Dear Ms. Staples and Mr. Cianchette,
Today I was disheartened to receive your notice that you
were contesting the seating of the Maine Delegates and Alternate Delegates
elected by our party to the GOP National Convention, and I am writing to ask
you to reconsider your actions and rescind your request. I am an alternate delegate to the convention,
elected in Augusta that day, and I have been
very excited about having the chance to represent Maine
in Tampa.
I am a lifelong republican, the daughter of a career Naval
officer, I was born in Brunswick where my father
was flying P-3s, I hold a Master of Science in Clinical Counseling from Johns Hopkins
University and most
significantly, I am the mother to a little boy living with autism.
In the eight years since my son's neurological regression, I
have unfortunately had to learn first hand how broken our current system is,
how much corruption in our country is harming those who are the least able to
avoid and recover from it, and most grievously, how the party that I have been
loyal to my entire life, has not only failed to address that corruption, but
has helped to maintain it. I have
personally briefed our state health commissioner and the head of Mainecare on
the way that the federal government has defrauded our state and some disabled
families of tens of millions (hundreds of millions?) of dollars, and have had
to sit back and watch no action be taken, while families, school systems and
state services buckle under the financial strain that is the federal governments
(shirked) responsibility. It is a very
difficult thing for a mother to suddenly find out that those that she has
trusted and supported for a life time, are deaf to calls from her to bring an
end to harm that is being caused to her own child, and children like him,
because it is not politically expedient.
Because of my experience and my loss of trust in what the
Republican Party had become, I disengaged from politics (and the party) for
many years, but returned recently because I saw that, because the Obama
administration had been so egregious in their power grab and so brazen in their
corruption, and because the consequences to our economy and society had been so
grave, that people were beginning to wake up to how broken the American system
had become, and that earnest men were again willing to fight for this
country. They wanted to bring it back to
the values it was founded on, to implement a true system of checks and
balances, to bring real accountability for misdeeds and to bring actual freedom
back to individuals... well it gave me hope that we might be able to resurrect
some of what we have lost in the last twenty years.
So I got back into politics, advocating in issues of free
choice in health care, of allowing corrupt systems to collapse in a free market
that was able to see that they had little value, and to call out those who
would cheat the American people by buying their legislators and lying to the
public. I came back to the Republican
Party, because it looked again like it may become the party of Reagan that it
once was. Better even. Not only was I excited that the liberty
movement was taking hold in our party, I was relieved! Finally conservatives were seeing that the
root causes of the problems had to be attacked!
No more rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, now we could start
to have real conversations about how to put sound financial systems in place
that would make it harder for the corrupt to gain quick access to the easy
money that they were using to basically buy the American people, their rights
and their labor! We could actually focus
on actual constitutional issues!
And having the chance to do that in Maine... amazing! I cut my teeth on politics in DC, where one
sees the most cynical part of American politics for sure, how wonderful to be
here, where people are closer to one another, more accountable to one another
and not so tainted by the things that go on inside the beltway. Being at the convention, and seeing that so many
Mainers were showing up to participate in the REAL work to get our country
back, that so many had become so passionate about the true values of the
Republican party, it was really healing to me, and gave me a great deal of
hope. I was very proud to be a part of
that process, and very proud to be elected as an alternate delegate for Maine, because those voting knew I would to go Tampa to support Ron Paul
and his values.
But what I have seen at the convention in Augusta and since then have both discouraged
and truly baffled me. Rather than seeing
the coming together of Republicans at the convention, I saw (and still see) a
bad faith process that I would have expected to see in DC or Chicago, but never
here. I recorded one of Mitt Romney's
paid employees, wearing a Ron Paul sticker on his shirt, passing out fake
slates of known Paul supporters, who were not running for delegate, in an
attempt to trick his fellow republicans.
I had others report to me that a second fake slate being circulated,
printed to look exactly like the Paul slate, but with the names of Romney
delegate nominees on it, to further divide the vote of those who came in an
earnest attempt to vote their conscience for Paul.
That day my father was also a delegate at his GOP convention
in Nevada,
where the Romney campaign attempted the same deception.
Since then I have followed the state GOP conventions and
have been devastated to see the kind of horrible tactics that our party has
been using to push out liberty minded candidates in state after state. I am also completely mystified by it.
