On the first ballot, the delegates from most states are required to vote for the candidate they’re assigned to as a result of primary voting. Some states require the delegate to remain with that candidate for more than one ballot.

But when no candidate wins a majority of delegates on the first ballot, many—probably most—are free to vote their personal choice on the next ballot. And the next. Until a candidate wins a majority. There’s no stealing involved. The delegate was elected because of his/her leanings. Elected by delegates at lower levels, reaching to the most local grassroots.

Of the remaining candidates, longtime grassroots Republicans are much more likely to choose Ted Cruz, because he is a Constitutional conservative. He has reached out to those delegates and their grassroots support—in every state—and has given them his message and asked for their vote. And he has worked to find like-minded grassroots workers to run to become delegates.

It’s not a game. But it is a process. And he has shown respect for the grassroots through this process. Whereas Donald Trump has carried out a mostly-free-media top-down campaign with little attention offered to grassroots politics.

It wouldn’t matter whether Washington insiders actually wanted Trump to be their candidate; if a majority of the delegates do not want him (and he hasn’t won a majority coming in to the convention), he doesn’t get to be the nominee.

It is a grassroots decision.

It’s informative that some of those who are just recently awake to the dire condition of the country, who haven’t been participating in the grassroots for very long, might be skeptical and cynical about everyone and everything that disagrees with them.

But people involved for quite a while—people who are familiar with the Constitution, and are fully engaged in searching for leaders committed to lower taxes, less government interference in our lives, and protection of our God-given rights—are not inclined to support a candidate who blusters about some of those things but has no coherent plan to get us there. And no record of believing in the things that will get us there. And lacking the character that would show any actual change of heart.

In summary, I’ve been involved a long time—at the grassroots level only. I do not support Trump, specifically because I am a grassroots conservative who loves the Constitution. Calling people like me establishment because I have participated with the party and do not support Trump is ignorant both of the process of growing ideas, and of the strength of the grassroots desire to return to the Constitution.

And I support Ted Cruz because I am a grassroots conservative who loves the Constitution. We grassroots have been praying and watching for such a consistent Constitutional conservative for lifetimes.

I know and trust the grassroots around me here in Texas. We’re somewhat dependent on the grassroots elsewhere. But I have watched Ted Cruz reach out to others like me, and others respond to him as I have. So now it’s time to spread that word in our own grassroots communities. And then trust that what needs to happen for the sake of our beloved country will happen.

A Platform to Stand On

One of the things we did at our precinct conventions on March 1^st (primary voting day here in Texas) was to put forth resolutions for our state party platform. That’s where the grassroots get to speak.

I’m getting a first-hand view right now of the platform writing process. I got an invitation last Thursday to be part of the temporary platform committee for my state senatorial district—which meets in convention next Saturday.

I very much appreciate this opportunity. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. About 25 years ago I was at a county convention, in another state, and offered to help on the next platform—because I’m a writer and editor and thought I might be useful. What I didn’t know was that it is considered an influential position to be able to help write the platform—because you have control of the ideas. So, needless to say, my offer wasn’t accepted.

So here we are in Texas, and I started attending conventions as a delegate in 2004. I have always been both interested and frustrated at the platform process. At district and state conventions, discussions with the entire body can be tedious and painful—and time-consuming when everyone is tired after the other business. Usually we get through only a few details, and then everyone is just willing to pass the remainder as written so they can go home.

So the input actually happens before the meeting.

Eventually I learned that, to be a committee member (on just about any party committee), you need to be a precinct chair. So that was one of my reasons for running to be precinct chair two years ago. I don’t recall mentioning my interest in writing the platform to anyone; I may have, probably did. But this is the first opportunity (first primary season) since my election. And the invitation came out of the blue. Our district committeewoman knows me, and knows I am a writer, and recommended me to our district committeeman, who is chairing the temporary platform committee.

