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Republican
Liberty Caucus of Texas Successfully Represented at Texas GOP Convention!
June
3-5, 2004 - San Antonio, Texas
State Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp
addressing crowd at RLC Reception
Over
the weekend of June 3, 4 and 5, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas was
well represented at the Texas GOP Convention in San Antonio. This Texas
Republican Convention is the largest State GOP event in the country.
This year over 7,000 delegates and guests were in attendance.
Commissioner Jerry Patterson
addressing crowd at RLC Reception
Our RLC Reception, honoring our Constitutional Republicans like Congressman
Ron Paul, Commissioner Jerry Patterson, and State Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp,
was well attended by about 1,000 enthusiastic delegates. To give a
sampling of the exciting evening, the first statement from Congressman Ron
Paul, after getting to the stage was, "I can see that the Constitutional Wing
of the Republican Party is alive and well and right here in this hall
tonight!" His opening comments were met with thunderous applause.
Don Zimmerman, RLC of Texas Executive Director, later stated, "Our RLC
reception packed the largest available room at near 1,000 people. Our turnout
and Dr. Paul's unopposed re-election to the more Democrat-redistricted CD-14
speaks well for Constitutional convictions. Not only is 'upholding and
defending the Constitution' the sole oath of office and legitimate duty of
officials, it's also good campaign strategy!"
Congressman Ron Paul
addressing crowd at RLC Reception
We would like to briefly thank our RLC volunteers that helped make the RLC
Reception and Booth a success:
Penny Langford (RLC of Texas Vice Chairman), Don Zimmerman (RLC of Texas Executive Director), John
Reed (RLC of Texas Secretary), Richard Relph (RLC of Texas Treasurer), Gordon Summitt
(RLC of Texas At-Large), Jay Leib (RLC Advisor), Rob Booth (RLC Advisor),
William Zimmerman (Communications Director),
Sajjad Rizvi (Waller County RLC Director),
Wes Riddle (Bell
County RLC Director), Bob
Vick (Burleson County RLC Director), Joey
Dauben (RLC Student Coordinator),
John Pankratz (Hidalgo County RLC
Director), Bob Bagley (Montgomery County
RLC Director),
Warren Norred (Tarrant
County RLC Assistant Director), Susan Ashbrook (Ron Paul Aide), Laine Langford
(Ron Paul Aide) and Matt Santoro (RLC Volunteer).
FRONT: Richard Relph (Treas.),
Joey Dauben (Stu. Cor.), BACK: Jay Leib (Advs.), John Reed (Secr.),
Jenny Turner (Paul Aide), Sajjad Rizvi (Waller Cnt. Dir.), Cong. Ron Paul, Don
Zimmerman (Exec. Dir.), Michael Franks (Pol. Dir.), Trey Summitt (At-Lg)
In addition, the Republican Liberty Caucus of Texas sponsored a booth at the
convention.
From the start, the booth was swamped. Delegates and other Republicans
visited the booth in search of clipboards with our World's Smallest Political
Quizzes*. Among large numbers of think tanks, conservative groups and vendors, the RLC easily had
one of the
most popular booths at the convention. At any given moment there would be
on average 5 to 10 interested individuals around the booth, inquiring about
the RLC (or Ron Paul), and discussing the benefits of creating a Grass-roots
network of Republicans looking for and helping out in campaigns to get more
Ron Paul type Republicans in office at all levels in Texas.
Rizvi Family with Congressman Ron
Paul
On our large quiz board, we wrote in the names of some
prominent politicians in the areas of the chart where they would likely
fall. This included conservatives; George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jack
Kemp; social conservatives, Dan Quayle and Pat Robertson, authoritarian
conservatives; Pat Buchanan and Bill Bennett, liberals; Kennedy, Clinton(s),
Kerry,
Gore and Gephardt; liberal-authoritarian; Jessie Jackson, Centrists; Colin
Powell, John McCain and Ross Perot and "moderate" libertarians;
Milton Friedman, Jeb Bush, Jessie Ventura, Steve Forbes and Barry Goldwater.
Rush Limbaugh straddled the hardcore libertarian-conservative line.
This tactic proved to be a huge success. The vast majority of people
were absolutely thrilled with the location they ended up with and their
company.
In addition, for most attendees, it was the
first time they had seen political ideology as a two-dimensional space
instead of the usual one-dimensional left/right line. One could see many
quiz-taker's eyes light up as they realized that there was not only the
left-right axis, but also the axis of how much authority government should
exercise. We're sure many, many attendees will be thinking and talking about
this for quite a while.
