Ron Paul Supporters at Texas GOP Convention Acted Respectfully, Were Intelligent and Not Crazy

Sometimes a few crazy people can make an entire group look bad. Maybe that is what has happened with Ron Paul supporters. We see some crazy Ron Paul people on the news and we paint the entire group as being crazy. It is like these bad cops who think they are above the law and they break the law and do things like and beat people up on video. That is why some people hate cops when, in fact, most cops are doing a great job and risking their lives for us. The problem is that the few bad cops you see on TV unfairly make all cops look bad.

At the 2012 Texas State Republican Convention this past weekend in Fort Worth, TX, I got a chance to meet a group of Ron Paul supporters 

I am friends with many Ron Paul supports but I am not part of any Ron Paul groups so I did not know what to expect. I had seen internet articles telling people to watch out for Ron Paul people trying to take over conventions so I was interested to see what would happen.

The group that I got to meet did not have signs to stage a protest and they did not walk around asking people to legalize marijuana. In fact, you probably would have never known that they were even Ron Paul supporters. They came off as just very passionate conservatives. You might have known them for years and you might have thought they were probably just members of the tea party. There are many young people in the Ron Paul groups but there are also a surprising number of older people and minorities too. They are a very diverse group. 

I had great conversations with a Ron Paul group about the Federal Reserve and how printing more money with nothing to back it is destroying our economy by devaluating the dollar and not allowing the market to fix itself. Being in the military myself, I don’t entirely agree with some of Ron Paul’s war policy, but I had a great conversation about war policies and there are actually many things that I do agree with Ron Paul on. The President must not be allowed to start a war without getting congress to approve it. There are checks and balances that must be followed. We are sending money to help terrorist countries. It is especially frustrating now that President Obama is using the military as pawns and taking out bad governments, like Egypt, just to hand the government over to the Muslim Brotherhood.

One gentleman that I talked to has run Christian charities and one of the reasons he stands with Ron Paul is because the government is slowly taking away our religious liberty. As the head of a Christian charity, he saw firsthand how the rights of Christians to freely practice and express their religious beliefs were being taken away. As a Christian, I know that he is right and this must be stopped. 

These people were not crazy. In fact, I agreed with most of what these Ron Paul supporters believe, as most conservatives probably do. No, I don’t agree with everything and I have no problem expressing where I do not agree. No one agrees with each other 100% of the time, but the many issues that I do agree with Ron Paul on, Ron Paul is 100% dead on right.

I even got a chance to explain to these Ron Paul supporters why I was not in favor of Texas being proportional. Earlier this year, the RNC forced Texas to be proportional. Texas had always been winner take all by congressional district. This is what the Republican in Texas voted to have because it gives Texas more of a say in the Presidential race and makes us more relevant (we have been completely irrelevant in recent Republican Presidential races unfortunately because the race is over before we even vote!) Well, the RNC comes along and tells us we have to be proportional. I stood up the RNC and told them that they should not bully us and advocated that we stay winner take all by congressional district, which is what we already were before the Republican National Committee forced us to change. I was standing for Texas and what the grassroots in Texas wanted. I was standing for Texas to have a bigger voice instead of being pushed around. Well, I had some Ron Paul supporters upset with me because they thought that the reason I did not want to be proportional was so that I could keep Ron Paul from getting delegates under a proportional system. That is NOT the reason I did not want to be proportional. Hurting or helping Ron Paul was not even a factor in why I was saying NO to the RNC’s proportional system. In fact, I was able to explain that if Texas had gone back to winner take all by congressional district back when there were still four candidates in the race, it was very likely that Romney would not have won Texas and would not have received many of our delegates. This would possibly have forced a brokered convention which would have actually benefited the Ron Paul supporters. So we had a good conversation about that little misunderstanding and cleared some things up.

Ron Paul Supporters were elected to be National Delegates at Texas GOP Convention

Did these Ron Paul supporters try to get fellow Ron Paul supporters elected as national delegates? Sure they did. But who didn’t? The establishment passed out papers telling their people to vote for their establishment candidates. Just about every county Republican group nominated a candidate from their county who they know and are friends with. You had entire counties voting for the candidate from their county vs. candidates from other counties. Every group at the convention tried to put up a candidate to try to be elected to something, so why can’t the Ron Paul supporters do that to? They have every right to put up someone from their group to run. 

