Power hungry RNC & DNC in 1 week’s time have disregarded their delegates at each prospective convention with no fear of repercussions. Is the purpose of the annual conventions for the RNC & the DNC to get a flow of ideas from their base or flow of cash from their base? In my short voting years in politics I have never witnessed such bold moves made from both party bosses that would disenfranchise their own delegates at national convention. In one year our political parties have gone from “bring your ideas to convention” to “when we want your opinion we will give you one.”
Just a couple days into the RNC convention I started getting calls and emails from frantic Tea Party leaders across the nation regarding an alarming change in the GOP rules. Those rules on who selects final delegates were to be changed to benefit the candidate leading the primary, silencing the delegates of future grassroots candidates. The disturbing thing is that bus drivers taking delegates to the convention conveniently got lost and there were an insignificant number of delegates represented at the vote. The rule change will be in effect for the 2016 Republican presidential primary.
“What this means is that states will no longer retain the right, under the new rules, to elect their delegates and have them stand. A presumptive nominee will be able to unseat an entire state’s delegates, if his campaign doesn’t like who’s on the slate,”
Minnesota delegate Kevin Erikson told Democracy Now! on Tuesday.
This power grab has created a greater space of distrust between grassroots activists and party bosses. Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to name a few have been vocal about this rule change and the blatant disregard for the boots on the ground.
Day two of the DNC Convention brought controversy and shed light on a growing disunity within the Democrat party. Whereas 13%-20% of Democrats are Tea Party enthusiasts it stands to reason that there is a definitive tug away from establishment politics. But what happened Wednesday was indisputably more of a 50/50 split among the ranks. According to the Miami Herald earlier this week the Democratic National Committee removed language “affirming the God-give potential of Americans” and that asserts” Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish state”. Pushback from the Democrat base was so great that they suspended rules on the third day of convention and asked for a vote to reinstate the language. The reinstatement required a two-thirds vote.
Sound Analysis of DNC 2012 C-Span footage Sept 5, 2012
Audio Vote Audio Measurement
Aye -18 db
Nay -18 db
Anthony Loiacono, CEO at Heads & Tails TV said Wednesday,
“According to the tests we ran, the audio vote wasn’t a two-thirds vote. The sound tests came back as a 50/50 vote. To be fair the guy loading the a/v capture in the truck could have turned the sound way up but that’s very unlikely”
The two-thirds request for a resolution had failed in an audio vote 3 separate times, and yet Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, the head of the Democratic National Convention, reinstated the language.
Two political umbrellas of ideals whose purpose is to represent ALL under their umbrella seem to have lost their way. But what can we expect from two entities who pump out candidates who regularly meet behind closed doors to enact legislation (i.e. National Healthcare) contra to the Peoples binding document with government (Constitution). So this begs the question, does the voice of the people matter to the GOP and DNC political machines? What is the greatest factor to those organizations? The number one factor in power is money. I’ve heard this quote in many movies “He who has the gold makes the rules”.
The problem is We the People don’t have the gold anymore, so we don’t get to make the rules. These recent actions by the RNC and DNC to kick sand in the face of their delegates is a mirror reflection of how we have allowed our local, state and federal governments to disregard our voice by repealing propositions we have voted in or even blatantly shaft the system of voting altogether and use special juju magic to count the votes. Resolution: less money for them means more power for us.
Your analysis is right on. I get calls weekly from the RNC and I refuse to donate as they don’t represent me. I will only give directly to candidates who I want to support such as Josh Mandell, Allen West, Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan and a few others. The election of these folks I’ve listed wont occur from “the top down” but rather from grassroots support from the bottom up.
Not too surprising, actually. They really DON’T want to know what we think as long as the $$ keep coming. And when they get into office, it gets worse. From experience, many of the staffers are too young to understand actual real health issues, ramifications of GMO foods in our nation’s supply, and a lot of other issues that SHOULD be important.