Monday of Convention Week

Trying to find an opportunity to write a blog post during the #RNC2016 has proven an impossible task...until now.  At this point, "it's all over but the shoutin' ".  What a ride!  Where do I start?


Here are the day-by-day highlights, from my admittedly-biased perspective, along with the inevitable commentary:
(As a leadership speaker once said, "I hate to use personal experience, but it is the only kind I have had.")


Coming to Cleveland, I was a Ted Cruz supporter, but possessed a small window of hope I could be convinced to support Donald Trump.  After all, Hillary Clinton fills my heart with dread.   I also hoped that the constitutional conservatives in the party could make some inroads in wresting the party away from the party elite and return it to the grassroots voters, if not for this election cycle then the next.


Those of you who know me may wonder how I got to attend the GOP National Convention at all.  One of my college roommates, a long-time and dear friend, is a convention alternate delegate.  Each delegate and alternate receives a guest pass, and she invited me to accompany her.  It was her first national convention as well.


Due to a previous commitment I had to miss Sunday and most of Monday's convention festivities.  On Monday afternoon, the Rules Committee gave its report, which had to be voted up or down by the delegates.  The rules being put forth by the committee "bound" the convention delegates, to vote according to each state's or territory's rules.  There was a faction at the convention, led by Ken Cucchinelli, Sen. Mike Lee and other constitutional conservatives, who wanted to reject the committee's rules as put forth.  This was not unprecedented; it had been done in prior conventions.  They had built an alliance of 11 states who wanted a state roll call vote on whether or not to accept the rules.  (They only needed 7).  The "rebel" state delegations were man-handled by the Trump forces, and two states dropped from the group.  That left nine states.  However, the chair announced  that only 6 states were left in the group, which was, of course, one state shy of the needed total.  That was a total lie.  When Mike Lee and Ken Cucchinelli tried to object, they realized that their microphones had been turned off.  As a result, a voice vote on the rules was taken, and in the opinion of the chair, the "resistance" was not as loud as necessary.  The Rules Committees' rules "stood", as presented.
I was soon to realize that such thuggery would be a hallmark of this convention.
The binding of the delegates was only one feature of the rules which will govern GOP primaries for the next four years.  Another element was that these rules further cemented the power that the more "mainstream" or "Establishment" Republicans have in the party.


On a positive note, the GOP "platform committee" did a great job coming up with a very conservative "platform".  The term "platform" refers to essentially the Republican "creed", their foundational beliefs, for the next four years.  Many have said that this convention's platform is the most conservative of any in the past several conventions.  That is a huge "win", but only if the nominee, Mr. Trump, abides by it as he governs, should he win In November.