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I just paid $90 for basic registration for the California Republican Convention in Anaheim, Oct. 4-6. I tend to be conservative with money…ok frugal…ok I’m cheap, so I don’t spend $90 without some thought. In this case I figured, “Well, if I don’t go to the convention, how am I going to know what’s happening or not happening in the state GOP?” Also I checked with my wife, who gave her blessings (in all honesty I think she’s just happy to get me out of the house).
Doug Lasken Doug
So what will I encounter at the convention? I’ve read the online agenda, to see if any of the issues I care most about will be discussed. These include:
1. A forceful statement against Obama’s acceptance of the end of communication privacy in America.
2. A forceful statement against Obama’s ill-conceived proposal to attack Syria.
3. A forceful statement against Obama’s signature education initiative, Race to the Top, which includes the Common Core Standards (CCS), costing $10 billion nationwide in pork for publishers.
Granted these are national issues (although in California- where we already have excellent standards- CCS will cost $2 billion, paid through Prop. 30, i.e. our taxes- implementation of CCS is wreaking havoc in school districts, which face at least two years with no standardized testing, no approved textbooks or approved curriculum), but a state convention must of course pay some attention to national issues- after all the keynote speaker, Texas governor Rick Perry, one of only two governor’s to reject the CCS, will certainly address national issues.
So I checked the convention agenda and found no explicit references to the above listed issues that matter to me. Nevertheless, I’m going.
Here’s my plan: I will go to the registration desk and get my badge, review the schedule, and attend whatever seems most likely to engage my interest, address my concerns and maybe encourage my hopes. Then, or course, either one of two things will happen: either I will hear slogans, happy talk of “Building from the ground up” (the convention slogan) but nothing at all about controversial stuff, or I will hear people talking about what I’m interested in.
I did this before, about twenty years ago, the last time I attended a GOP state convention (also in Anaheim) where I hoped to hear GOP dissent from the mainstream GOP support for arming Afghan opponents of the Russian invasion (I felt vindicated years later when many of those Afghan fighters, furious at our desertion of them after the Russian withdrawal, joined the Taliban, armed by us). Alas, there was not only no dissent on that issue, but no dissent about anything at all, at least that I was aware of.
I felt like an idiot at that convention, and never attended another. Now however, it does seem that dissent is unavoidable. In the current political climate it would actually be a disservice to the party to avoid dissent. The GOP, both state and national, is weathering an unprecedented existential crises. If it does not discuss its differences, face the tough battles of resolving them, and reach a new consensus, I think most Republicans would agree that this would be flirting with the end of the party’s viability. It is my hope that there will be recognition of this, and that there will be substantive discussions of the problematical issues we read about daily in the FlashReport and general media.
I’m very grateful to FlashReport editor Jon Fleischman for posting these thoughts. Jon and I do not always agree on issues, but I know that Jon is not afraid to speak his mind and criticize the party when he feels it necessary, and I know that we are both concerned for the party’s future.
So I do think it’s $90 well spent. I may wander around feeling like an idiot again, but at least I’ll have been there. I intend to write commentary on the experience for the FlashReport. Stay tuned!
Doug Lasken is a retired LA Unified teacher (recently returned to the district to coach debate), education consultant and freelancer. Write him at doug.lasken@gmail.com.