Why Missouri Republicans Can't Have Nice Things
It has been said time and time again, that politics is a blood sport. It can be very messy. Most people get involved for the right reasons, because they care about what happens to their city, county, state, and country, usually. Others have other agendas. Sometimes it is power, name recognition, or something else entirely. The hope is that everyone has the same goal, the good of said city, county, state, or country. Then, there is the Missouri Republican State Convention.
The every four-year gathering of Missouri Republicans took place this past weekend in Springfield, Missouri. Someone said to me, and I agreed, that it was fun to get together with lots of like-minded people from all over the state. That is until the business of the day actually began. While the ultimate goal is to see that Donald Trump is reelected as the 47th President of the United States, those in attendance had to first get past the agendas and egos of various factions from all over the state and bypass the rampant infighting among those factions. I say until the day’s business actually began because that did not happen until roughly four hours into this trainwreck. The Credentials Committee apparently forgot their abacus and could not present an accurate count of delegates and alternates. Perhaps that should have been a red flag right there.
As the day wore on, several things became very clear. This convention could have easily been billed as the Southern Missouri State Convention and would have functioned quite well without anyone from north of Interstate 70, or a county with a population of less than 100,000 people because anyone who didn’t fit into those categories was ignored. Guess when there are that many people in the mix, most of them don’t care about your personal power, and that is a problem. That was most apparent when candidates for permanent convention chair were nominated. Again, factions were the theme of the day when Sophia Shore, campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate State Sen. Bill Eigel was picked as the permanent chair of the convention. I can’t imagine I was the only one in the room for whom the phrase “conflict of interest” came to mind. But you must give props where props are due. Eigel and his followers were well organized and knew what they wanted to accomplish. The problem, it wasn’t what the other 850 people in the room wanted to accomplish.
The business of the Party platform and any amendments to that platform didn’t begin until close to 5 o’clock, already eight hours in. Unfortunately, it is where many convention goers, including myself, hit the BS saturation point and called it a day. But business continued until someone made a point of order that there was no quorum. A quorum required over 400 people, and at that point, everyone else’s patience had worn thin leaving only around 200 people left in the auditorium. It was at that point that the convention was shut down. Not a good look at all for the Missouri Republican Party. Perhaps the only satisfaction you might derive from such an anticlimactic ending would be that it certainly couldn’t have been the outcome the wannabe ruling Eigel faction had hoped for.
Ronald Reagan once said, “The person who agrees with you eighty percent of the time is a friend and an ally – not a twenty percent traitor.” It is a good thing this is a documented quote because by looking at the Missouri Republican party, you would never know that it might have been something Republicans adhered to. A favorite pastime of Missouri Republicans has long been to eat our own. This futility can be seen time and again as we always devolve into a never-ending squabble over who is a “real” Republican. Are the names of those designated to determine who the “real” Republicans are written down somewhere because we really should know who these people are. They are not written down? Then shut the hell up about who is a real Republican. Perhaps those who jump up and down about who the real Republicans are, really aren’t real Republicans themselves. But it is this litmus test mentality that Missouri Republicans just can’t seem to quit. You are a gay Republican, sorry, we don’t agree with your lifestyle, therefore, you are not a real Republican. Don’t go to my church, or you are not even a Christian, sorry, you are not a real Republican, and you might even be evil. And oh, the cherry on the “you are not a real Republican” cake, if you don’t agree with us, you are also “establishment.” And we wonder why Republicans are not viewed as a “big tent” Party?!
The idea behind Reagan’s 80/20 quote was, that while we might have some disagreements, it is unity, especially in an election year when the Democrats are far from excited about their candidate, that should also be an end goal for all the Republicans that were in the room on Saturday. Quite frankly if that happens it will be a miracle. Meanwhile, the faction who thought that overseeing the convention was somehow their birthright because well, they are certainly not establishment, are now crying victim and accusing others of delaying the proceedings, and even calling for a recall of the convention.
Whether or not the shenanigans at the Missouri State GOP Convention will be answered is unknown right now. But if not just Missouri Republicans, but Republicans in general, don’t get a grip and realize that we don’t all fall in lockstep with the Party and that by dismissing those who don’t pass the purity test, you are also dismissing a lot of good potential office holders. We are going to lose, and the political blood will be on your hands.