The Ron Paul supporters I got a chance to meet this past weekend were respectful of the process and did not try to take over anything. They nominated fellow Ron Paul supporters and these nominees then got to stand in front of the entire group of Republicans and explain what they believe and explain why people should vote for them. Some of the Ron Paul supporters got elected by the group and some didn’t.

These Ron Paul supporters are not stupid either. From what I got to hear from them, they understand that Romney probably already has the nomination. They understand that the chance of a brokered convention is slim to none unless there is a change of the current rules of how presidential delegates can vote. They understand all that and they are not unrealistic. They were more focused on getting people involved in the process who will go to the national convention and stand for less government and stand for the constitution. They know that, even though they might not prevail, you cannot give up and you still have to speak up and let your beliefs be heard. There is no chance of America ever going back to follow the Constitution if everyone just accepts that the Constitution is gone and stops speaking up about it. They are simply not giving up.

To Defeat Obama, the Republican Party MUST Embrace Ron Paul Supporters

Also, If Romney is Smart, he will Appoint Ron Paul to his Cabinet, Maybe as Head of the Treasury

Whether you agree with Ron Paul supporters or not, the Republican Party is going to need all hands on deck if we are going to defeat Obama. We will especially need Ron Paul supporters. Obama has the upper hand when it comes to young votes. Ron Paul groups are filled with young voters. Ron Paul groups are also filled with a ton of passion and dedication. By casting out these groups, not only are we losing those young voters, but we are also losing out on the passion and dedication they bring to the table. 

The Republican Party must embrace Ron Paul Supporters. It was said to me this weekend that, maybe the reason some of the Ron Paul supporters act a little bit crazy is due to the fact that acting crazy is the only way they can be heard. They don’t act crazy because they are crazy. They act crazy as a way to be heard because they have been rejected from the Republican Party and are having to fend for themselves and have to create their own unconventional platforms to speak from to get their message out.

Maybe if Ron Paul supporters were embraced by the Republican Party, we could all sit down together and have a conversation about how we can work together to promote the things that we agree on, like more states rights, less federal government, following the constitution, etc. We can work together to defeat Obama. The establishment in Republican Party might not agree on everything that Ron Paul supporters believe, but there is probably agreement on at least 80% of the issues. The Republican Party could greatly benefit from Ron Paul supports in order to accomplish the many things that both sides agree on. WE especially need Ron Paul supports is we are going to defeat Obama.

After this weekend, I have a new respect for and understanding of Ron Paul supporters and I fully believe that the Republican Party should embrace them and work with them instead of trying to ignore them. We need them. We might not all agree 100% on everything, but overall, Ron Paul  is GOOD for the conservative cause and his supporters can help the Republican Party and help defeat Obama.

I am sure my little brother in high school will love me for writing this article. He is a big Ron Paul fan. I am not sure how he became one or how he even got to know anything about Ron Paul, but it happened. It is happening with youth all across America. It is something that we cannot ignore and we could greatly benefit from if we embrace the youth, passion and of these Ron Paul supporters.

Sincerely,
David Bellow

ALERT: Amnesty in Proposed 2012 Texas GOP Platform - Click Here to Read Proposed Platform and Rules

CORRECTION: 

My previous article said that the platform committee did this intentionally. I meant to say I believe it was done UNintentionally. The I and the U are beside each other on the keyboard and I am tired.



I believe the platform committee had good intentions and many of the things they did are good. I still believe some of the immigration section of the platform is vague in spots (like who will be deported if mass deportations are not possible and how specifically do we want the border secures). It has come to my attention though that, although much of the immigration section was taken out, many of the important parts of the immigration section are still scattered around the platform in other sections (like law enforcement which deals with deporting any criminal illegals). So that does make me feel better to see these important parts still scattered in the platform. I do not feel that anyone on the platform committee is for amnesty and instead, I just think the way some things are worded  should be clarified because it could come across as Amnesty.  (It was a split vote so almost have of the committee did not want this). Also, Amnesty might not even be the best word to describe what is in the platform because the proposed platform would require punishments like fines and no one would get a free pass.

