Texas Democratic Convention Report

My Experiences and thoughts

I will busy at another convention this weekend so unless I do this now I won’t get to it. This will be a quick summary from notes.

One of the things redistricting messes up is internal party politics. What brought this observation on was someone who appeared to be significant in his old district in 2000 but for the 2004 election had fewer friends and people who know him. This was not a DeLay redistricting problem but something that comes up every ten years. Moral, if there is something you really want to do make friends and get public notice quickly in your new district. If not someone else may really want to go to the national convention or take a position you want.

Texas has an 18-year-old presidential elector from my district. This probably doesn’t mean that much as if Bush doesn’t carry Texas he has to be carrying less than four states, or isn’t on the ballot. Still I think it makes a good statement that the party put him on the ballot.

There was a beautiful a cappella rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner that opened the main Convention. The American sign-language translation was also very graceful and quite lovely.

There was no state song or state pledge to the flag - Good. (The state pledge to the flag is something Texas schools have just started requiring for no good reason. Probably to promote state jingoism, pump up testosterone.)

The prayer that opened the convention went on forever and ever and ever – I am probably still standing there. At least it proves Democrats also have our very religious voters.

There were a huge number of delegates – the most ever. There was also the largest percentage of first-time delegates – the podium a couple of times said 80%, which seemed high to me. Still, my looking at the whole floor when first timers were standing seemed over half, maybe two-thirds. But our section of the floor and particularly our district seemed less than half. My ex-wife in the center said it seemed like more than 80%. Speaking of our district seating, we were off to the side where the lights were turned off, I am pretty sure not everyone could see all of our delegation in the dark.

A sad note, there was a slide show of Texas deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan. It went on forever, could have been even longer than the opening prayer. The music that was going to play over the speakers had problems so they turned it off. Several times songs were started up from the floor – Battle Hymn of the Republic “My eyes had seen the glory” but I think no song, not even Ani Difranco's anti-Bush "Self- Evident" would have lasted long enough.

“My father always told me to vote and to always vote Democratic. If I didn’t I had no right to bitch when they screwed us.” That may have been from a Rosa Walker, my notes aren’t clear.

Senator Edwards gave a great speech. Even before he spoke there seemed a vast preponderance of sentiment for him to be the Democratic VP candidate. I had also seen him before in a small meeting. Very good speaker, very personable, JFK charisma, and he would attract moderate voters in swing states.

Representative Kucinich also gave a great speech. For the vast majority of Democrats at the convention his speech was even more rousing than Edward's was, which was hard to believe considering the tremendous reception and many standing ovations for Edwards. Of course, Kucinich spoke to our patriotic and idealistic ideals, not to our practical and electable sides. I feel Kucinich is correct but not practical until we move the country back to the middle. He is getting much support for next time. I don’t see how anyone should be a Green with Kucinich in our party and the support he has. As the Populists did in the late 1800’s the Greens should join the Democrats and work to support universal health care, sane environmental laws and incentives, instant runoff voting, and the other issues which are an urgent and pressing necessity.

“No More War, No More War, No More War.”

“With NASA, Houston can be a new center of technology for peace.”

The Texas Killer D’s were honored and fortunately Turner and other non-supporters like Whitmire didn’t speak. There really wasn’t a good place on the program for them and their positions were tremendously unpopular on the floor. This was not a divided party, no one supported them giving DeLay that easy of a victory in redistricting.

The most impressive seminar I went to was on Technology. This was the one with an Austin candidate, can’t find his name, who is using email with great success. His conclusion is that email is the present day key for cost effective political technology, not Internet websites. He does have his website and email guru, a college student he hired when an Internet consulting company wanted $20,000 for what he wanted to do. When the student told him he thought it would take a day to do what he wanted he was hired, it actually took a weekend. Something I should mention to the next politician I try to get a job from. I hit up a couple at the convention and ran into another geodemographics person looking for a job.

The Convention went way over time. Some of that was the problems with a rump caucus in one district because it appeared the rules weren’t followed when selecting delegates. Our district meeting before the Convention had problems because some articulate candidates wanted to go to Boston and people who had worked the phones and emails more had already sewed up the positions. The rejected candidates then had an objection to the way leaders of our district, which stretches across three counties, had recommended positions be assigned to each county instead of all positions being open to a district-wide vote. Technically, there were district-wide votes but the floor leader for each county nominated the candidate chosen by the county sub-caucus assigned that position and that person won the district-wide vote, sometimes in a run-off. There were other objections mainly due to the speed in which business was conducted. We were done before the floor convention started at 6 PM and many districts had to go back and finish business after 9 PM.

I got Dump Delay and Denton Democrat buttons. Pat, my ex-wife who is in another district, found the reasonably priced food (chili fries) and drinks (extra cans being sold for a half-dollar from a table) in the Convention Hall. I found the free food and drinks at the parties.

At the end of the Convention, we were waiting for the platform, the nominations for delegates to go to Boston and the resolutions. After what seemed a slow start on the resolutions they nearly all went the progressive’s way, nearly all by huge majorities. The most divided or closest vote I can remember was mandatory jail time if someone causes a death due to failure to yield in an accident. (The motorcycle clubs have gotten organized and joined the Democratic Party and lose too many people each year.) I have no idea how the final vote on that was; the chair seemed to say it passed after saying it failed or two previous calls. The other close votes were on medical marijuana, and a Department of Peace.

The party platform was very good, I speed-read before the vote, some divisive issues were only implied and not declarations. I would suggest that like the national party Texas should work on the platform and get it passed weeks before the convention. The language impressed me and so did the sentiments expressed.

I found out you can go and watch the debates and votes in the committees working on the resolutions, the platform and the delegate nominations even if you are not a member. I went and watched the end of the Boston nominations. Surprised how this was the big push among delegates, “We want to go to Boston.” The Muslim candidate I supported in our district was chosen as an alternate. Last Presidential election American Muslims mostly supported the GOP. They sure learned their lesson.

After the Convention I found my ex-wife and two other beautiful delegates and suggested we head to Kim Son Vietnamese restaurant. Food was good, (their tofu was better than Mai’s!) conversation was better. I’ve had better Kung Pao Chicken and the seafood was bland. One of the entrees was free due to Pat’s Entertainment book. Only needed three entrees for four people and we had leftovers. We stayed three hours just talking. I hadn’t seen Chris in years. Pat is working out ways to register more voters in her district and Janette is working out how to run for office. I am working out how to get a paying job.