How not to help Ron Paul from Oklahoma

I was a Ron paul delegate to the Oklahoma State Republican Convention. There were many lessons to be learned from what happened at the convention in Oklahoma. I was disappointed in both sides, both the Ron Paul Delegates and in the GOP establishment. I read the other post regarding this convention, and I also want to state that much of what was written in that article was biased, and perhaps exaggerated. For now I want to give some instruction on what things were NOT helpful to Ron Paul.

1) First, and foremost, nobody had studied Roberts Rules of Order that were making motions. Ron Paul supporters frequently interrupted the chair, with absolutely NO provocation. Since they had just attempted to stop him from being elected, I felt that Mr. Williamson was extremely fair. He often let people go on and make their motion after they were incredibly rude to both him, and the entire delegation by interrupting. The actions of RP supporters was probably due to excitement, and also to lack of understanding the process at large. Delegates READ THE LINKS to Roberts Rules of Order! I myself had studied them the night before, and had a copy with me, but absolutely NO direction from the leadership, which brings me to my next point:

2) A meeting in the parking lot of the hotel immediately before the convention is inadequate. My suggestion is that while everyone else is at the Gala dinner the night before, Ron Paul delegates should be meeting somewhere else, even if it is only the local Walmart parking lot. Delegates need to know ahead of time exactly what kind of motions are going to be made, so that they can support them. I drove up slightly late since I had to drive 3 hours to be there by eight in the morning. I didn't see a single Ron Paul person in the parking lot. I contact delegates from my own county, but they were uninformed as well. I tried to track down the leadership during lunch, but they were off making a unadvised deal with the GOP establishment, which brings me to my next point:

3) DON"T MAKE DEALS WITH THE DEVIL, HE WILL NOT KEEP THEM! This is not a high-school political science activity people! These people are playing for a win. The only time a deal works is if you have leverage against the other side! Backroom deals at lunch time where you drop the very motion that could help you further your cause, are STUPID! Ron Paul delegates in Oklahoma were not railroaded. The threw the game themselves! A proper motion is NOT "Now I want to discuss what we talked about at lunch."!

4) Always have other delegates in the wings with BACK-UP MOTIONS. Please remember that the chair must recognize one motion at a time. If you don't feel the debate time is long enough have someone there to say, " I make a motion to extend debate". Learn what motions can be made that inturruption is acceptable. I called people all over the state on Friday trying to discuss having copies of Robert's Rules of Order available to all delegate, and was told we were bringing in people from out of state to deal with that. If they showed up, they certainly were not as competent as they claimed.

5) Leadership needs to make use of every delegate, by having them informed. I could have helped the process if I could have found one person who was interested in being helped. However, as it was I was afraid to make a motion in fear that anything I said would be in conflict with "the plan", I was told was unfolding. Looking back I should have just ran up to the microphone. Hindsight is 20/20. I thought that after lunch there would be debate and opportunity on the motion to suspend the rules. I wasn't counting on whoever stupidly dropped their motion. At that point the battle that I had sacrificed a lot of time and energy for, was over, with my never having had the opportunity to fire a shot at the enemy.

6) Yes there is an enemy, but most of the delegates who are pro-John McCain, are NOT the enemy! Most of them simply do NOT understand what our gripe is. I listened to a lot of people talking about how we were trying to "high-jack the convention". To these people we are a bunch of interlopers, and whats worse is that they don't know what we are interloping about! The message was lost on Saturday. The whole point is to have enough of a show of force to move the other delegates our direction. That won't happen if we come on in a combative manner, interrupting the process instead of fascillitating it. I talked to this one couple at Wendy's during lunch, and they were griping about us Ron Paul supporters trying to take over everything. They didn't know they were talking to one. Sadly I understood where they were coming from, because I myself was insulted by what was happening. I was happily voting for the pitiful number of motions that were being made, but I was very unhappy with the way it was being done, because it not only made those people look bad, and Ron Paul supporters look bad, it made Ron Paul himself look bad. The other delegates need to hear what exactly we are there for. A convention is a process of bringing your own people in and then using the process to convince those who are NOT with you, to get with you and vote against the opposition.

7) Flyers putting down the other side's delegate slate makes RP supporters and Ron Paul look uncharitable, especially when the best insult you can fling is "Giuliani donor". Somebody at this convention actually thought it appropriate to use a flyer smear campaign against every delegate on the GOP list. This was tacky, and useless, because it made the other side see us as dirty rotten no-goods who had nothing better to do than try to smear other republicans. If we must put out a flyer, how about one that deals with policy?
8) Don't be afraid to use motions to get yourself out of trouble. If you have trouble with dealing with the rules, ask for "informal consideration". Study! study! study!

9) For crying out loud, don't allow the GOP to rubber stamp the platform commitee report simply because your delegates didn't get in and they are losing the room! The platform is one of the most important things we can affect to change our party's direction. If they are losing the room, ask for a postponement!

I did not see any more people in the room after lunch than there were before lunch. I saw nobody registering during lunch. My daughter-in-law though, who was a spectator and sitting in the spectator seating said that after lunch a lot of the spectator seating had disappeared, and appeared to be moved into the delegate seating and filled with bodies. She was also stopped at the door, and was almost denied seating, though after complaining was finally able to get in. I did see less people voting our way after lunch, and no wonder!

I also want to say that although I was disappointed in the RP leadership at this convention, I was far more dissappointed in the GOP establishment. James Inhofe actually got up and touted the Republican Party as trying to get the government out of our way! This made me want to throw up and run around screaming! The platform actually had a lot of really good material in it, but if they think John McCain is going to support that platform then they have all lost their collective marbles! There were also stupid clauses in the platform that was approved like the one in which they stated that anybody who did not believe in the Republican platform should be denied funding! Good luck getting the Supreme Court to support that bit of balogna were it ever to be made law! Some of it was down-right racist as there was a clause that said that Native Americans get too much special treatment. Not exactly a position that I would want to run on as a candidate in Oklahoma. Some Native Americans here might say that white men get too much special treatment here, since this land was granted to them by the government first. Why must we always divide each other? What is wrong with joining together?

That was what really struck me at this convention? I kept thinking about how stupid it was that a group of people who agree on many issues, should be seeking to vanquish one another from the party. We should be building a better America together, but instead we are spinning our wheels deeper and deeper.

Dee Ann Guzman
Little Bit Farm