Anyways, those are my couple of clarifications and corrections. I hope we can have civil debate tomorrow and work on passing a platform that does reflect some needed changes and clarifications on immigration so that we do not push away Hispanics, but at the same time we need to make sure we are not wording things in a way that people will mistake what we are saying as amnesty or a free pass.


previous article: 

   
Take Action to Remove Amnesty from Proposed Platform before Final Vote Friday! 


The 2012 Texas State Republican Convention Platform Committee has finally finished the proposed 2012 Texas Republican Party Platform and the Republican Party of Texas has posted these proposals on the Republican Party of Texas Convention Website. For your convenience, you can just click on the links below to see the proposed rules and platform.

PROPOSED 2012 RPT RULES (PDF)

PROPOSED 2012 RPT RULES (WORD)

PROPOSED 2012 RPT PLATFORM (PDF)

PROPOSED 2012 RPT PLATFORM (WORD)

THIS IS NOT THE FINAL VERSION!!

This is the proposed platform. It still has to be voted on by the delegates at the convention tomorrow afternoon (Friday June 8th 2012). It can still be changed before the final vote.

This proposed platform WILL BE THE FINAL VERSION IF WE DO NOT TAKE ACTION TO CHANGE IT TOMORROW

Here is the problem.

The problem is that the platform committee did not have enough time to work on the immigration section and they HOPEFULLY UNTENTIONALLY allowed a section to be vague and basically says that the Republican Party of Texas is against deporting any illegal immigrants (amnesty)

THIS IS NUTS!

Ok, I understand wanting to really reach out to Hispanics and try to show what we are a party for Hispanics because we share conservative values. i am ok with many of the changes to the platform to more clearly state our immigration positions without turning off Hispanics. I understand that it is probably impossible to deport all 11 million illegals and we need to come up with a plan. At the same time though, putting in our platform that we are for Amnesty and that we are against deporting anyone is just nuts and will do nothing to solve the problem of illegal immigration and preventing it and encouraging people to come over legally.

The part of the proposed platform about securing the border is even vague. It does not say how we should secure the border. It should at least say that we need to put troops on the border to stop illegal immigration and protect America from the hundreds of thousands of Criminals and Violent Drug Cartel members who are coming over each year.

I do not believe this is what the members on the platform committee intended because they ran out of time, but this section most certainly needs to be clarified or taken out on the floor of the convention tomorrow.

below is the exact wording of the proposed Immigration Section of the platform. The entire Proposed Platform can be seen by clicking on the links at the top of this article

Sincerely,
David Bellow
State Republican Executive Committeeman for SD3

Proposed IMMIGRATION Section of 2012 Texas GOP Platform

The Texas Solution – Because of decades-long failure of the federal government to secure our borders and address the immigration issue, there are now upwards of 11 million undocumented individuals in the United States today, each of whom entered and remain here under different circumstances.  Mass deportation of these individuals would neither be equitable nor practical; while blanket amnesty, as occurred with the Simpson-Mazzoli Act of 1986, would only encourage future violations of the law.  We seek common ground to develop and advance a conservative, market- and law-based approach to our nation’s immigration issues by following these principles:

1.    Secure Our Borders – The U.S. Border must be secured immediately!  We demand the application of effective, practical and reasonable measures to secure our borders and to bring safety and security for all Americans along the border and throughout the nation.

2.    Modernize the United States Social Security Card – We support the improvement of our 1936 Social Security card to use contemporary anti-counterfeit technology. The social security card will not be considered a National ID card for U.S. citizens.  

3.    Birthright Citizenship – We call on the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches of the United States to clarify Section 1 of the 14^th amendment to limit citizenship by birth to those born to a citizen of the United States with no exceptions.

