Undercover at the National Young Republican Convention (With Pictures)

From July 6th to July 10th, 2005, my girlfriend and I enjoyed an all expense paid trip to Las Vegas where we served as official delegates at the National Young Republicans Convention.

I wasn't attending to pick fights, though I was anxiously looking forward the antics of Operation Yellow Elephant (a group trying to  make the Young Republicans look like cowards for refusing to enlist in the Iraqi war despite their adamant support for it and the military's present personnel shortage).

I harbored a school-boy fantasy of emulating Hunter S Thompson, down to being a covert agent in a Las Vegas convention center. Wasted out of my mind, I would cause trouble while reporting on The Truth, revealing this organizations hypocrisy and incompetence to the masses. But alas, I had promised the people who snuck me in that I would "play nice" and avoid getting them into trouble...

Good thing that didn't keep me from taking notes.

First I should state that this article is not at all fair.  These Young Republicans work hard all year long with this convention being their reward and chance to relax and have some fun. They aren't expecting undercover wanna-be-journalists to be taking notes on their follies, and would no doubt have presented themselves in very different ways had they been consciously making a presentation.

My primary motivation for attending this convention was genuinely to learn something. Their politics did (and still do) strike me as being pure bat-shit insanity, but I refuse to believe that fifty-one percent of the population is completely retarded, and I desperately want to understand where they are coming from and what angles I have to look at these situation from to reach their conclusions.

We drove all night from Sacramento, then shortly after crossing the state border into Nevada, encountered the wreckage of two demolished freight trucks. The road was littered with shattered crates of soup, Mountain Dew, and shards of wood and metal strewn across the road.



Clearly an omen of things to come.

We finally arrived Thursday around noon and were put up at The Excalibur, a short tram ride away from the action at the ritzy Mandalay Bay Convention Center. Having driven all night for 12 straight hours, we skipped out on the daytime Thursday panels in order to get some premarital fucking on in the hotel-room (which the Republicans gracefully paid for) and then some well-earned sleep to prepare for the night's activities.

Around 7:30 we took off for our first event, the "YR Fest," an 80's themed dance party. Most of the states with official delegations had tables set up around the room's perimeter as a networking opportunity and to make sure everyone got rip-roaring-drunk, with free tickets redeemable for unique state-themed alcoholic beverages available at each table. Some states also used their tables to promote candidates from their state that were running for the various board positions to be voted on later in the convention.

At first we couldn't find the room, and were helped by an elderly security guard working for the Convention Center. After some friendly chatting, the guard thanked us for being Republicans. He served in World War Two, and was glad that at least some young people were still "thinking smart" and "supporting the troops." I guess supporting the troops has nothing to do with providing medical benefits and body armor, or even keeping them alive by not sending them to fight in poorly managed corrupt wars, and everything to do with magnetic yellow ribbons on SUVs... The Democratic party really needs to improve its PR towards veterans groups.

Once inside I was approached by Glen Murphy, a candidate running for the position of Secretary, who put a campaign sticker on my shirt and gave me a drink ticket for something called a "Snake Bite." Finally a chance to dig up some dirt! Liquored up, Glen would surely fill me in on some juicy Young Republican in-fighting!

I asked Glen what made him a better candidate for Secretary than his opponent, and was greeted with the confused blank stare one would expect from a NASCAR fan in The Louvre. It turns out that Murphy was running unopposed, as were all of the other candidates running for the various official posts. I drunkenly pointed out how this election seemed a lot like those in certain Middle Eastern countries living under "democratically elected dictators." One Young Republican explained that their organization was still too small for rival factions, which I don't really understand in an organization that has been around since at least 1931 with thousands of members... Thankfully my fellow Young Republican delegates were to drunk to understand my barbs or even care.

I proceeded to get trashed while visiting with all the tables to learn about each state and collect souvenirs and additional drink tickets. One table was decorated in the 80's theme with LP album covers, including bands like Nine Inch Nails. I'm not sure if they got their years right, but it was kind of funny given the band's recent battle with MTV over not being allowed to perform at the Video Music Awards in front of an image of President Bush, with lead singer Trent Reznor explaining the controversy as "Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me."

