Silly, Tricks are for Kids

I am almost ashamed to tell this story, but at the Texas Democratic Convention the best story that you will hear from anyone that attended has to be about the resolution for Precinct Conventions that was up for vote on the floor of the convention.

In a nutshell to get a resolution to be considered on the floor, a petition has to be signed by 1/3 of the delegates in attendance. Which would be roughly 3000 people. Well, a team of people work feverishly to get a petition signed to remove the apportionment of delegates that are sent to the Democratic National Convention based on the outcome of the Precinct Conventions. Now, I can make as many arguments as anyone as to why the the Precinct Convention process needs to be significantly improved, but we have to keep in mind a few things:

1. It is very rare that the person that wins the popular vote does no win the caucus vote. This can only happen in a very close contest.
2. The turnout was unprecedented, so for most election years all of the improvements being proposed would not even be relevant.
3. Is the best place to challenge the Precinct Convention, in a room full of people that were attending because they were selected during the Precinct Convention??

So my actual opinion is although the process needs improvement, stripping the delegates from the process would destroy it altogether. You must consider the reason they were so well attended is because the candidates campaigned for people to attend and participate because they needed those delegates. Not a single communication that I received came from the state or local party. In addition, this new found interest will serve as the catalyst for future generations for the party. Now that I have witnessed the role the Conventions play in the organization of the party, a vote to abolish the Precinct Convention is a vote to once again isolate the party from a large segment of the electorate, and essentially allow the party to fade back to the nonexistent state we witnessed at the turn of the century.

Nevertheless, a lot of hard work earned this resolution for consideration on the floor. The original resolution was up for a straight up or down vote, but the Convention Chair decided to amend the resolution to table this resolution until a Task Force assigned to make recommendations can complete their work and give a report. This amendment to the resolution was argued for 20 minutes. Largely due to the fact that tabling the resolution essentially meant it would not be voted on at the convention and be dismissed. (You have to wonder why the target date for the Task Force to complete their report was NOT in time for the convention).

So finally after much discussion the amended resolution was put to a voice vote on the floor. The convention overwhelmingly supported the amendment, but the naysayers argued it was too close to call (which it wasn't) so we had to take a floor vote and caucus within our districts. So let me clarify at this point, they way it breaks down is the Clinton supporters wanted the resolution to pass, and wanted the amended resolution to fail. The Obama supporters obviously favored the opposite.

As we were taking a floor vote, I got into a discussion (OK more like an argument) with a Clinton supporter who was calling this process unfair. To which I said, you can't call it unfair just because your preference doesn't prevail. If majority of the people agreed with you they would be voting your preference, but in fact they are voting against it overwhelmingly. The vote was almost a 70-30 split.

As the floor vote was in process, the fire alarm in the building was pulled and all of the delegates were told to evacuate the building.... UNBELIEVABLE, the sore losers realizing that there resolution would not prevail pulled the fire alarm before the vote could be reported. I presume the hope was that many people would be disgusted and not return, giving them better odds. It actually backfired; because it pissed us all off so much that we all made it a point to return and cast our votes. For many people this was their last action for the day.

This entire ordeal took about 90 minutes.... As I stated earlier the amended resolution carried about 70/30. Which for all rational people was obvious from the voice vote. What makes it even more sickening is that if the Convention Chair would have would have just allowed the vote on the original amendment it would have been voted down overwhelmingly and saved us about 85 minutes!