4.    Create an Effective and Efficient Temporary Worker Program – A national Temporary Worker Program should be implemented to bring skilled and unskilled workers into the United States for temporary periods of time when no U.S. workers are currently available.  The program should also require:

·         Self-funding through participation fees and fines;

·         Applicants must pass a full criminal background check;

·         Applicants with prior immigration violations would only qualify for the program if they paid the appropriate fines;

·         Applicants and/or Employers must prove that they can afford and/or secure private health insurance;

·         Applicants must waive any and all rights to apply for financial assistance from any public entitlement programs;

·         Applicant must show a proficiency in the English language and complete an American civic class;

·         Temporary Workers would only be able to work for employers that deduct and match payroll taxes;

·         All participants would be issued an individual Temporary-Worker Biometric Identification Card that tracks all address changes and both civil and criminal court appearances as a defendant.

2012 Texas State Republican Convention Kicks off in Fort Worth, TX today!

I am currently at the biggest gathering of Republicans in the world. The 2012 Texas State Republican Convention on Fort Worth, TX. the location is obviously too small for this convention and in the next 2 years we either need to ask the location to find more rooms for us or we need to find out how much it will cost to break the contract and have the convention somewhere else in 2 years.

I had dinner last night with two of the Greatest Texans and great Republicans. Attorney General Greg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told me he believes the Supreme Court will strike down Obamacare. Decision to come this month!

Governor Perry said he believes Obama is getting ready to print more money to try to save himself by making the economy look like it has more money and is doing better.. This would of course cause devaluation of the dollar.

Re-Elect David Bellow to SREC - Moderates are Trying to Remove Conservati​ves from Republican Party!

Please forward this message on to any Republicans in the 19 counties of Texas Senate District 3 (Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Hardin, Henderson, Houston, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery, Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler)

There is a push to kick out the most outspoken conservative Republicans on the SREC so that the party will attract more moderates to join the party who do not believe in our Republican values. I want more people to join the Party too, but not at the expense of our values. Compromising is what got America in this mess in the first place! We need to stand for what we believe!

I fought against the Moderates in the Republican Party on the SREC. I boldly stood for Republican values if our State Platform when others on the SREC wanted to water them down.

When I first got on to the SREC two years ago, I was a fresh face and was not part of any groups and did not play any political games. I just went in with a fresh mind and stood for what was right. I immediately saw needed changes and made them and stood where I saw moderates trying to take over.

If you want someone who is just going to show up to your meetings and pay you lip service and go along with the crowd never rocking the boat then don’t vote for me. If you want someone who is really trying to make a difference and is FIGHTING to protect our conservative values, and who will strive to always inform everyone of important issues going on in the Republican Party of Texas, then VOTE FOR ME

In my first year I proposed and passed a resolution calling for the proposed platform to be posted up online the night before the vote on the platform (I was tired of people not having time to read the proposed platform changes because they get the proposed platform on the day of the platform vote).

I amended the Bylaws to create an official Chaplain for the RPT when some did not want to have a Chaplain anymore There was also a question of whether or not to have a chaplain for the Republican party of Texas, I thought it would be crazy not to have one. It was revealed that the party did not officially have a chaplain position in the bylaws. Well I thought the answer to that was easy. Change the bylaws!

I fought to follow the 2010 Platform Legislative Priorities Report that required the RPT to publish a list of voting records of our leaders compared to our Party Values so we know how people really vote.  The 2010 State Republican Convention Delegates passed in the platform a section that asks the SREC to put out a legislative priorities report so that republicans can see how their leaders voted compared to the Party Platform values. I fought hard for the republicans of Texas who voted to put out this report, but the report did not pass due to the moderates voting it down because they do not want people to see that some Republicans do not really have Republican values.

I Kept Texas Republicans informed about IMPORTANT Texas Republican News and Issues via my Blog and Emails, more than any SREC member in the past has ever done. From redistricting/election date news to important issues that the Republican Party of Texas (SREC) was debating, I ALWAYS kept everyone informed. I posted hundreds of articles on my blog and sent out probably over 100 emails in the last 2 years with important updates. I strive to make sure everyone knows what is going on behind the scenes of the RPT. It is YOUR party and you should know what is going on!

I was ALWAYS Available to Help ANY County Chairman or Republican in or out of my District. When Jasper County’s chairman died and Cherokee County was having problems and their Chairman resigned, I was called by them about the problem and I immediately stepped in to help them through the process of getting back up and going with a new chairman. These are just two examples of how I have always been readily available and eager to help my district. I am not your chairman and I do not run your county party, but I am always here if you need any help or have any questions about the State Party. Just pick up the phone and call!