The New York delegation then invited us to a party across town with an open bar, and we packed into a charter bus. I was sitting near the back and listened as some drunken jocks (including a delegate from Kentucky) had a heated discussion agreeing about how federalism was a great thing and slavery was a really good idea at the time and important part of America and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to check their history books. Wow.

The party was at a country-western bar with a mechanical bull, strippers doing strip-tease gymnastics while riding the mechanical bull, and a packed floor of line-dancing cowboys and cowgirls. And the New York delegates had a gigantic roll of tickets redeemable for unlimited free booze that was enjoyed by all.

My Republican friend went to great lengths to explain that this was definitely stereotypical Republican night, and they weren't really like this. I don't remember what happened next as I was busy making excellent use of the free drink-tickets and attempting to break-dance between the rows of line-dancers.

We woke up bright and early the next day to get our credentials. I was given a backpack with all the convention materials and propaganda, tickets to attend all the fancy lunch and dinner events (priced at $75 to $250 each), a badge (stamped, signed, then stamped again to guarantee authenticity), and official convention T-Shirt. All this on top of my hotel room, all for free and without a loyalty pledge.

Before I could leave the registration counter, two police officers came up and officially served Nathan Taylor (the guy in charge of the convention and state chair [top position] of the Nevada Young Republicans) with a summons to appear as a defendant in court. Unrelated to this set of legal trouble, Taylor was already in hot water for allegedly embezzling money from the convention. I don't know the details (and this may be way off), but according to rumors told to me over dinner by some delegates from Ohio, Nathan had been promoting the event by flying to various chapters of the YR organization around the country and covering his air-fair and their bar tabs with convention funds. Related controversy was supposedly why only four members of the Nevada Young Republicans were attending the convention despite it's being in their home state (with many members of the Nevada organization electing to boycott this year's event).
Update: Holy shit, Nathan dug a pretty deep hole for himself, still owing over $25,000 to the Mandalay Bay Convention Center and talking shit about the Nevada Republican Party for not bailing him out. 
Message to Nathan: George W. Bush only got away with incompetently driving company after company into the ground because he had rich and influential parents to bail him out, but based on your present predicament, I assume you don't.

One gentleman was wearing a Ronald Reagan shirt, and had a great tattoo of an elephant skewering a donkey on its tusks:



I then checked out the main room that was housing most of the events, and the various booths in back. The most popular was one from 0cents.com, selling t-shirts and mouse-pads with conservative messages like "The Clinton Legacy" with the notorious image of an airplane slamming into the world trade center, and "Islam, The Religion Of Peace" over a picture of explosives.


*Pictures taken from the 0cents.com website, as they are clearer than the ones taken at the convention on my digital camera.

I personally don't understand how the people in charge of this convention could ever allow these designs to be on display. Some Liberals might joke about George Bush being a Nazi, but you would never see a shirt or poster proclaiming it on display at a Young Democrats convention. Even MoveOn.Org immediately removed a contest submission from their website that made this suggestion as it was clearly out of line and offensive to the people MoveOn was trying to reach (despite the spin many Republican propagandists have put on the incident to the contrary).

Another booth was labeled "Accuracy In Media," prominently displaying books that have been (surprisingly enough) widely criticized for being completely inaccurate, such as "Unfit For Command" (the Swift Boat Veterans book about John Kerry), and How To Talk To A Liberal (If You Must) by Ann Coulter.



I had a friendly conversation with Don Irvine at Accuracy In Media booth about MediaMatters.org and asked if there was a conservative equivalent. We both cited plenty of websites that claim to be "fact checkers" with various political slants, but he was unable to come up with any that follow the Media Matters model of being nearly impossible to argue with in the way falsehoods are very clearly listed along with immediate links to credible sources that can be used to verify the websites' claims.

We both agreed that conservatives really should get a similar website going to help hold the media accountable (which I truly believe -- I want to know the truth, especially if the truth does not support my political beliefs since that would be a reason for me to challenge my political beliefs). Irvine couldn't think of any, but gave me a brochure with a website listed that he thought might be similar to Media Matters, though he had not personally visited the website to know for sure.  The website on the brochure wasn't anything special.

