For those that were not there:

I originally wrote this to my family, and have edited out some things, but I think it will give you an overview of yesterday.

Charity

Hey Family!

I thought that I would write and let you know how things have gone. Obviously I am in one piece despite the threats that there would be violence. There were several police officers there, and I think that helped a little bit. Things still were not right, and I will try to explain that as best as I can. I only have had 3 hours of sleep, so understand that.

Late last night we got word that the GOP changed the agenda at the last minute. The way that they changed it made it so that they could remove contested delegates before we even got to elect a chair. The had the rules and the credential reports also given before we even elected a chairman. This is the most unusual way of proceeding that I have ever seen, and to be honest, I knew that they planned to completely cream us when I read it.

When we went to vote on the rules, we moved to set aside one rule for discussion and vote the rest of the rules through. There were no standing rules for this district convention, therefore, for any rule to stand, it would require a 2/3 vote. According to Robert's rules, if only one person objects to a rule, it must be set aside, and it does not need to be seconded. This is how the minority is protected. And at district, we were in the minority. The chair refused to let this be done. He had the assembly vote on the rules as they were with no discussion/debate allowed, and he did not have the 2/3 vote required to pass it, and he passed them anyway.  If I had not been so shocked and  remembered one single phrase we could have stopped them "Move to divide ."

 
We further discussed the broken rules, and many others did not understand why the majority couldn't just take over and do as they pleased. They did not think that the rule about objection could possibly be true. (Just so you know, we have a parliamentary law teacher and several Robert's Rules experts in our group, one worked for the pentagon) and so, I got pretty verbal with the old guard on the row behind me, when I explained it to them. They mostly looked shocked, and then were silent. And I basically said that they just shot the Republic dead right here, and I am a witness to them doing so. A republic protects the individual, each and every one, no matter how much of a minority that they are. And if they silence that voice just because they out number them, then it is not a republic at all. I talked to them a bit about common law, and how common law is created, and that it is where the minority and the majority can find common ground. And that we wanted to have a discussion to seek that common ground, to finally heal the party and have understanding, and they basically have said "we don't care." And that is when they all went silent and one of the Old Guard on the back row started crying.

The next thing was the credentials committee. They were trying to remove several of our delegates. They basically were trying to hold them to different pledges and ideals then the national requirements require. And the national rules require three things 1. that they are a registered voter 2. that they voted on the Republican ticket in the primary and 3. that they did not vote on the ticket for another party during the primary. And if ANY state has any other requirements other then that, that they must print those rules in September of the year prior to the convention. THEY DID NOT DO THAT. To make a long story short, we were able to save all our delegates except one, and they felt that he was not a good Republican because his committeeman seat does not expire until August of this year in the Libertarian party. He has only voted Republican all his life, but because he was serving there in that capacity, we could not get the vote to carry, it was 99 to 180.

Right after, Dr. Magill, the guy who sent out the emails saying that there was going to be violence etc, stood up to present a resolution. He wanted to unseat all of the delegates that were on the original Reagan of 76 slate. (112 people) He said that we had disenfranchised long working Republicans, that were were traitors, full of rhetoric and deceit, and I will not even go into all the insults only that he spoke for awhile.

However, because they had rearranged the agenda, he did not realize that the unanimous vote to seat the delegates had already taken place, therefore his resolution was now out of order and was overruled by the chair. Now, I consider this to be divine intervention, because we can still go to state.

When we got to the slates, there were only two. The battle got intense, and a clear majority was not happening. Many of us were threatening to leave the convention and have all of us walk out and go and hold our own convention under rules that were fair. When this started happening, everything went nuts. In the end, in order to maintain some unity, one of our alternates said that he was leaving the slate, therefore making our slate invalid, and Lawrence County (who submitted our slate), withdrew without replacing him. They were shocked that we did this. They became very quiet.

We moved on to the platform, and we accepted that, and they were again shocked, because they were told that we were pro-choice, ACLU, Lesbian and gay activists etc etc etc and they thought we were going to try to change the platform to a Democrat party style one.

We adjourned. I was also approached by many state reps pleading with me not to leave the party because we are so needed, and even though this happened, that they do want us and need us, one of them said that they have this same thing happen to them in Jefferson City where the majority railroads them, and he said to keep fighting. I told him that I have no other choice but to remain involved. That I had sat back and trusted in my elected officials to make the right choices to protect my freedom, and with everything going downhill in our nation it is clear that they did not do it, so I have to take responsibility for my own liberty, there is no other option if I want to maintain it.

Now, if we can get everyone to attend it is HIGHLY likely that we have a majority at the state level. It is my hope that we can show them how a Republic really truly functions. I don't know if I will have a majority backing me though, because we had the majority at the county level, we gave them 33% of the delegates, even though they did not have a 1/3 of the people present, and then when we got to district, they did not offer an olive branch back or even let us be heard when we were the minority. So they showed their true colors, and some of us may not be able to feel like being fair when they were not, but it is still my hope that as a group we will take the higher road, let them be heard, but not compromise on our principles at all. Basically, let them experience a true Republic, but completely uphold the Constitution and only support National delegates that will do just that, and get the platform in alignment with correct principles.

Love ya,

Charity

As true to my word, here was our slate:

DELEGATES:

Mark Conn, a well known Baptist Preacher

Jason Haymes, a Parliamentary law/Agriculture teacher

Myself, a Latter-day Saint

ALTERNATES:

Keith Summers, a quadriplegic, Catholic

Eric Vought, disabled veteran worked for the Pentagon

Candace Turner Educator

And our Elector was: Michael Richardson

Our slate was not the chosen one, but State wide there were still some great things going on that we achieved. I will not post that info at this time.

On to state, where the tables turn!