I Fought for our East Texas Conservatives that Moderate Joe Straus tried to kick out in Redistricting. Joe Straus was elected to speaker by the Democrats. Last year he did not stand in the way of the Republican Majority in the House of Representatives so we were able to get some Conservative Legislation passed, but he is not conservative himself and he has waged a war against the strong conservatives in East Texas who voted against Straus for Speaker of the House. He gutted Wayne Christian’s District so that Wayne lost and he tried to do the same with David Simpson and James White. I fought for James White against Straus and helped Super Conservative James White stay in office. I know that some fellow Republicans to not like me because I am not a fan of Joe Straus, but I stand first for our Republican Platform Values before I stand for people. Without our values we are just a big social group with nothing to stand on.

I Am Asking to be Re-Elected for Only one more 2 year term and then I Will Ask Someone Else to Run I am asking for 2 more years on the SREC so I can energetically fight Obama in this upcoming election and stand for conservative values on many important issues coming up this year (like redistricting in which many of our east Texas Conservative Republicans were hurt in redistricting by the more moderate Republicans in Texas) During this next two years, I would like to invite ANYONE who is interested in running for SREC to come to the meetings with me so you can start to understand the SREC and will know what you are getting into when you run in 2 years. I will not run again in 2 years because my wife and I have our first baby coming at the end of this year and in two years I will want to take a break from politics to focus more on my family and being home to raise a young child with good values. Family and God come first!

In less than 2 years that I have been on the SREC, I visited all 16 Counties in SD3 at least once and sometimes twice or three times (except one county that unfortunately did not have regular meetings to go to so I just visited with republicans in that county on my own). This was a hard task because the district is hundreds of miles across and many counties have meetings on the same day of the month.  I ran for SREC at the last convention and vowed to visit every County in Senate District 3. Some of the rural east Texas Counties had not been visited by a Committeeman in years and many of them did not even know what the SREC was. I knew I might make some of the bigger Republican Counties mad by not focusing on going to their meetings every month (I know some in Polk and Montgomery have asked why I have not gone to more of their meetings in the last couple of years). The way I saw it is that there were 16 counties (now 19) in SD 3 and I wanted to visit all of them, not just a select few that have the most votes to get re-elected.

Many on the SREC thought I did too much. I even had some SREC member come to me in my first SREC year and they told me I was doing too much and that I needed to just sit back and watch everyone my first two years to see how they run things. I told these SREC members that I was only elected for two years and my voters elected me to come to Austin to stand for conservative East Texas values and not just sit and watch.

I didn’t just sit and watch. Unfortunately I knew that the establishment and/or moderates would not like that I stood so strongly for Conservative values and did not play the political game.  I knew I would have people run against me for SREC. Some probably want me gone because they don’t like that I do not just follow along with everyone else, and some of the more moderate Republicans want me gone because I was too conservative. As a result, I believe I will have at least two challengers running against me to take my place on the SREC. So Please Vote to Keep Me on the SREC as a Strong Conservative Fighting for You!

I first got elected to the SREC only 2 years ago when Jim Wiggins was term limited out. The RPT has 8 year term limits because the Republicans in Texas understand the importance of not allowing someone to be in power too long so that fresh faces can come in and see potential problems that have been overlooked and give new life and energy to the Party. Even nice people in power for too long will get set in their ways and become part of a system. Jim completed his 8 year term and could not run again because he was term limited out. That is when I ran and got elected to the SREC.

I hear that Jim Wiggins is one of the gentlemen asked to run against me. He is a nice guy, but he did his term limit and we don’t need someone who will just fit in and go with the crowd. We need someone with energy who will stand strong for conservative values and fight off the push to make out Party more moderate. Jim didn’t even have anything to do with the district after he got off of the SREC. He even just sent an email to former Jasper Chairman Gene Acree because he did not even know that Gene passed away last year and Jasper has a new chairman now. I fear his interest is only to defeat me because I am too conservative and do not go along with the crowd. Please vote for me so I can continue to fight hard for conservative values for one more two year term.