In the far corner was a lonely booth for the black sheep of the party, The Log Cabin Republicans. I signed their postcard requesting that gays be allowed to openly serve in the military and spent some time talking to their representative, Jeff Cook. I was surprised to learn from Jeff that the Log Cabin group is one of the most conservative organizations around, set apart from the most conservative Republicans only in their support of gay rights, but right there with them in their opposition to abortion and their support for the war in Iraq. I was honestly a little disappointed to discover that they were total douche-bags despite being on the right side of the gay rights movement.

Everyone thinks Liberals are all about being tolerant and accepting other people's points of views while Conservatives are selfish and inclusive, but the exact opposite is true. Liberals stand up for what they believe in, which is why they are so fractionalized and disorganized. Republicans accept anyone who wants to be a Republican, so long as they leave their integrity at the door and vote strictly in line with the party elite.  These Log Cabin Republicans are completely shat on by everyone with power in the Republican party, but still support them every step of the way.  You would think that the factions making up the Republican party had been brainwashed by some suicide cult or something given the way they support their leaders no matter how counterproductive their leaders policies are to their supposed goals (fighting terrorism, lowering abortion, lowering taxes, shrinking government... These are ALL things that Democrats have consistently been better at that Republicans magically get to claim as part of their party platform.. I don't understand)!
Update: From Adam C In coments, The LCR pointedly refused to endorse President Bush in 2004. They are working for changes inside the Republican party that anyone in favor of gay rights should be supported.

Other booths included one for The Humane Society (which I was very happy to see out in the trenches actually successfully lobbying for change instead of just vilifying their opponents, and even more surprisingly endorsed by Santorum on moral grounds!), a group arguing for an end to the national income tax (to be replaced with a national sales tax), someone selling web-applications to be used by people running political campaigns, Honor The Fallen (which I'll talk about more later), a group collecting donations of money and materials for our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, a group dedicated to teaching school-children about the American Flag, and a booth selling various "Republican Items" like buttons, stickers, and t-shirts (though considerably less offensive than the wares being sold at the 0cents.org booth directly across the room).



One re-occurring annoyance throughout the convention was how the headlining speakers were scheduled to speak in the dinning hall right as we were being seated for dinner. My experience at other similar events has been for speakers to start talking at least twenty minutes after attendees had been served their meals so that they would not have to compete with the clattering of silverware and conversation to be heard, and I could tell that every important speaker was annoyed at this poor planning on Nathan Taylor's part. Taylor also yelled at all the convention attendees from his podium about how dinner the night before had run late costing the convention an extra $3,000 (I assume in room rental and paying the food-service staff), which was our fault as attendees and not his for failing to stick to his schedule. This man deserves a Medal Of Freedom!

During lunch we heard a talk by Dave Cruz from an organization called Honor The Fallen, that was also kind enough to give every delegate a black bracelet like those "Live-Strong" yellow ones. This organization struck me as being pretty rad -- Dave Cruz was upset about the way American casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan are being reported by the press as just numbers instead of real humanized people, and wanted to give them life. One of the organizations projects is a memorial quilt (much like the Aids Quilt), here is some information about the project from the Honor The Fallen website:

The primary objective of our foundation is to create an "Honor The Fallen" memorial quilt display that will travel throughout the United States. This memorial display will be comprised of individual memorial quilt panels that are submitted by friends and families of those who have died in the war on terror. Each quilt panel will be 3' x 6' in size. These panels will be sewn together to form a 12' x 12' section. Each of these 12' x 12' sections will have a total of eight panels included. Once we have enough panels, we will begin our tour across the United States. People from all over the country will have an opportunity to view each panel and learn about the men and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

This is something all Americans should get behind, showing our population the real sacrifice we are making in this "War On Terror."

I later spoke with Cruz about Sinclair Broadcasting Groups' decision to prevent Nightline from airing their Memorial Day broadcast for two years running which was deemed as unpatriotic for reading off the names of American shoulders who gave their lives in the service of this country over the past year.