Here
are the results from World's Smallest Political Quiz Event* at the GOP
Convention, 6/3/2004 - 6/5/2004:
COMBINED
TOTAL SCORES FOR REPUBLICAN MEN AND WOMEN:
|
Conservative |
Libertarian |
Centrist |
Authoritarian |
Liberal |
|
38.0% |
31.6% |
20.8% |
6.8% |
2.8% |
Note: 339 Republican
Delegates and other visitors took the Political quiz.
339
Republican Delegates and other visitors, to our booth, were recorded on the
Nolan Chart. Not all visitors that took the quiz were recorded.
Many left with their quiz before getting recorded. So the actual
numbers of individuals that took the quiz could be closer to 450.
Overall the results were not at all surprising for a Republican
Convention. About 38% of the dots ended up being in the Conservative
quadrant, 32% in the Libertarian sphere, 21% Centrist and
9% Liberal and Authoritarian. Most Conservatives ended
end up near Ronald Reagan, Dan Quayle, Kemp and the more Centrist George W. (40%
on Personal Freedom and 80% Economic
Freedom). Another very popular area seemed to be Limbaugh territory
(50% on
Personal Freedom and 90% or 100% on Economic Freedom).
The
most popular Libertarian area was Barry Goldwater/Steve Forbes/Jeb Bush
Country (about 60% or 70% on Personal Freedom and 90% to 100% Economic
Freedom). Though, over 50% of the libertarian-Republicans ended up
being Strong Libertarians (80% to 100% on Personal Freedom and 80% to 100%
on Economics Freedom). Interestingly, a good number of these
individuals admitted to being Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Ronald
Reagan fans. Naturally we attempted to
sign them up on the spot.
There
were some very interesting outcomes with the quiz. We used some
variations. Don Zimmerman hit on the idea of using orange dots to plot
MEN and green for WOMEN. We noticed that there was a slight
tendency for a women to score a little more liberal and authoritarian
than the men, and the men tended to score much more libertarian than the
women.
WOMEN:
|
Conservative |
Libertarian |
Centrist |
Authoritarian |
Liberal |
|
37.4% |
26.0% |
22.6% |
9.9% |
4.1% |
MEN:
|
Conservative |
Libertarian |
Centrist |
Authoritarian |
Liberal |
|
38.4% |
35.6% |
19.6% |
4.6% |
1.9% |
Another unexplainable dichotomy resulted in
more men scoring as Perfect Conservatives (0% Personal Freedom, 100% Economics Freedom)
and very high
in the Libertarian area (~100% on Personal Freedom and ~100% on Economic Freedom).
These scores are very similar to the last convention scores:
2002 RLC of Texas - World Smallest Political
Scores.
Thankfully, not a single person scored in the Perfect or even very low
Authoritarian area (0% Personal Freedom, 0% Economics Freedom).
Though one lone male individual scored a (0% on Personal Freedom and 20% on Economic Freedom) which made for some very interesting
comments from the rest of the delegates along the lines of, "this person
does not deserve to be called an American."
By Saturday delegates and guests were regularly coming up to the booth
excitedly asking, "is this the place where you take the test?"
Just about everyone was extremely pleased with where they ended up.
Arguments about placement were few and far between. Most smiled upon
hearing their score and seeing their dot plotted and commented, "Yup,
that's exactly what I thought."
Ron Paul also stopped by the booth at one point and spoke to delegates.
Congressman Ron Paul
taking political quiz at
RLC Booth
The bottom line; the Convention was a success from the outreach
standpoint. The RLC of Texas Secretary, John Reed, reports that nearly
100 or so names have been added
to our mailing
list. Of course, EVERY single name and/or membership was collected of
those who scored in the Libertarian quadrant or in the Libertarian/Conservative
border.
We're
excited about the potential for the pro-Liberty/Ron Paul movement to help the
GOP get back to it's Barry Goldwater
days. We'd like to see this type of RLC representation in every GOP
Convention in every state. We need to keep building our grass-roots
network of Republicans that want to get more Ron Paul style Republicans into
office. To describe this movement, we've coined the phrase, "I'm a
'Ron Paul' Republican!" In fact, thanks to Don Zimmerman, we were
passing out stickers at the convention that said just that. We're
excited about our future and we'd like to see our country start moving in the
right direction. Currently, the only hope for that is to get more Ron
Paul type Republicans into office. To emphasize this
point, here is an excerpt from our "PURPOSE" Section:
"...while
rolling back decades of government "nannyism" will require a great
deal of public education and grassroots lobbying, the most important means
of changing public policy is to change public officials. Therefore, the Republican
Liberty Caucus of Texas works
to elect pro-liberty Republicans to offices at all levels,
partisan and non-partisan, in both primary and general elections."
*Note - The Advocates for Self-Government's "World's Smallest Political
Quiz" was very useful in our outreach at the Texas GOP Convention; they
deserve a large amount of credit for our success. Take the "World's Smallest Political
Quiz" for yourself: http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html
.
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