The committee is temporary prior to the convention. Temporary prior to permanent is a standard procedure. For example, as a precinct chair I made myself the temporary chair of the precinct convention, to get the meeting started. Then I was voted on by the attendees to be the permanent chair to run the remainder of the precinct convention (about an hour, plus duties afterward). It isn’t automatic, if others want to run the meeting. But it’s rare that the temporary chair isn’t made the permanent chair.

Typically, the temporary platform committee gets voted in as permanent members for our duties during the day-long district convention. Two years ago at the district convention there were changes made from temporary to permanent platform committee, but that is rare. I haven’t noticed any serious disagreements on the committee so far. So I’m guessing we'll all be on the committee all day Saturday.

At that meeting, delegates are able to propose additional resolutions, and we will hear testimony on those, and incorporate them as needed, and then present our proposed platform.

In the meantime, we volunteer temporary platform committee members are doing the preparation work.

On Friday I got access to the platform resolutions submitted by all the various precincts in the county. Not every precinct held a convention (lack of interest?), and not every convention came up with resolutions. But there are several hundred precincts that submitted resolutions, from one to forty-four. Three to ten was pretty normal.

We are reading every single one. I started going through them Friday evening. Then Saturday afternoon we met for about 2 ½ hours to work together on understanding them, seeing whether they are significantly different from the existing platform from 2014, which is a starting point, and judging whether the concept is coming up enough that it might be considered to represent the feelings of the party.

We divided up the list. My group started working from the top (fortunately, that’s the part I had read), and the other group started working from the bottom. We got maybe a quarter of the way through.

One thing we found was that there are many repetitions. There are citizen groups that write resolutions and send them out to followers, asking them to propose them at their precinct conventions. There were a couple of very common lists, one of about 11 resolutions, and the other around 18. So once we’ve read those, we recognize them when they come up again. One of our volunteers has been setting up a spreadsheet of resolutions, so in our next meeting (tonight) we’ll be able to quickly make decisions on those repeated resolutions.

I’m nearly through with my reading—the homework preparation. The discussion goes a lot more smoothly if we’ve read through the resolutions ahead of time. I also learned that it’s helpful to identify which part of the 2014 platform a resolution relates to, so I’m trying to do that now. Sometimes we find it simple to address a new idea just by adding a phrase or bullet point to the existing platform.

Texas has arguably the most conservative platform in the nation. My senatorial district is one of the largest and most conservative districts in the state. So the input from our district platform will have some influence on the next state party.

Any changes we make will be in the direction of specifying details that have come up in the past couple of years, things that already fit into our conservative world view.

There are attempts at various things that aren’t going to get through, but there are a number of things that seem to be useful additions.

I personally like the idea of a shorter platform. We have a very succinct and valuable statement of principles on the first page. I’d like to call that The Platform—that is something the party in general can stand on. Then I’d like to see additional pages—maybe 10, much fewer than the current 40 or so—that are issues of concern to Republicans. These function to indicate policies we want to see go through state and federal legislatures.

I don’t know whether this drastic change can happen. Nor do I have enough clout to make it happen. But I would like to see a manageable size, so that the platform can be more useful to candidates and grassroots supporters. When I look at the current 2014 platform, I like a lot of it—most of it. But I think there may be too much explanation (a full page of long paragraphs on immigration, followed by several singular related issues, for example). It’s not that the wording is bad; it’s that the length of it makes it less useful.

I’m finding that, as we address things now, we almost always add a phrase, rather than remove something. That can’t go on forever. At some point, it’s just too long to be useful. So, shortening the platform is my dream, for some point.

I’m told that the state legislators actually do read our platform, and use it as a basis for what they work on in the upcoming legislative session. As long as elected officials are making use of the entire platform, I’m willing to live with the length.

I’m appreciating this opportunity to contribute. But I also want the grassroots to know—we are indeed reading every idea and considering it, and considering how well it fits into the conservative ideas that represent the Republican Party of Texas. What you do actually makes a difference.

Primary Voting Information

Today’s post has specific information for Texas, but some of it might be more generally useful. I try to keep friends apprised of voter information each election, and when I update, I go to some sites I’ve linked in the body of the piece below. But if you’re in another place, you can probably compile similar information for yourself and friends by doing an online search. Use words like “primary election, [your state and/or county]” or “voter information [your state and/or county]” or possibly your state or county party of choice.