While Cruz was strongly opposed to Sinclair's censorship, he was also upset by what he felt was the media's one-sidedness in covering this war in only reporting the bad news and casualties. He told me about personal friends of his who have re-enlisting two or three times by choice, happy about the work they are doing in Iraq to build schools and orphanages for the Iraqi and Afghanistan communities they are stationed in. Cruz went on to talk about how many Iraqi women were approaching the troops to say that their sons or husbands had been killed by Sadam, and were symbolically adopting American troops into their families as a "thank you" for all their great work and as a way of taking the place of the family members taken away from them by Sadam's forces.

I wonder if the Sinclair Broadcasting Group would censor news-coverage about his quilt?

The next speaker was Ted Costa, responsible for the recall of California (Democratic) governor Gray Davis, and now working on a project to supposedly end gerrymandering throughout the state. Costa was getting a lot of flack from the convention's attendees who seemed to think gerrymandering was great as it gave them stability in their Republican controlled districts, though I suspect that many silently understood the concept of fair-ness in having a government that accurately represented its citizens that was truly accountable to its population.
Costa also pointed out some byproducts of gerrymandering that I hadn't previously thought of (probably due to my sleeping through those political science classes), such as how many government posts in regional elections are effectively chosen by party elite (on both sides of the isle) instead of the voters in that their candidate is decided by the party and then the gerrymandering guarantees a winner, without any real competition.

I'm not sure how far an end to gerrymandering would go in making these elections more genuinely competitive, but I think this is a good thing. If this kind of legislation passes, I hope it would spread to "red states" because if the change ends with California, it just means Democrats giving up power without gaining any elsewhere to make up for it.

Critics of Costa's plan argue that by having a panel of retired judges in charge of drawing new congressional boundaries, gerrymandering would be taken out of the hands of all politicians and put it into the hands of just the Republicans, since most retired judges are republican by virtue of their being mostly rich white men.  I don't know how true this charge is, but I'll be looking into it, and waiting to see how Costa's recent legal troubles pan out.

I spoke with Ted for a good fifteen minutes about his project and was invited to visit his office in Sacramento to help out.  I really hated the way Davis was recalled and all the related misinformation and mudslinging, but I would have to support this legislation in principle if it proves to be sincere.


THEN CAME THE PANELS

Being vegan at a National Young Republican Convention luncheon turns fighting hunger into hard work. I tracked down a three-dollars-and-fifty-cents bagel and then caught the tail-end of the first panel on bloggers and "new media." The panelist included Bob Johnson (FreeRepublic & RightTalk.com), Bobby Eberle (Talon News/GopUSA), Michael Bowen, Nathan Tabor, Steve Berren, theblackmale.com, and some others that I forgot.
During the panel, a reporter for the Washington Times asked a question that wasn't really a question but really just a "you guys are awesome" to the panelists and convention attendees, and a proclamation of how he was right there with them to help fight their good fight. Liberal Media!

Part of me wishes I could have attended that entire panel to ask some poignant questions, but I probably did the right thing saving my energies and holding off the need to projectile vomit for the next discussion, on gay marriage...

Our friend Jeff Cook from the Log Cabin Republicans was up there in support of gay marriage, against six people all strongly opposed.

One panelist, Martin Mawyer of the Christian Action Network, argued that the only reason the government has an interest in marriage is because it is good for society if people are having kids, and having a government sanctioned marriage lets us know who a child's parents are to avoid their being a bastard and then a ward of the state. And since gay couples can't technically re-produce (without outside help), there is no reason for the government to care. And gays really shouldn't want government sanctioned marriage benefits anyway since they might not like the rules that the government sets while setting the definition for these gay "marriages."

I could spend ten minutes now going through this argument point by point and very clearly explaining why his points are all total bullshit and irrelevant and just plain idiotic and wrong, but I hope that my audience reading this is a little smarter than that. If you honestly think he has a point, please just let me know, and I will honestly commend you for reaching out in trying to become less of a brainwashed idiot.  That will just have to be its own, probably equally long, artice.

