One Rule To Change Them All

An amazing act of stupidity has occurred at the 2012 GOP National Convention. Two Rule changes have been proposed, that would shift control of the Republican Party out of the hands of grassroots activists and into the hands of political power brokers. The first change - to Rule 15 - has met with such overwhelming opposition, from the grassroots, Tea Party, Liberty Movement (a.k.a. Ron Paul crowd) and conservative activists stretching back to the Goldwater era, that it has been pulled in a "compromise". Except it's not any such thing - it leaves one Rule change in place that must not stand.

If Rule 12 remains changed as proposed by the Rules Committee, any Rule can be changed by the RNC. The National Convention is therefore irrelevant in setting the Rules of the Party. This means the "compromise" trumpeted by Team Romney and those running this Rules Committee can be changed in a month, or early next year, or any time the RNC decides to change it - OR ANYTHING ELSE. This top-down, smoke filled room authoritarian control must be stopped. 

We are a party that draws it's strength from the bottom up. We are strong when we have an army of motivated activists working to advance the Party and its principles of limited government, free enterprise, a strong national defense, and Constitutional Liberty. We can all unite behind those principles. We must continue to push power down to the lowest level - the one that is as close as possible to the people - to empower the individual rights of our citizens in their dealings with civil authority. 

I call on all of my fellow Delegates to join me in opposing the Rules Report and reject this attempt at tyranny.  There is no harm in keeping the Rules we are currently under. It is up to us to save our party from those who would disenfranchise the activist base in favor of the elite power brokers of Washington, DC.