There’s specific information below about Texas precinct meetings being eliminated this year (just this year). But, while every state is different, there is usually some variation of voters meeting together on or near voting day, and choosing delegates to the next level convention and deciding on propositions for the party’s platform. This is usually the grassroots method of developing a platform. So these meetings are a very good place to have influence, with only a commitment of an hour or two of your time every other year. Party’s decide how these meetings are run, so you should be able to find out by going to your party’s state or county websites. Whatever you find out, share it with like-minded friends to multiply the influence for good. 

Voting Information 2012 Primary

Primary Voting Day

Primary voting day in Texas is Tuesday, May 29^th. The reason for the delay in voting relates to redistricting, which, because of the Voting Rights Act, requires Texas to present any voting changes for judicial review. The judicial review then led to appeal. And there was necessary time to have ballots ready to send to overseas servicemen. Early voting, from May 14-25, can be done at any county location. On May 29^th voting must be done at your precinct location. You can verify your precinct voting location here http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/current.shtml  or watch the newspaper for a few days prior to voting day. Note that redistricting may have altered some precincts and other voting districts.

Registering to Vote

As always, you must register to vote at least 30 days prior to the voting day (so, by April 29^th for voting day, or by April 12^th for the beginning of early voting).

For information about registration, see the Secretary of State’s official site: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/reqvr.shtml

If you have previously voted in your current location, you are registered, but if you are uncertain, you can check here: https://team1.sos.state.tx.us/voterws/viw/faces/SearchSelectionVoter.jsp .

If you have recently moved, turned 18, or earned citizenship, then you need to register. Voter registration cards can be found at public buildings, such as libraries, post offices, and DPS offices. Forms can also be downloaded from online: https://webservices.sos.state.tx.us/vrapp/index.asp . You are required to fill out the form, print it out (if done online), and mail with appropriate postage to your county registrar’s office, address information here: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/votregduties.shtml .

Your voter registration card shows your precinct, your US Representative district, your State Senate district, your State Representative district, your Commissioner Precinct (Sheriff), your Justice Precinct, and your school district and city, where applicable. If you do not have your card, you can look up that information at the Secretary of State site. Note that redistricting may have changed what precinct or districts you are assigned to. You can also look up your sample ballot. Use an online search engine, such as Google, for “sample ballot <your county> <your party> primary 2012.”

Voter ID

Usually if you are previously registered, you will receive your updated voter registration card in the mail prior to the election. Because of the lateness of getting a primary voting date this year, it is possible that not all voters will receive their updated card. However, your previous registration card will show the same voter ID number, which will remain in the county computer system. That information can be accessed by using your voter ID number, your TX driver’s license number, or your full name.

Texas’s new Voter ID law is intended to require a photo ID, to make sure the person voting is indeed the legally registered voter and not an impersonator. This law is still under judicial review. It may be in effect by the November election. However, it is always helpful and acceptable to use a driver’s license or other specified photo ID for voting. For those without photo ID, a photo ID can be obtained for voting purposes only at no cost through DPS offices.

Precinct Meetings

Normally precinct caucus meetings are held on primary voting days, after the polls close, usually at the precinct voting location. At these meetings delegates are chosen for the district/county conventions of the various parties. Also propositions for the party platform are voted on and sent on to the next level.

This year the date change made it impossible to hold precinct conventions on voting day and still have time for district/county conventions prior to state conventions. So most Texas counties will not hold precinct meetings in 2012.

District and county conventions will be held on Saturday, April 21^st in most counties, including Harris County. County party websites can give more detailed information, but in general it has been stated that all who are committed to a party will be welcome at the district/county conventions this year, rather than only those voted to be delegates in precinct meetings. Delegates to the state convention will be chosen from attendees at the district/county conventions. Also, platform propositions will be taken at the county/district conventions, since that opportunity was lost at the precinct level. Previous party platforms should be available for review at online state party websites.