The other five panelists wouldn't even address the issue of if gays SHOULD be allowed to marry (as it was already understood that gay marriage should clearly be illegal), and instead talked about HOW to go about making benefits for gays illegal through various legal means and how to frame the arguments -- a workshop for promoting bigotry. These panelists were Steve Scalise (Louisiana State Representative), Pamela Gorman (Arizona State Representative), Jason Watkins (Kansas State Representative), and J. Michael Johnson (Counsel for Alliance Defense Fund).

C-Span was on hand with two cameras and a fancy lighting rig, so I decided to have some fun. I can't find a transcript online, but to paraphrase my own question, I asked "Right now there are benefits that the government gives to heterosexual couples. Who benefits by denying these benefits to homosexual couples?" Nobody was able to answer, though they kept very clearly talking in circles AROUND the question without addressing it, so I stood by the microphone to ask follow-up after follow-up to very clearly and politely ask them to address the question. I think I made them look like idiots on national television, but I'm not sure if there is any getting through to the bigot-choir they were preaching to.

<BEGIN: MY RANT ABOUT GAY RIGHTS >

They say that it isn't about gay bashing or homophobia or discrimination, but they can't say what it really is about or give any reason that holds water for why gays shouldn't be allowed to marry. It wasn't until 1991 that a plurality (more than half) of Americans thought that inter-racial marriage was acceptable, and the most recent statistics (for 2002 or 2004, I can't remember the year) have that rate now at 76% -- meaning that 24 percent of Americans STILL don't think interracial marriage is acceptable. These people are praying on peoples fear, making people think that "the gays" are out there trying to "recruit" their kids, that their church would be legally forced to marry gay couples, that their children will be forced to learn gay sex in sex education class. But the fact is that none of those things would be true, just as they aren't true NOW for heterosexual couples through current law. The government legally can't get involved in churches, and churches are still allowed to marry or not marry whoever they wish for ANY REASON. Sex education, even heterosexual sex education, can only be taught now with the expressed permission of a child's parents. Allowing gay marriage won't change any of these things.

As a minor tangent, teaching gay sex in schools would probably be a good idea. Queers and bigots alike now seem to agree that about 2.9% of the population is gay, so it would first of all be a valuable service to about one student in 35.

But it would also greatly benefit heterosexual Americans.

I have met many heterosexual young women attending a local Jesuit university who claim to be "virgins" though they engage in oral and anal sex, often unprotected. These teens need to understand the risks involved with these non-vaginal sex acts, and right now a lot of schools won't teach them since anal sex is "what gays do." Lots of people have "gay sex" regardless of sexuality and reason, they need to stop ignoring it.

<font face="Arial"><END: MY RANT ABOUT GAY RIGHTS>

But I digress, back to the Republican Convention; only one other person asked a question in support of gay marriage and was literally booed by the audience. A few of the Young Republicans later quietly (and very privately) thanked me for asking my question, though the majority gave me dirty looks. I'm disappointed that the few Republicans in attendance who supported gay rights were lacking the integrity to stand up for what they believe in.

I should note that there were not very many people attending the panels, I would say probably around one fifth of the convention attendees. One high-ranking delegate described the lack of participation to me as possibly being due to some people having private committee meetings at the same time as the panels, but every delegate I spoke with who was not at the panels told me that they would have attended the if only the convention were not held in Vegas, since the casinos and swimming pools were far more fun.

The next panel was on social security. Looking at the guest list I could tell that the panel was to be about how to best propagate Bush's talking points rather than actually debate on if his talking points were even remotely true. Still feeling nauseated from the Gay Marriage panel, I elected to find some food and take a nap instead.
Side note: I would love to write an article to help people accurately make sense of the Social Security debate.  But that would take up to much time and space for this article right here.

Tonight was "Vegas Night" for us to enjoy the city on our own without pre-planned activities, so we collected our little remaining sanity for a fun night on the town.

