The Texas Democratic Party held their state convention this weekend, June 16th-18th in San Antonio. On Thursday the 16th there were mostly kick-off parties and special committee meetings. On Friday the 17th, we gathered at the Alamodome to attend caucus meetings and vote on committee members and national delegates from each of our state senate districts. Friday evening was the “rah-rah” general session with speakers, including surprise speaker Wendy Davis, and the keynote speaker Julian Castro. Then on Saturday we had a few special caucus meetings while the committees worked on the party platform, nominations to the DNC and national convention, and other business to be voted on the floor during the last general session Saturday afternoon. I attended the convention as a delegate for Hillary Clinton. Follow me below the fold for the good, the bad, and the ugly.
First the good. There was a large crowd and the energy was palpable. I love seeing the enthusiasm in the party. The conference had a lot of unofficial caucus meetings were you could get information on issues, GOTV efforts, and running for office. There were also official caucus meetings where party business was done. There was a lot of networking and we were able to meet candidates running for office. Like any convention, there was an expo hall where the state party was selling buttons, T-shirts and other swag to raise money. There were also candidate booths, special interest booths, and vendors.
Despite the good energy on Friday and Saturday morning, things became chaotic and a little ugly on Saturday afternoon. It started when Sanders delegates on the nominations committee had an elected Sanders national delegate removed and replaced. Their reasons were that he was quoted in the newspaper as saying he would reluctantly vote for Clinton in November, and they said there was a picture of him at a Clinton rally and he was seen block walking for Hillary.
I asked a dissenter why it mattered that he said he would vote for Hillary in November, and she said she just wanted to make sure he wouldn’t vote for her at the convention. This should not be an issue as he was pledged for Bernie and elected by his senate district Sanders delegates. It certainly doesn’t justify the time wasted fighting to remove this one delegate. I know some people think Bernie not conceding the race is a non-issue, but I disagree. If he concedes and asks everyone to support the winner of primaries, we could avoid these petty fights. As far as the other charges, this delegate works for Pete Gallago, a former US Representative who is running to win his seat back this year. Gallego supports Hillary. So when the delegate was at a rally or block walking, he was there in the capacity of his job, and there for his boss, Gallego.
We wasted over an hour fighting about this one Sanders national delegate who was elected by Sanders state delegates at the district caucus but removed because he just might vote for the nominee. It was a paranoid and stupid waste of time. Many of the most fervent Sanders supporters are operating under the misguided notion that Bernie still has a chance at the nomination. I blame Sander’s vague and noncommittal rhetoric for perpetuating this fantasy. I felt bad for the delegate who was removed because everyone in our Senate district knows how hard he worked for Bernie and how much he wanted to go to Philly as a Bernie Delegate. We would have spent more time on this, but someone finally agreed to give him a guest pass so he could still go, just not as a delegate. A side note: the one they replaced him with wasn’t even in attendance on Saturday.
To fight so hard to eliminate a hard-core Bernie supporter from being a national delegate because his purity was called into question left a a sour taste in many mouths.
The rest of Saturday afternoon was speeches from public officials and floor voting. This is were it got a bit more ugly. For instance, when US Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) was onstage with Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18) and called for unity behind Hillary, Bernie delegates went crazy. They booed her and screamed “It ain’t over!” When there was a call to cheer for a woman in the white house and a new Democratic Congress, Bernie delegates snarkily yelled “Yay, new Congress” but wouldn’t cheer for a woman in the white house. When State Senator Rodney Ellis called on us to stand up if we’ll be unified for November, the large group of Sanders delegates next to me refused to stand.
During voting, Sander’s delegates would object to so many minor details and then start chanting “This is what democracy looks like”. No, sorry, it is not what democracy looks like. Being rude and disruptive is not democracy. When one of the speakers paused to let a situation in the front rows settle, Sanders delegates in the back of my Senate district started screaming about the delay. One said “Oil him up and get moving”. A few people had enough and told the bully to stop it. Another guy had to tell him “He fell, asshole”, because a man in a wheelchair had fallen over and people were trying to pick him back up. I was mortified at the behavior of the Sanders delegates in my district yelling at some perceived slight when the delay was caused by people helping one of their fellow Sanders supporters back into his wheelchair.
The ugliness was at a peak during voting. As you might have heard, Sanders delegates passed resolutions at a few different state conventions. In Texas, you can do this by petition. There were three that met the threshold for signatures so the resolutions could come to a floor vote.
The first to come up was a resolution to reduce the number of super delegates to 10%, not allowing supers to vote on first ballot, and banning “corporate lobbyists” (a term not defined, so I have it in quotes) from becoming super delegates. It was mayhem. A big part of the blame goes to the chair who didn’t really have a handle on Roberts Rules of Order. Since that was a problem in Nevada, too, I hope the state parties make sure future chairs know parliamentary procedure so we can avoid this kind of chaos.
During “debate”, Sander’s delegates would yell and hold signs in front of the faces of those speaking against the resolution. It took a while to get to the point where we could vote because of the disorganization and lack of clear leadership from the chair. Voting was first done by voice vote, but louder doesn’t mean more, so then we voted again by standing and raising our hands. The chair didn’t require voters to hold up credentials, so the guests packing the arena were also voting. The resolution passed. It was about 6:00 pm and people were getting tired and hungry and sick of the yelling, so some of us started to leave. It took me about 30 minutes to finish up some things and make my way out, when I noticed that they were voting AGAIN on the super delegate resolution because of guests voting the first time. The third vote finally required delegates hold up credentials, but so many of us had left by then. It was a mess.
The other resolutions were for calling for immediate action on climate change and calling for a $15.00/hour minimum wage with a 7.25/hr min server/tip jobs. All eventually passed.
I am having a hard time accepting that the anger and animosity was necessary to remove one delegate and then to vote on a few non-binding resolutions. The resolutions don’t change the official platform, and are really toothless as far as policy goes. And while party platforms are nice for messaging, no one is beholden to them. There are better, more productive ways to push the party to the left. It seems that there is an “us vs them” mentality that is not healthy for the party moving forward. I hope we find a way to focus the anger and direct it towards the proper target.
I am concerned that so many Sanders delegates refused to get behind the calls for unity. I am worried that Bernie Sanders, by not conceding, is sending the wrong message to some of his supporters. They are gearing for a fight that has already been lost. As far as bringing fresh ideas, energy, and enthusiasm, yes we need that and we should all welcome it. However, we can’t build on those ideas and enthusiasm if we are divided and angry at the national convention. Bernie needs to call on his supporters not only to work to defeat Trump, not only to run for local office, not only to support progressive down-ballot candidates, but also to get behind our nominee, Hillary Rodham Clinton. We need to work together, now, and feeding false hope for a Sanders presidency is not helping anyone now or moving forward.