Letters: People weary of politics as usual June 5, 2012 June 05, 2012
3 Comments
Political party conventions, caucuses and similar gatherings of the supposedly like-minded are ostensibly undertaken for a reason.
If that were not the case, why should we expend our resources (both financial as well as time) on such endeavors?
If there is a vote to obtain (caucus), or business to conduct along with further selecting of delegates (convention), then the process should proceed according to rules and protocols that are fair to all participants and clear well in advance.
This past weekend at the state Republican convention in Shreveport, the powers-that-be in the Louisiana GOP failed dismally on all counts.
Clearly disdaining the results of the caucus, it was apparently determined within the upper echelons of the state party apparatus that said results could not be allowed to stand.
Toward that end, rules were changed at the last minute involving quorum requirement, convention chairman (now not to be elected by delegates, but merely assumed by the state party chairman), and committee chairmen (not to be elected by the elected delegates, but instead hand-picked by the state chairman/executive committee).
The duly elected caucus delegates, elected by rank-and-file party members in our state, are bypassed in favor of the despotism of the oligarchy which is the executive committee and party chairman.
Nothing else is to matter. This in essence is an invalidation of the entire process and makes a mockery of all who diligently participated.
This dog and pony show, strictly for public consumption and not really meant to affect anything if it is at odds with the party elitists’ predetermined outcome, should outrage every Republican in our state, as the stench from this whole sordid affair wafts across the nation.
People of all political parties have a visceral reaction to what is fair play, or to what is obviously not.
Republicans rightly decry the current administration in Washington, not only for the results of its policies, but also for its disdain for constitutional limits and restraints on their progressivism, as well as the “we know best” attitude and accompanying condescension.
Then the hierarchy within the Republican Party does likewise to its own constituents.
Citizens are weary of politics-as-usual, and more so of such elitist attitudes in an all-out, no-hold-barred defense of the status quo (statist-quo?).
America is in trouble, and more Americans are coming to realize this, based on the enormous growth in the liberty movement.
Real change is needed, and those who realize this will continue in earnest; we will persist, we will not be silenced, we will not equivocate, and we will be heard.
Mike Thibodeaux
physician
Baton Rouge
)
