Convention of their Discontent
June 14th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Anger and frustration are pulsing through the Republican state convention in Houston. The festivities are winding down today; the third, and final, general session will begin within the hour. But for two days, an unusual amount of discord — at least by Texas GOP standards — has roiled the convention.
Supporters of congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul have caused trouble at every turn. Upset that their candidate has been ignored by party leaders, they have continually used parliamentary actions to delay the convention — hurling points of order and parliamentary inquiries at beleaguered party chair Tina Benkiser. As a result, It took hours for delegates to complete the convention’s most rudimentary business: adopting rules, settling nominations, electing a party chair (Benkiser easily bested a Paul supporter) and finalizing the platform. Both the general sessions ran two to three hours late.
But it’s not just the Ron Paul delegates who are upset. Many in the party’s grassroots aren’t happy. Delegates told us they’re dissatisfied with how Republican elected leaders have been governing. Many delegates don’t like the Trans-Texas Corridor – nearly everyone here sports an anti-TTC sticker.
Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, attuned to the anti-corridor sentiments among the grassroots, condemned the project in his speech to the convention on Thursday. “You can’t build toll roads in rural Texas,” said Dewhurst, who, in 2003, pushed the Trans-Texas Corridor legislation through the Texas Senate and has done little since to change it. “And, for heaven’s sake, don’t mess with Texas’ private-property rights!”
(Dewhurst was lustily booed later in the speech when he proposed putting Texans’ fingerprints on drivers’ licenses. We can’t remember the last time an elected Republican was booed at the state convention.)
Many delegates are still angry over Gov. Perry’s effort to mandate the HPV vaccine last year, and, the expanded business tax that Perry pushed through the Legislature in 2006.
The party platform, finalized yesterday, calls for repeal of what one delegate termed “Perry’s unconstitutional business tax.” Many believe the business tax is a de facto income tax and thus violates the Texas Constitution. “Gov. Perry and the Legislature broke their promise on taxes,” said another delegate. “It’s the largest tax increase in the history of the state.”
In a passionate and well-received speech, Robert McDonald, a Ron Paul supporter and candidate for the Republican National Committee, warned delegates that, “It’s time to stop demonizing Democrats and to start figuring out what we stand for.” He said, “Some seeds have been sown here [that] if not addressed will bear a bitter harvest.”
June 14th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
What goes around comes around. The discontent on such public display at the Republican state convention once again points up that the grass roots right-wing true believers in Texas, just like those elsewhere, have finally realized that their most cherished conservative principles have been sold down the river by the public officials of the Bush-Perry-Dewhurst
stripe they have been electing under the Republican banner lo these many years. The politically savvy Republicans will even acknowledge that their cadre of consultants/operatives trained in the Karl Rove school of government and politics is more interested in holding office than in conservative principles. Their adverse reaction is more widespread and much stronger than was the similar realization by a distinct minority within the Democratic Party circa 1994-2000 that Clinton’s trade policy, triangulation and economic policies, as well as his centralized control of the DNC,were disastrous for the Democratic Party and inimical to Democratic constituencies and liberal principles.