Passionate about Politics- It's a Family Thing

I grew up in a family that was passionate about politics.  We would watch the news and talk about different topics and each share our opinions about different things.  We all really grew to love politics and grew the desire to get involved to help our country become even better.  I remember many times in high school discussing politics in classes and it was usually all 30 other kids verses me.  However, I had no problem holding my own.  Sometimes the teacher would even join in against me.  Maybe because the teacher felt that the other students weren't debating good enough or something.  I'm not really sure.  Whatever the reason, it definitely wasn't very professional of them.  I just remember having a lot of knowledge of the details of politics, from a young age, that not a lot of other students had.

Well, this year, I had the chance to attend the County Caucus in March, the Republican County Convention in April, and the Republican State Convention in June- my first time ever to attend all 3.  This is a very important election in our State and Country-- maybe even the most important in our lifetimes. I think there are 12 positions that the Republicans can win, that we are voting for here in Washington State.   It could make a very big difference in the way things are run!

The County Caucus was really fun because we knew so many people there.  One person joked that it was like Stake Conference because of all the Mormons.  (I think a lot of people are just very frustrated with the way things are currently going and they are ready to help.  I talked to a few people who were in their 50s or 60s, who this was their first time ever attending a caucus.)  Just from my own family, we had: my Dad, my Mom, my brother Chris, my sister Celestia and her husband Fatih, Grant and I, and my brother Joe.  (My other sister lives in Oregon, my brother is on a mission in California, and my other brother worked graveyard the night before, or they all probably would've been there too.)  In our precinct, all 5 people who showed up were Mormon.  We elected 3 county delegates and 3 alternates.  I was elected as one of the delegates, which meant I had the chance to go to the County Convention and Grant was chosen as one of the alternates.  Around the state, they had a larger turn out than ever before.  They attributed that to the fact that they moved up the caucus, so it would land before Super Tuesday.  Also because of this, each of the Presidential candidates visited our state.  Additionally, our state caucuses made national news.  It was a pretty exciting caucus for our State.

My Mom, my Dad, my brother Chris, my sister Celestia, and my brother Joe were also all elected as delegates to attend the County Convention.  It was actually kind of fun, I must admit.  I learned a lot!  We listened to different candidates from through out the State.  Then we had the chance to elect delegates to go to the State Convention.  (Each delegate who wanted to go to State had the chance to give a one minute speech about why they should be chosen.  In mine, I basically asked that all Republicans unite together to support whoever became the Republican Nominee.  I know that is difficult, as I had to do that 4 years ago, even though I wasn't a McCain supporter, for the best of the party.)  Each of us, in our family, has researched and really become passionate for Mitt Romney to become our next president.  We really believe that he is the man who can turn these dark times around and get our finances back in order.  Because of this, we really wanted to get Romney delegates to go State.  We had meetings with other Romney delegates to plan how to best make this happen.  A slate of delegates and alternates were chosen from the people who volunteered to go to State.  As a united group, we ended up electing all delegates and alternates for the Romney slate (because Santorum and Gingrich had already dropped out, a lot of them joined with the Romney delegates to support Romney and so they were also voted as delegates) in 2/3 districts.  In the 3rd district, we even won some... which was absolutely amazing, as we weren't expecting to get any there.  Because of the work we did in our county, Romney delegates all over the state were very excited!  No one expected us to do this well and it helped a lot at the State Convention!  We had heard horror stories all over the state about things that had happened at county conventions!  My sister-in-law was at the convention in Spokane County from 8 am until 11 pm!!!!!  Absolutely insane!!!  She said the Ron Paul delegates were asking stupid questions all day long, and yelling and screaming, and some even had to be taken out by the police!!  So happy that everyone was pretty much respectful at ours and that we had little to no problems.  We were only there from 8 am until 5 pm, which was long enough.  (4 years ago, when I went to the County Convention, we were only there until 1-2 pm... it went pretty fast because John McCain was pretty much already the nominee.)