We are a party that lost the last presidential election, and
since then, due to the abuse of power and poor judgment of our current
president and his officials, people are starting to get it. They understand how corruption and bad policy
destroy our country. They are clamoring
for honest government, open government, accountable government, good faith
government... a government that is not going to lie to them or coerce them or
steal from them or defraud them. And so
the Republican party has a chance to answer that call and we offer them...
this?
Cheating our own members?
We have young people flooding into the liberty movement, and
then into our party, and our response is to douse their enthusiasm, shut them
down and shove them out? What a truly
bizarre response! Would not a wiser,
more loving and more productive response be to welcome in the liberty movement,
its energy, its ideals and its young people?
To educate them on difficult political realities that they may not have
had experience with, and use the resources of the party to put them to work on
our issues in the state and nationally?
Why in the world is the Republican party fighting the
liberty movement so brutally? Why are
you contesting my credentialing in Tampa? You don't know me, you have not called me to
see if I might be an asset to our party, you don't know what I have to offer or
how I might build the party. You have
merely made up some excuses for me not to be seated, because... well because
why?
I am earnestly looking for an explanation as to what is so
great about Mitt Romney, and what is so horrible about Ron Paul, that some
republicans would actually destroy the party rather than just play fair and see
where the chips land by allowing those who were elected at their conventions to
vote their conscience in Tampa.
Especially when it does not appear that Paul has the votes to win in Tampa any way.
As I have walked through this process, I see the actions by
long time Republicans, like you are doing here in contesting our seating in
Tampa, and I am constantly reminded of the story of the two mothers who came to
King Saul to settle a dispute. The two
women had been sleeping with their infant children, and one had accidently smothered
her child during her slumber. Both women
came before Saul and claimed the surviving child as their own. So Saul declared that the baby be cut in half
to be given to both mothers. Saul then
knew who the true mother was, as the other woman did not love the child and was
content to kill the child to win the dispute.
More than a third of Maine Republicans voted for Ron Paul in
our caucuses (Romney 39%, Paul 36%), and more than half voted for his endorsed
delegates in Augusta. You would actually
cut those people out of the process? You
are happy to split the baby to win a dispute?
Everyone who was in Augusta Civic
Center that weekend knows
full well that the liberty movement was in the majority during those
elections. And if there was any problem
with credentialing, which I have seen no evidence of, then it can only be the
fault of the party leadership, which both of you represent. The election was fair and everyone knows
it.
So making this claim, and worse, winning it, will only
destroy the baby. If those in the GOP
who are cheating their own people so obviously actually succeed in this, they
will be left with the party, but it will be worthless. When my liberal friends attack my party and
claim it is corrupt, I will have no response to them, other than to agree,
because I have seen it with my own eyes and am experiencing it first hand.
Tell me what is worth doing this? What is the worth of acting out the
corruption we are calling out in the Obama administration, here in our own state?
And if we are just as corrupt as the
current administration, do we deserve to win?
Should we be entrusted with power?
Will we not just screw the country up just as bad, merely differently
than Obama Co is now doing? Is "win
at all costs, stab your brother in the back" a republican value? Because the Republican Party I became a part
of was about duty, honestly, hard work, fair play, and holding the big guy to
the rules so the little guy does not get stepped on.
And all for Mitt Romney?
Because, if you have not noticed, he is not exactly the embodiment of
Mr. Reagan. I have talked to other
conservatives who are supporting Romney, and the only reason they can give for
that is because they think he can beat Obama, and, "We have to get Obama
out." I am with them on the last
part. Obama is a terrible president
almost any way you measure him. But why
in the world, in this present climate, does anyone think that Mr. Romney has a
better chance against President Obama than Dr. Paul does?
I have a difficult time believing that many self-respecting liberals
are going to cross over to our party to vote for Mitt Romney. Why would they? But people of all backgrounds are supporting
Dr. Paul. Yet rather than seizing that
opportunity, the Republicans don't just ignore them, they actively go to war
against them, even inside their own party?
It is like the world has turned upside down. I don't understand this at all. Do we want to destroy the party AND loose the
election in the process?
Or am I wrong in my estimation of our party? Is it truly unredeemable? It is really the cold, corrupt, corporation
dedicated to money and power that my liberal friends think it is, with merely a
thin veneer of "freedom and justice" talk as a marketing ploy to
conservative Americans who want to believe the party of Reagan is still
alive? Who are we?