On Saturday we voted for the new National Young Republican board positions. This meeting, like all others, started with a prayer about how we wanted god's guidance to help do his work to make the world a better place and all that, but this one (unlike the previous prayers) personally invoked the name of Jesus Christ while the others were non-denominational.
As an atheist, I omit the words "Under God" when reciting the pledge of allegiance, because to pledge something is to give my word and I feel that honesty and integrity is the most important thing I have.  I refuse to pledge something if it is a lie.
I wonder how the non-Christians in the room felt about praying to Jesus as part of this meeting.
[Fun Fact! The words "Under God" were officially added to the Pledge Of Allegiance in 1954 to differentiate us Americans from those godless communists. The pledge had no mention of God from when it was written in 1892 until 1954.]

The voting process was long and obnoxious, with lots boring speeches and tons of campaign stickers and large expensive campaign signs, all completely unnecessary since every single candidate was running unopposed. About half-way through the elections, my friends and I just couldn't take it, and hit up the New York New York casino for some cheap noodles.

For reasons I can't quite comprehend, dinner that night was hosted by a girl who was on The Apprentice. Actually, some guy from The Apprentice was the MC and even a panelist at some of the other events, I couldn't really figure that one out either, but he joked about how Republicans are on reality shows like The Apprentice while Democrats are on reality shows like Fear Factor, or something like that...

Anyway, dinner. Our speakers for the night were Judge James Rogan (Clinton Impeachment House Manager and CA State Assembly Majority Leader), and Lorraine T Hunt (Nevada Lieutenant Governor).

Rogan rambled about how we were involved in politics to do god's good work and make the world better, including some clever lines about how we are different because we believe we were put here for a reason (while using hand gestures to make a cross), and alluded to the superiority of intelligent design over evolution.

Lorraine Hunt's presentation was far more disturbing. She rambled on about how horrible Senator Reed was, implying that he was a traitor for not supporting Bush and (I'm paraphrasing here, though I wish I had this speech on tape!), asked about "who's side he was really on, ours or the terrorist?" I really don't know how a Lieutenant Governor can accuse a Senator of treason just for having an opinion they disagree with, I was dumbfounded at her lack of basic decency and the way she attacked her political opponent in completely abstract polarizing terms instead of addressing the actual issues and differences of opinion.

That night I was seated with some rather colorful delegates from Ohio, including one man bragging about how even though he had a wife back home, he was still "single in Vegas." I also had a genuinely interesting and informative conversation with another Ohio delegate about how the unions in his state were keeping the economy down and how businesses didn't want to set up shop in Ohio due to the "ridiculous" union laws. We talked for a good half hour and he gave me lots to read up on about points of view I'm so far not at all familiar with, so I'll avoid writing about that until I learn more about the subject.


I didn't witness much else worth reporting, but witnessed enough to be thoroughly disturbed, and extremely anxious to attend more conventions like this one -- but to do them right, with a note-pad and tape recorder in hand to better document the atrocities and stir up extra shit. And hey, to learn something too.  This convention was in Vegas with a lot more drinking and partying than actual politics, so I'd really like to spend more time learning about their politics. Though I strongly doubt it, there just might be some really great Republican points of view that just need to be explained to me better to make their policies make sense.

Also worth noting, I met a lot of delegates who were genuinely intelligent and fun even if I disagreed with them on certain issues.  The California and New York delegations especially had it together, and I think I would get a lot more out of visiting their specific state-events instead of this national circus.  I did find it amusing that the people I found the coolest were criticized from within their organization for being RINOs, or "Republican In Name Only" such as those who were openly pro-choice, something that a Republican could (for the most part) only get away with in "Liberal" states like California and New York.

I didn't witness any presence at all from Operation Yellow Elephant, despite their ad nauseam representation all over the Liberal Blogosphere.  I don't think they were kept out by security (unless they were disruptive earlier when I wasn't paying attention), because badges weren't really checked anywhere and there were plenty of actual Young Republicans in attendance who didn't bother registering.  There was only one event with badges being checked, being the elections for non-contested board positions, so unless security is beefed up at future events there really is nothing to stop you from attending these things and trying to learn something (or cause trouble or whatever you're into).

I also want to attend some Young Democrat conventions, because they could quite possible be just as full of shit as The Young Republicans are.