Whew! Another Convention Over

I spent all day yesterday at the Republican Convention in Virgina where we nominated Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain as our candidates for Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General.  The convention was a grueling affair just because there were seven candidates for Lt. Governor and they were all good people.  E.W. Jackson emerged from a four ballot voting process as the clear winner.  He had been on the top in every ballot.

What bugged me about the convention was a bunch of things that seemed to make it unnecessarily aggravating.  For some reason, not at all obvious, there were "Nazis" (people who restricted the movements of individual delegates) who prevented people on the side from going onto the floor of the convention.  I'm recovering from a knee surgery and it was particularly annoying to me since I was only three steps up from the floor and could go to the bathroom by going across the floor to one on the floor level.  Instead I was expected to negotiate three flights or more of stairs mostly without railings and crowded with people to accomplish the same thing and then return down the stairs the same way.  I can assure the party that I would have sued them had I fallen and been injured.

So restriction of movement is my first complaint.  It's totally unreasonable and it restricts communication with other delegates from other delegations.  Where do they get off?

Food was not provided although I'd been told there would be a box lunch and paid $35 to attend in the expectation that I'd at least get a box lunch.  Sorry, not only no box lunch but you were restricted from bringing your own food into the venue.  I understand.  It's all about harvesting money from the delegates for the benefit of the food vendors.  Why is that any sort of priority?

Extraordinary delays in vote counts.  It was typically several hours to get the votes counted.  There were four votes and they started somewhere around 1 p.m. and we didn't get out until 10 p.m. so that's over two hours per vote on average.  The results of the first vote were not posted until after the second vote was taken.  That means that the delegations didn't have full information and that was objectionable.

Overall this was one of the worst convention experiences I've ever had and I've had a lot in Minnesota and Virginia.  I think all delegates are created equal and should be allowed to move around the convention at will.  The people running around with wires in their ears coordinating things are not in charge.  They should be facilitating not acting like they own the place.  The whole thing is just one more example of creeping authoritarianism that needs to stop.  The convention isn't supposed to be an economic opportunity for the food vendors to restrict the rights of the delegates to bring their own food if they wish.  The voting should be expedited.  It's about the people and not about the politicians.  If we can't get that through to people than the republic is doomed and it certainly is a message that the Republican party should hear.  The Democrat party is already a basket case.  Nevertheless, on a positive note, the people elected are true conservatives and will stick up for the rights of the people.  I think the outcome was good even if the process was flawed.