These questions that I am asking you are not rhetorical. Both of you hold yourselves out as leaders in
my state and national political party, and feel comfortable making leadership
decisions for our state party to throw out the votes of thousands of members,
so it is safe to say you are morally accountable to answer my questions. If it has a question mark after it, in this
letter, I actually want an answer to it.
A few more specific questions:
1. Since everyone who
was at the Maine GOP Convention in May knew that the liberty movement
outnumbered Romney supporters on the floor that day, and the election results
were what the majority wanted, why are you contesting the results, knowing full
well that it WILL create dissension in conservative ranks, crush morale for
those who are working to bring conservative values to our state and local
governments and kill trust in our party?
2. I have reported
that Romney's paid employees were caught and video taped deceiving their own
party members on the floor to impact the outcome of the election. The video has had tens of thousands of views
on YouTube. Does this concern you? Will this be addressed in any way?
3. Why is my
credentialing, me personally, being contested? Why don't you want me representing Maine at the GOP
National Convention?
4. If indeed this is
not just a cynical attempt to change the outcome of elections that you both
lost, and you are concerned that the true Maine Republican Delegates did not
have their say that day in Augusta, then what do you propose be done to make
sure that delegates do have their say?
If the delegation as elected, is not seated, how do you propose that it
be replaced? With individuals appointed
by party membership? If so, how will that
better reflect the will of the delegates that were elected in their home towns?
5. If you believe Maine should be
represented by a delegation, and that delegation should be appointed by the
party, then how do I hold myself out for consideration by the party for the
seat I have already been elected to? If
this is about "Unity" as we are repeatedly being told, then would not
the best solution before the party to merely appoint those whom have already
been elected? That way we can be sure
that both the will of the people, and the rules of the party have been followed
as best we can, right?
6. If this is not
really about rules, or fair play, and this is just your attempt to circumvent
the will Maine GOP State Delegates to win an election that you lost, then why
should anyone participate in this party any more, knowing that the game is
rigged, the power players are just going to cheat, push, bully and bribe to get
their way, and that we are merely participating in another broken and corrupt
political mess?
7. If this is the way that republicans
treat republicans, why should we follow your leadership and why should anyone
support this party?
Because I am sick to death of political hardball. I have had enough of behind the scenes strong
arming, threats and bribes followed by smiles and bullshit calls for
"unity" for the cameras. The
whole country is. Enough already. No one is buying it any more.
Things are bad right now.
Any republican will tell you that, but being the mother of a disabled
child, who has not had the resources she had before her son's regression, I can
attest to the fact that they are much worse than our current party leadership
will even face. There are good reasons
that people are beginning to revolt and demonstrate on an international
scale. It is because corruption has
become so ubiquitous, and has trickled down so far.
If the US
were a ship, then you are first class passengers complaining that the Captain
has steered us into bad weather and rough seas, and a change of course is
needed. I am the woman who got lost down
in steerage and is screaming to high heaven that the hull is rotting and
collapsing from decades of neglect, and that no matter how fair the seas you
seek, the ship is going down unless drastic measures are taken now. Telling people like me to pipe down and
locking us below decks is going to sink this ship.
Have you made any consideration of what the long term
consequences of doing this might be?
I appeal to you to stop fighting the liberty movement, get
on board with us, rescind your challenge to the current delegates, and start
fixing what is broken. Even the things
that we republicans had a hand in breaking.
Things in this country are coming to a head, our current path is
unsustainable, the status quo will not maintained for much longer, and everyone
knows it. The way I see it, we can
either continue the futile attempt to hold on to a decaying paradigm, or we can
let go of the past, change, and be a part of shaping what will come after
whatever reset is coming our way. The
resets in the Middle East and Europe are not what I want for my country. If that is not what you want, then stop
battling people like me, and join us to become a part of the revolution that is
going to fix this mess that we are in.
I look forward to hearing from you on all that I have
written about here. I live at 11 High Street, in Brunswick, my phone number
is 207-729-6757, and you can call me at any time, or visit me at any time, day
or night, so we can work this out in good faith, between party members, as
should be done.
Sincerely,
Ginger Taylor
Maine Alternate Delegate to
the Republican Convention in Tampa,
Florida.
When my copy arrived in the mail, it had no return address on it. But fellow delegate Matt McDonald just noted something:
Sex is F'ing up Merck
