What I Saw at the RNC 2012

Most of you have seen the RNC Powergrab. If not there are plenty of videos of the “Tampa Screwjob” (http://youtu.be/obz1OeUMdqU) that outlines the corruption that I witnessed.

The aftermath of the Screwjob led someone from that national committee to ask a group of us, “How can we fix this? How can we have party unity?”

It starts with listening. Like any group of people that are agreeing to work together, one has to listen to the other. Have the confidence in your argument that you are willing to listen to opposition to it. When you refuse to listen to the other side of an argument, how can you expect them to listen to your argument? Listening is a two-way street.

This is what listening looks like:

 A group of Ron Paul supporters listen to Dr. Paul. We were discussing currency problems, debt problems, indefinite detention, loss of free speech, and yet you couldn’t leave that building without feeling inspired that there is an option out there. Liberty.

NOT THIS:

Discussion was ignored, despite heavy opposition to both the Credentials and the Rules that were passed. Here is how they handled the dissenting opinions.

OR This:

Of all the Republican's talk about President Obama's teleprompter. They used theirs to railraod rules through without having to deal with a dissenting opinion. There was never a real VOTE (which I believe we had), it was a scripted shot to the face of the Grassroots within the GOP.

I have heard (from listening) time and time again that it is the Grassroots that win elections. A candidate can be short on cash if they have the volunteer support to pound signs, make phone calls, and get out the vote. It is a litmus test for energy, whether or not the voting block is voting FOR somebody or AGAINST somebody else. The differences are clear. What was made clear at the RNC, to me, was that Grassroots are no longer welcome or needed. We were replaced…

This is not “Grassroots”:

Delegates struggle to walk through all of the PRINTED “Pro-Romney” signs that were designed to give the appearance of handcrafted signs that were being handed out to the audience.

This is what Grassroots really looks like:

Handmade signs were all over the USF Sundome for the "We are the future rally". I made the comment that some of these signs must've taken hours to make and were very well detailed. I made the comment during the Paul Rally, "The GOP needs this energy if it's to move forward from the Bush years."

 

The day the rules were passed. Both the Tea Party and the "Paulers" met at Whiskey Joe's to discuss our options. We decided there that speaking out was the best course of action and that we needed to organize a press conference. Grassroots made this happen in under 24-hours.

Listening is what needs to happen for there to ever be unity. The second element to unity within the GOP is trust. We have to trust the GOP not to screw us over, and the GOP has to trust the “Grassroots” to be there.

In other words…. We have a lot of work to do if we want Unity.

In Liberty,

Jake Severance