My Dad, my sister Celestia, and I were all chosen to be delegates for the State Convention.  My Mom and Grant, and I think my brothers, were all alternates.  It was interesting to be a part of the process and to be able to represent the candidate that I believe in, Mitt Romney.  Mitt's son, Josh, came to speak to the convention, as they had a representative from every campaign.  (They had videos from the candidates who didn't, asking everyone to join together to support the party's choice.)  One of the most frustrating parts of the convention was the Ron Paul people, who were not very strong in numbers, but were extremely loud.  (We had voice votes and they would win, and yet every time they had standing votes, the Romney people would win by a lot!  It may have been because of the alternates who were in the back, who weren't suppose to be voting.  I'm pretty sure there were a lot of Paul supporters back there.)  Anyway, the Ron Paul people were booing Josh Romney so loud that I couldn't hear what he was saying.  Talk about rude and classless!!  Ridiculous!!  It seriously made me so angry.  He traveled all the way here and they wouldn't even let him finish speaking.  Then when their representative spoke, he told us all that we needed to respect the Ron Paul voters.  Hello!!!  Respect is a mutual thing!  If you respect me, I will respect you!  I have to say that there were a few Ron Paul people that I actually got along great with and had some really great conversations with, because they respected me and treated me kindly.  They were willing to actually listen to what I had to say, so I had no problem listening to them.  Of course, we didn't agree with each other on everything, however we had an enjoyable, respectful conversation.   But the ones who sat behind me and back talked about everything, and dropped swear words all over the place, and who yelled rude things and booed, were the ones we definitely didn't want to send on to the National Convention, and unforunately kind of ruined the reputation of all of them.

Anyway, when we split off into districts, we were able to win all the delegates and alternates for the Romney slate!!  It was very exciting!!  Although we were there for 15 hours that first day, it was worth it because of this!  I can't even imagine how hard it would've been to have been those Ron Paul supporters and have been there that long and not win any.  The ones in our district really were pretty good.

The next day, we came back together as a State to elect delegates at large.  (From the way I understand it, for weeks prior to the convention, the Romney leaders had asked the Paul people to join together on a united slate, but they weren't interested.)  Quite quickly, we all realized that we definitely had the majority of the people and were going to be able to pass what we wanted.  The Paul supporters also realized this and started (pretty much) begging the rest of us to vote a 70/30 split, on the slates, so that they could get some of their people in.  We chose not to do this for two reasons-- we heard about another state, I believe Arizona, where they did this, however, the Paul people didn't stay true to their word and the Romney delegates didn't end up getting any in because they were split voting for both.  Also we had offered this to them for weeks and they weren't interested until they knew they were going to lose.  Well, the Paul people were very frustrated and told us that we weren't willing to unite the party.  Boy, was that statement backwards!!  I was just glad that I happen to be in the majority on this one because it would've been even more frustrating if I wasn't. 

Well, every single person running for delegate and alternate had the chance to give a speech.  I have to say that the most memorable speech for me was an African American Mormon guy.  He basically said, "I am a Mormon.  I know the Book of Mormon is true... and I am supporting Ron Paul."  I was quite impressed and actually thought it was really good for people to hear for two reasons- 1) How amazing of him to be that bold in his testimony!  You have to admire that!  2) It is good for people to know that not all Mormons are voting for Romney, and those of us that are, aren't voting for him just because he is a Mormon.  I wouldn't vote for Harry Reid or Jon Huntsman Jr. and they are both Mormons.

The last thing we did was vote on the party platform.  The Ron Paul people wanted to go over each and every word of the multiple page document, and talk about every word (even though the party had representatives from every campaign when they wrote it.)  However, the Romney people felt that we had been there long enough, and felt that many people had worked really hard to make it represent all republicans and what we all stand for.  We all voted to accept it as it was.  (We are talking about little tiny changes, like one word.  It was ridiculous.)  I was so glad we did that, so that we could go home!!  :)

So in the end, the Romney slate won about 38 out of 43 delegates (I believe) with the other 5 going to Paul, and probably about the same in alternates.  We also voted for 10 people to vote for the electoral college, so they can vote if Romney wins Washington State.  It was a great success for those of us who were for Romney.  And worth spending two days there.  I learned a lot about the process too.  It was very educational.  Plus I had the chance to talk to many candidates running around the state and get to know them, which made it much easier to fill out my Primary ballot.  And I even had the opportunity to meet and shake hands with Dino Rossi!  What a neat guy he is!!  And I love that he is supporting Romney!  So awesome!!

The last benefit I experienced from going to the convention was that we had the opportunity to answer lots of questions from people about our church, to clear up some misconceptions.  I think that is going to happen more and more due to Romney's run for President.  I think there will also be persecution, but hopefully we are firmly planted with a strong foundation in Christ, so that we can withstand it.  I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason and know that good will come out of our church being forced into the spotlight.  I just hope I can say the right things and be a good example to others, to be a representative of Christ, so that maybe I can be an instrument in bringing souls to Him.